Handley Page Victor
| Handley Page HP80 Victor | |
|---|---|
 Handley Page Victor B.Mk.1A, 1961 |
|
| Type: | Strategic bomber tanker aircraft |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
December 24, 1952 |
| Commissioning: |
April 1958 |
| Production time: |
1952 to 1963 |
| Number of pieces: |
86 |
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The Handley Page HP80 Victor was a four-beam bomber the time of the Cold War, from British production. It was one of the three types intended for the dropping of atomic bombs in the " V-Bomber " series (in addition to the Vickers 667 Valiant and the Avro 698 Vulcan ). Developed and manufactured by the Handley Page Aircraft Company , its development dates back to 1947.
development
The Victor goes back to the specification B.35 / 46. At that time, the Royal Air Force called for a strategic medium-range bomber for the near-sound speed range at high altitudes, which should also be able to carry nuclear weapons . The Victor is a cantilevered mid-decker in all-metal construction with a T-tail unit and swept wings, the landing gear is completely retractable. Like the Valiant, it received a sickle wing, but was more modern and also reached a higher speed than the Vulcan. During a test flight, one of the prototypes even broke the sound barrier , although the design was not originally designed for this.
On December 24, 1952, the prototype took off for its first flight, but was lost during a test flight on July 18, 1954, which delayed the start of series flight tests by three years. It was not until 1958 that the RAF took over the first of 50 Victor BMk.1 . The improved B.1A , the reconnaissance / bomber B (PR) .1 and the tanker B (K) .1 were derived from this . In its role as a carrier system, the Victor was also equipped with the Blue Steel nuclear air-to-surface missile .
After the first flight on February 20, 1959, the Victor B.2 was put into service in 1962 . The strategic reconnaissance aircraft B (SR) emerged from this in 1965 .
A troop transport with the designation Handley Page HP.111 with two decks was to be derived from the Victor , which could carry a total of 200 soldiers (145 on the upper deck, 55 on the lower deck). At the same time, a civilian version of this troop transport was to be developed under the name Handley Page HP.111C as a passenger jet and cargo plane, which was also to carry 145 passengers on the upper deck or cargo pallets on both decks.
Troop service
The retraining unit, the 230th Operational Conversion Unit , in RAF Waddington , which had previously trained Valiant crews, received its first copies in November 1957 and the first operational squadron , the 10th Squadron , was set up in RAF Cottesmore in April 1958 . After the complete influx, the RAF Bomber Command had six squadrons. In addition to the strategic role, Victors were also conventionally armed and were first used in the mid-1960s at the Konfrontasi in Indonesia in the 1960s (see next section). The aircraft were stationed at RAF Cottesmore, RAF Marham , RAF Waddington, RAF Wittering and RAF Wyton .
The 55th Squadron moved from RAF Honington to RAF Marham in May 1965 , where they became the first Victor squadron in the aerial refueling role . All of the remaining Victor were only used as tankers in three squadrons from 1969. The last season was not decommissioned until 1993.
Calls
During the Borneo conflict of 1962–1965, two Victor BMk 1A flew the only offensive bomber missions in the history of this type of aircraft.
In the Falklands War of 1982, the Victor was used as an aerial refueling aircraft for the Avro-Vulcan bombers in Operation Black Buck . The Victor was also used in Operation Desert Storm 1991 and remained in service with the RAF until 1993 as a tanker; it was at the same time the last fighter aircraft produced by Handley Page and also the most durable “V-bomber”, but not in the role of the bomber.
Military use
Incidents
From the first flight in 1952 to the end of operations in 1993, Handley Page Victor suffered 18 total write-offs of aircraft. 44 people were killed in 10 of them.
- An RAF Victor was taken to the Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome after it was out of service in 1993 to be exhibited and high-speed taxiing several times a year together with other aircraft, such as a De Havilland DH.106 Comet . After the last flight was 16 years ago, there was another, "accidental" last flight in 2009: During one of the high-speed test runs, the maintenance technician, who was acting as co-pilot and who was probably overwhelmed by this situation, did not react to the pilot's instruction to reset the thrust levers. The Victor took off and reached a height of about 20 meters, being pushed to the left by strong crosswinds. Contrary to the pilot's expectations, the aircraft reacted to all control inputs and sat down on the grass next to the runway. Neither the pilots, the spectators nor the machine suffered any damage.
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Data (Victor B Mk.2) |
|---|---|
| length | 35.03 m (B Mk.1: 31.24 m) |
| span | 36.58 m (B Mk.1: 33.55 m) |
| height | 8.97 m |
| Wing area | 241 m² |
| drive | four Rolls-Royce Conway 201 with 87.88 kN each |
| Top speed | 1024 km / h |
| Marching speed | 957 km / h |
| Range | 7360 km |
| Summit height | 18,300 m |
| Takeoff mass | 79,450 kg |
| Payload | 15,890 kg |
| crew | 5 |
See also
literature
- CH Barnes: Handley Page Aircraft since 1907. Putnam, London 1976, ISBN 0-370-00030-7 .
- Phil Butler, Tony Buttler: Aerofax. Handley-Page Victor. Midland Publishing, 2009, ISBN 1-85780-311-6 .
- Tony Buttler: Vital Bombers. Origins of the RAF's 'V-Bomber' Force. In: Air Enthusiast , No. 79, January / February 1999, ISSN 0143-5450 , pp. 28-41.
- Bill Gunston: The V-Bombers. Handley Page Victor - Part 1. In: Airplane Monthly , Vol. 9, No 1, January 1981, ISSN 0143-7240 , pp. 4-9.
- Bill Gunston: The V-Bombers. Handley Page Victor - Part 2. In: Airplane Monthly , Vol. 9, No 2, February 1981, ISSN 0143-7240 , pp. 60-65.
- Bill Gunston: The V-Bombers. Handley Page Victor - Part 3. In: Airplane Monthly , Vol. 9, No 3, March 1981, ISSN 0143-7240 , pp. 136-139, 142-146.
- Victor. A Technical Description of Britain's Latest V-Bomber. In: Flight , October 30, 1959 pp. 463–472.
Web links
- Photos and information on exhibited in museums copies by plane crazy (Engl.)
Individual evidence
- ^ CH Barnes: Handley Page Aircraft since 1907. Putnam Aeronautical Books, London 1987, pp. 527-528, ISBN 0 85177 803 8 .
- ^ CH Barnes: Handley Page Aircraft since 1907. Putnam Aeronautical Books, London 1987, pp. 528–529, ISBN 0 85177 803 8 .
- ^ List of accidents involving Handley Page Victor , Aviation Safety Network , accessed July 26, 2018.
- ^ The Telegraph : Retired RAF Pilot Prevents Airshow Disaster , September 8, 2009.
- ↑ Video of the incident on YouTube .
- ↑ a b Harry Fraser-Mitchell: Handley Page Victor - Database . In: Airplane Monthly July 2009, p. 86