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5050 Santa Fe Drive • Atwater, California • 95301
Avro (U.K.) Vulcan B.2
MUSEUM HOURS
May 1- October 31
9:00am - 5:00pm
November 1 - April 30
10:00am - 4:00pm
The museum is open
daily year round,
except for the
following days:
New Year's Day,
Easter,
Thanksgiving and
Christmas Day.
Specifications
Country of Origin: Great Britain
Manufacturer: A.V. Roe & Co. Ltd (Avro), Manchester, England
Role/Function: Strategic/Nuclear Bomber
Serial Number: XM 605
Model Number: 698
Crew: 2 pilots, 1 navigator, 1 air electronics officer, & 1 radar operator.
Power Plant: 4 - Rolls Royce Olympus 301 engines with 20,000 pound of thrust each.
Max Speed: 645 mph (1,038.03 km/h)
Cruising Speed: unknown
Service Ceiling: 65,000 ft (19,812 m)
Range: 2,300 miles (3,701.49 km)
Weights: Empty: 170,000 lbs (77,110.70 kg)
Gross: 204,000 lbs (92,533 kg)
Wing Span: 111 ft (33.83 m)
Length: 99 ft 11 in (30.21 m)
Height: 26 ft 1 in (7.93 m)
Wing Area: 3,554 sq ft (330.18 sq m)
Armament: 21,000 pounds of conventional bombs, or (1) nuclear air-to-ground missile.
Cost: N/A
# Built: 89 - B.2 variants
The Avro Vulcan, along with the Handley-Page Victor and the Vickers Valiant, were Britain's "V" Force of bombers in the 1950s and 60s. The Vulcan was the first jet bomber to use the delta shaped wing, which made it extremely agile and acrobatic for such a large aircraft. The first prototype flew in 1952 and the Vulcan became operational in 1956. A second version, the B.2, became operational in 1960. A total of 133 Vulcan bombers were produced.
Armed with the "Blue Steel" nuclear air to ground missile, the Vulcan represented a good portion of the United Kingdom's nuclear force. However, the Vulcan bombers were relegated to a conventional role in 1966, when the Royal Navy's Polaris submarines became operational. Later, some Vulcans were converted to the role of Strategic Reconnaissance.
The Vulcan made its mark in aviation history during the Falkland Islands War of 1982. Several Vulcan bombers were converted back to bomber status and flew several bombing raids against the Port Stanley Airport and several radar sites. These missions, code named "Operation Black Buck", held the record for the longest (distance) bombing raid in history. This record has since been broken by the Strategic Air Command during Desert Storm in 1991. The Black Buck missions were flown from the Ascension Islands to the Falklands and back, a distance of over 7,700 miles.
The aircraft on display at Castle Air Museum, XM 605, is a B.2 version which was operated by the Royal Air Force's 44 Squadron and was based at R.A.F. Waddington, Lincolnshire, England. It arrived in 1981 and is on indefinite loan to the museum, courtesy of Her Majesty's Government.
