The Tragic Story Of Handley Page Victor XM714 

The Victor still looks futuristic, even now 😎

I arrived at Wittering a few months after this accident, spending time with both the active squadrons and also the Victor Training Flight. I was told that the fire/rescue machine went straight through the fence at the end of the runway, down a large dip and straight across the A1 - a dual carriageway, in the rush to get there. The rear seats of the Victor were fixed and the chances of getting out in a hurry were always dubious but it led to these rear seats being later replaced so that they could rotate and improve the chances of the rear crew escaping. You should also note the protective screen as the door opens so the crew would have a chance to fall and not be blown into the wings. At the time of the Blue Steel stand-off rocket, a team of musically inclined RAF fitters created a pop group called the 'Hedgehoppers' soon after the bombers went into their low level mode. The song, "Its good news week' was in the charts for about 12 weeks during 1965 reaching #5. Also commenting on the technical specification. The Vulcan got the glamour but was outclassed in almost every other way by the Victor performance. Hoping my memory is not confused about the above note...

The Victor was by far the best looking V bomber. It will always look like the future. Very cool. So different to the American aircraft of the time which seemed to be crudely designed with the use of a straight edged ruler.

This amazing aircraft was ahead of it's time. True that it looks like something from the future even now. No other aircraft comes near it in terms of aesthetics and beauty, even now. Truly amazing form and design. A classic work of art and beauty. Will always be in awe of this magnificent ❤️ flying machine of majesty and grace.

My father used to work at Handley Page at Radlett and worked inside the wings of the Victor. Rest in peace dad. You nearly reached 100but died on 8th December 2019

Many will not know, that Handley Page Victor's, we're capable of Mach One, in a dive! This was achieved by the design of the wing, which considerable reduced the critical moment of the airflow slowing the aircraft down, when you consider, that the last bomber that Handley Page produced was the Halifax of WW2 vintage, then this unbelievable futuristic aircraft, was flying in 1957,is incredible! The last one that I saw flying, was in West Wales in 1976,as a tanker, with 2 English Electric Lightnings being refuelled, what an absolute fantastic aircraft!

In all branches of the British military, the rank 'lieutenant' is pronounced 'leff-tenant'.

I’m French and I must admit the brits have a little something that make their aircraft elegant and unusual. Bravo

Imagine seeing Lancasters during WW2 then 10 or so years later, this. It must have felt like we'd be on Mars by the 80's for sure. Turned out everything and everyone was full of sh*t.

This thing is awesome, like a UFO, British aircraft are functional and look great, this still looks modern and futuristic

The Victor appears to look as if it came out of a Jules Verne novel.

The Victor was a great aircraft but suffered the usual British neglect. Like the Vulcan it never received the modern equipment it deserved. It, and the Vulcan should have been given modern electronics etc. The Vucan proved it could, ( and did,) penetrate modern air defences in exercises against the US mainland and the Victor could still have been a first rate and very versatile aircraft. Incidentally You seem to suggest the Victor could be used in a low level role, it couldn't but no aircraft can do everything. Both the Vulcan and the Victor make the US B52 look like a biplane, but unlike Britain, he US cared for their machines and constantly updated the B52s.

A bit of useless trivia. The only v bomber to drop a live test h bomb was the valiant that is now at Cosford air museum.The valiant had a design flaw in its main wing spars and as a result was dropped by the company.The problem lay in its outer underslung fuel tanks which overstressed the main spar. Cracks appeared and couldn't be repaired within tolerance. God I bore myself sometimes?????

Well this ties in with the story my grandad told me. My grandad was a carpenter, who would do work for the air ministry, in the 50s and 60s, doing work on the Lincolnshire airfields. On his way to Wittering one day, the main road was closed, so him and his workmates had to go through Bainton and Barncack to reach Wittering. Sure enough it was because the above Victor had crashed.

The Victor had an absolutely amazing bomb carrying capacity for its size!

A unique design that looks like something out of a Terminator film.

I worked at Handley Page in the main drawing office. We made submissions to the Air Ministry/MOD to install ejection seats for the entire crew at a cost of £180 per aircraft. This was rejected and a suggestion was received from them “to fit hand hold in the floor, so crew members could pull themselves out of their seats”, wearing their heavy ‘chutes to the port hatch enabling their safe exit. This would assume the avoidance of the port engine intake or the high tail fin. Each crew member had an instrument console on which a small sign announcing “Abandon Aircraft” could be illuminated by the pilot by depressing it. Having done so, his immediate duty might be regarded as discharged due to constraints of time in emergency situation.

