Avro Vulcan B2 XM594 was the penultimate B2 built, and was delivered to the RAF on 9th July 1963, making it;s last flight on 7th February 1983 when it made the short hop form RAF Waddington to Newark Air Museum (formerly RAF Winthorpe).
Initially delivered to 27 Sqn as part of the Scampton-based Blue Steel Wing, it was retro-fitted to adapt it for the free-fall bombing mode in 1970 before being transferred to the Waddington Wing in 1972, where it served with 191 Sqn (1975) and 44 (Rhodesia) Sqn (1975).
The Blue Steel nuclear missile was also built by Avro, and was an air-launched rocket-propelled nuclear stand-off missile. This meant that the delivery aircraft could launch the missile whilst still outside the range pf enemy anti-aircraft defences. The missile would accelerate to Mach 3 and was designed and programmed to detonate within 100 metres of its primary target. With improved enemy ground-to-air missile systems being developed, a Blue Steel II was cansiderd but then dismissede in favour of an American system - the GAM Skybolt, however when this was also cancelled, the V-bomber force was considered too vulnerable and responsibility for the UK's nuclear deterrent force eventually passed to the Royal Navy's Polaris-equipped Resolution-class nuclear ballistic missile submarines.
Initially delivered to 27 Sqn as part of the Scampton-based Blue Steel Wing, it was retro-fitted to adapt it for the free-fall bombing mode in 1970 before being transferred to the Waddington Wing in 1972, where it served with 191 Sqn (1975) and 44 (Rhodesia) Sqn (1975).
The Blue Steel nuclear missile was also built by Avro, and was an air-launched rocket-propelled nuclear stand-off missile. This meant that the delivery aircraft could launch the missile whilst still outside the range pf enemy anti-aircraft defences. The missile would accelerate to Mach 3 and was designed and programmed to detonate within 100 metres of its primary target. With improved enemy ground-to-air missile systems being developed, a Blue Steel II was cansiderd but then dismissede in favour of an American system - the GAM Skybolt, however when this was also cancelled, the V-bomber force was considered too vulnerable and responsibility for the UK's nuclear deterrent force eventually passed to the Royal Navy's Polaris-equipped Resolution-class nuclear ballistic missile submarines.
Category: Historic Aircraft
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Cold War
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