Great video, the Victor is my favorite V Bomber. Unique look, and actually great service life makes it one of the best

i love this futuristic and somehow organic look

I highly doubt the crew panicked.

Good viewing and interesting. But LOOtenant! please pronounce correctly "LEFTtenant". I remember when I joined the Royal Navy in 1973 and a lad in our class called his divisional officer "LOOtenant" whilst on the parade ground and he had to run around the parade ground holding his SLR above his head shouting "It's LEFTtenant not LOOtenant" He pronounced it correctly after that.

Other nations and organisations may have Bases but the RAF has Stations.

The Victor and the Vulcan were always top notch stuff. Gone are the days when they both ruled the roost. Both are much missed, and shame on the UK neither type are in flying order as of 2020. ( as far as I am aware.) A static museum piece is fine. But to see them in action is even better and a fitting tribute to them both.

Never saw this bomber. But as a child that Vulcan Bomber impressed me and my Dad as a static display at Hickam AFB, Honolulu, Hawai'i.

THAT WAS WELL WORTH WATCHING.THANK YOU..MERRY XMAS...HOWARD

Sad. Condolence to family, friends, squadron mates and the Nation of Great Britain.

If Darth Vader had an Air Force for Earth the Victor and Vulcan would be the backbone of it. Their looks would match his menacing appearance.

Alec Galbraith was my dad's roommate when they were in flight training with Meteors in 1952 and remembered him fondly. Alec was relatively short and was at a disadvantage when it came to applying rudder during single engine exercises in the Meteor and I understand he transferred onto Venoms.

Really well made, thank you. I vaguely remember this as my brother was on leave from RAF Nordhorn in Germany, a TAF Fixer Station and he was upset as Nordhorn was basically a bombing range and he loved the Victors. And great to hear something in a pure Leicester accent!

There is a very good book called "The Man in the Hot Seat" by Doddy Hay which documents how he was involved in ejection seat research and testing over many years. He and many others complained in that book that he totally disagreed with the lack of rear ejector seats in the three V bombers, and stated that it was the Labour Government that would not finance the extra cost to fit them. Many good people died because of that cruel decision, too many

One of the most beautiful bombers ever built in my view.

Great info, and subbed! Many thanks 😇👍💪

My favourite V bomber.......... One of my all time favourite aircraft.

I think this is such a handsome bomber. They are currently restoring one at Duxford.

This aircraft looks like it's about to lean over and bite your head off. Was there ever a more sinister and purposeful looking plane? Besides being drop dead gorgeous too.

Etched in my memory. Was a J/T Groundcrew on duty that evening (just a day after my 20th Birthday) on 139 Sqdn. XM714 was with 100 Sqdn. Was on site within an hour and with others from my Squadron stood crash guard until the following morning.

Very informative. Thank You.

All those organic curves, drawn by hand before the days of computerized CAD and modeling. I can imagine all the head scratching going on at the drafting tables!

As a student engineering apprentice at RAE Farnborough (1958-63), I had an interesting experience during ground-testing of the RAE's Victor B.1. Sitting in the co-pilot's seat beside my Aero-engine maintenance supervisor, I notched up the aircraft's AS Sapphire turbojets in pairs to 95%. It was like a bucking bronco! Located near the perimeter fence of the airfield, I thought for a second or two we'd jump the fence and land on the golf course beyond! Quite a memory. As a 'PS', I later had a flight in the RAF Institute of Aviation's Hunter T.7. But that's another story... I later left engineering behind to become a Christian minister. Both aircraft encounters provided opportunities for sharing my faith in Christ. That too is another story!

I remember watching those fabulous victor tankers take off from RAF Marham way back in 1975 the sound was absolutely amazing.

I was serving on 139Sqn at that time and along with the others of our XL192 team were on the Sqn dispersal near to the tower when 714 took off. The first we knew of the event was the appearance of the smoke. Unless my memory has failed me 714 belonged to and was being operated by 100 Sqn on that training mission. During 1962 & 1963 QRA was shared alternately on a 28 Day basis between the 2 squadrons with only one aircraft on the QRA dispersal at any one time other than briefly during the few hours of the day 28 handover. The one exception was the weekend of the 'Cuban Missile Crisis' when a second aircraft was prepped, loaded and readied to go. On Friday the 26th of October XL192 completed its 28 day stint along with the 6 erk and 2 crew chiefs that were the aircraft's dedicated (happy days) servicing team. During Friday morning the replacement from 100 Sqn was positioned, prepped, loaded and accepted by the aircrew. As soon as the weapon was unloaded from 192 at midday we towed it back to the hangar parked it and left ready to return Monday when we would begin reroling back to the conventional training configuration. At 1pm the following day most of us had been rounded up and were back in the hangar getting ready to tow 192 back to the QRA pan where it was again prepped and presumably had the weapon, possibly the same that was removed the day before, winched back into the bomb bay. Fortunately for me as I'd completed the last 48hr stint I was stood down ready to take the next stint on Monday presuming that there would be a next Monday. By the time Monday came we were all still alive, the country was still intact and 192 was back in the hangar. I joined 139Sqn in March 62 when it was still in the state of being equipped with the Victor B2. At that point only 4 of the eventual complement of 8 had been delivered from Radlett. Eventually in 1963 the first Blue Steel variants began to arrive. Throughout my time at Wittering I don't recall more than one aircraft at a time being routinely committed to QRA. It was always hard to understand, other than for reasons of the prevailing wind ( from the West), why QRA was located less than 300 yards from the A1 which was a very busy road even in those times. It was possible to stand by the aircraft and watch the traffic going North & South. As both squadrons were in the process of being built up and prepared for Blue Steel I suspect there were not sufficient resources to allow double manning in that period. My time at Wittering came to an end in November 63.

I left HP in early 1966 and switched to package engineering, when it became very apparent that HP’s days were numbered. There was absolutely no way that the Jetstream project could, along with the sadly not over popular Herald and Military servicing contracts, be able to sustain the Company. It was popularly believed that the downfall was due to Sir Frederick’s attitude, “that nobody is going to tell me how to run my Company”, at a time when the Government was insisting on manufacturers merging. Hence, BAC. So, no more Government projects against which to bid were forthcoming, and the Company policy of enacting a 12 month credit line with suppliers, meant that the latter could read the warning signs and came for their money. Designing a new aircraft is not a five minute task, so even if a project had been secured, would HP have had enough backing to fulfil.

The early military jets were generally very dangerous for their crews, I understand, because escape technology had not kept pace with engine development - sadly a familiar story. So it's no surprise that four of the six crew had to 'bail out' in a very traditional way from so high performance a machine. The early Meteor fighters (and the Me 262 Schwalbe before them) were even more lethal to escape from - ejector seats didn't even exist, and opening the canopy must have been almost impossible.

I was just up the road at Cottesmore, 10 Sqdn Victor B1's from March '63, and I don't remember this accident., not saying of course it didn't happen. Ours was the only B1 Sqdn. Over the runway to us was 15, but they were B1 A's. Witterings's Victors were B2's of course, as was 543 at Wyton with their PR's. The narrator in the video says it could carry 48, 1,000 bombs. It was actually 35, in 7 pallets of five. During Confrontation with Indonesia in '64, we bombed up our four Mk 1A's with the 35 1,000 pounders, and uplifted engine max RPM to 102.5%. I really really know this last point as I was the scrawny armed engine mech who slid his arm through the engine door fillets to do the adjustment on all four on one aircraft, with the aircrew strapped in on a dispersal, and communicating with the crew chief on a long lead, who communicated to me by raising his hand up or down, me without ear defenders, and receive a modest (very) disability pension for hearing loss as a result. Although on 10, I was on detachment with 15 at Butterworth at the time. There were also four more 1 A's at Tengah likewise prepped. 10 were the first Victor Sqdn to disband and we managed at least nine of our ten aircraft into the air for a flypast at Cottesmore, a truly amazing sight to see, nine Victors in a diamond nine formation. The flypast concluded with one aircraft doing a high speed run at low level down the centreline, with shock waves forming on the leading edges and 'blowing' back over the wings and reforming again. Those days at Cottesmore were truly wonderful, a great time to be alive.

Always preferred these to the Vulcan

Great video

I spent months trying to find *any* images at all of XM714. One image from New Zealand that may or may not have been XM714 is all I found. Then months later I found some very nice high quality colour footage of XM714 (with the serial on show in some angles)

Saw a Victor land at Goose Bay air base in 1959 while I was en route to Incirlik AB in Turkey. Eerily beautiful, it had crossed the Atlantic on a training mission, very common during the Cold War. The green Aurora Borealis, or northern lights, draped overhead in constantly changing patterns. Totally surreal experience.

Great video, and really fantastic channel with brilliant content. Thank you for sharing, keep up the amazing work. Do you have a patreon I could contribute to to help with the upkeep of the content?

My all time favourite flying machine. A truly epic design, sinister, yet beautiful.

Wow, what a beautiful aircraft.

Yes a fantastic aircraft, 20 years ahead of its time!

Beautiful Amazing looking aircraft

Are you sure about that 0 - in V rotate in 30 seconds? Somehow that sounds a bit too quick - the takeoff roll looks to be about 30 - so there's no allowance for the engines to spin up.

That was a beautiful plane!

Thanks!

Looks like a like a scaled up bell x1

Good video, but I do have a comment... The five airmen had families, and all sorts of things go through their minds: "What must it have been like?" We are reminded three times in this video about how horribly frightening it must have been. We get it. The family members have watched and may again see this video. I'd think it empathetic and generous to consider dropping two of the "...it must have been horribly frightening!" Let the audience discover that fearful question themselves.

For me it is still the most beautiful looking bomber, grace, elegance and futuristic Look.

I personally witnessed the earlier crash of a Handley Page Victor In July 1960 near Oakley in Suffolk.

I am surprised that the UK has not come up with a blended wing airliner given their past v-bomber work.

The victor is such a streamlined beast.

The V bombers were beautiful to behold !

I remember this like it was yesterday even though I was a kid of 10 years old.. My Dad also a pilot with 138 squadron Wittering on the Vickers Valiant’s but had retired when the Valiant was grounded & we lived in Greatford near Stamford.. We kids were outside the pub where I lived, when there was an almighty thud & the sky lit up like I’d never seen before. We got on our bikes & peddled our hearts out to find out just what it was but gave up when we got halfway to Uffington .. Only later did we find out what had happened..

A very good friend of mine said his job was to toe these types of aircraft for scrap at raf st athens south wales in the earlt 1970,s from one camp across the road to the other camp, sadly he passed away in march due to esophagus cancer at 76, his opinion was he was keeping the peace or arms limitation, in my opinion these aircraft are very strange.

Great video :) The early B1s were powered by Sapphire turbojets but these were soon replaced in the B2s by more powerful Conway turbofans

Brendan Jackson 'understanding what was happening' ejected and lived. It might have been appropriate for him to have elucidated his thoughts to the other crew members. at 4 to 5 thousand feet at stall speed and with the inertia of a Victor-indeed any heavy bomber, there would not have been a great deal of time to discuss problems presenting themselves. I feel confident to assert that the crew would not have panicked. They were well trained in a magnificent aircraft. Indeed the Victor was one of the best aircraft along with the TSR2 and the Buccaneer ever designed by the British aero industry....I suppose I should mention the Spitfire, Hurricane, Lancaster, Mossie, Tempest, Seafury, Hunter, the beautiful Seahawk, plus the Gannet, Provost, Gnat......the list is endless. Heaven forbid that you should think I am enamoured with British aircraft. But quite frankly, such a small country produced the finest aircraft and the best engines- both inline petrol and later, jet engines that the world has ever seen. I saw a Victor fly over me at around 20 thousand feet while cycling in Norfolk many years ago. It was silver and so exquisite that I fell off my bike watching it. it pains me that the new generation will never experience such a sight. You have no idea.

Awesome appearing aircraft.

Looks like something Flash Gordon might pilot.

Very sad. I wonder what was going on with the pilot? Stall shudder is very noticeable and every pilot recognizes it. A shudder should always be followed by a nose down. It's odd that he would want to pull up :(

Always reminded me of a VC10 !

Amazing looking plane

LOOtenant!!!!!! Ignoramous. But good article, I used to live in the area, remember Victors and Vulcans flying around in anti flash white.

What's up with the photo at 2:04? It looks like a Victor K.2 at a US airport (the Chevy Suburban and the Ford fuel truck and various cars in the background) in the late 70's/early 80's but it looks like the photo was taken yesterday! Was this a scene set up in MSFS?

I was stationed at RAF Wittering at that time, ground crew, nav radar, and ecm. and remember this traagic accident well. I think I'm correct in saying that the enquiry concluded that the engine fire warning light was a spurious indication. On climb out from Wittering , by the time the Victor was above Barnack village it would still have been climbing at a very steep angle, and the crew response of shutting down an engine would have put the aircraft into asymmetric power configuration, which, combined with the attendant reduction of propulsive power, and the aforementioned steep angle of climb, fatally affected air speed and caused the stall and spin, from which it was impossible to recover at such a (relatively) low altitude. The aircraft exploded on impact in a small field on the edge of the village. The bomb it was carrying did not explode. It was a " concrete" bomb, carried on training flights to simulate the handling characteristics of the plane with a war- load on board. On my first shift of crash guard duty, I was surprised by what seemed to be such a small debris field and how little remained of the aircraft. Of course much had been burned to nothing, but major components such as engines etc would have been taken away for examination in the search for the cause of the crash. Regarding the aircraft shown in the video, it bears great resemblance to a Victor mk 2 retro-fit which would have carried a blue steel stand-off missile and not a dumb bomb as was carried by xm714.

2:18 Did he just say that Blue Steel was a PILOTED machine?! Where did the alleged pilot sit? 🤔

There was a Victor II lost on flight trials in, as I recall, 1958.

Haven't read all the comments but it wasn't a complete failure,as I remember it was the Victor that refuelled the Vulcans on their way to the Falklands so they could bomb the runway so the Argentinians couldn't land their Mirages & Pucara's

My father used to fly these at Wittering! I still have his log books.

“Slight misjudgment by the Pilot.” This is not a criticism aimed at him as I have no knowledge of the training regime in those days. Nowadays great emphasis is placed on recognition of the impending stall. A prompt recover follows. these salutary lessons were brought about by such accidents. A sad loss of young brave crew.

My father investigated bombers for the RAAF. Ultimately settling for the F111. He once told me the theory behind the V bombers is that they could sit just below the speed of sound for long periods. Which is quite taxing on normal airframes. So any fighters following, trying to match it's speed would shake themselves to pieces. I am not sure how accurate this is as I have never seen it mentioned anywhere else.

Fantastic airplane. "When the airplane was spinning and the crew were plummeting to their death it must have been RAIL-LEE SCAR-EE." I think that is kind of an understatement.

The Victor was menacingly elegant.

At 2:17, what is a 'piloted winged aircraft' ???

You forgot to mentioned the Victors played main part during Falklands war..They refuelled main bomber all way down to South of Globe to destroy only landing strip on the Isles to stop use by Argentinians. Nice dokumentary, Regards from Czech Republic

I remember one of these coming into Fairchild AFB, WA. What a bizarre looking aircraft I thought, but beautiful in its ugliness. Between the Victor and the Vulcan, the Brits produced some very unique aircraft.

What was the plane in the background in the beginning?

One caught fire on the runway at RAF Marham in the 1980, a tanker full of fuel I believe - big blaze but no one killed.

I could never decide whether the Victor was a thing of beauty or an ugly duckling, or both. The one thing that was beyond doubt though was that it had a meaty malevolence about it. Without doubt it was the most intimidating looking military plane ever to take to the skies. It had the `dont F with me` factor in spades. In that respect alone it was a real looker.

A map in relation to the airfield and crash site would be appropriate .

The best looking of the V bombers in my opinion

guess the Handley Page engineers just happen to run out of imagination!!!

This had a Vulcan intake also. Never heard of this British strategic bomber.

.... engines embedded in the wings...... just something about that...... hmmm...

Good morning from St John Parish, Louisiana 07 Nov 20.

I don't mean this as any kind of criticism, I'm trying to help you (yes, actually being helpful on the Internet! A strange concept, I know). When referring to the rank of lieutenant in the British Armed Forces it's pronounced as "Leff-ten-ant" whereas in the United States Armed Forces it is pronounced as you pronounced it in the video, "lieu-ten-ant" I'm not entirely sure if this rule applies across the board in the Naval services of the United Kingdom but as far as I know, the RAF and Army use the pronunciation I mentioned above. I hope this helps in future videos

My Grandad father died in an accident involving a hydraulic test on the Victor.

Looks like it has already been wounded in battle and is seeking revenge. Scary stuff... 🤔

The issue is that the British military always looks at the USA for new technology and ignores those developed in the UK.

There's a awesome beautiful aircraft