TBT…

Today’s throwback is from the early 60s, although it wasn’t admitted to until years later…

Yes, Britain DID nuke the US not once, but twice… Simulated of course…

But that had to be embarrassing as hell for the brass… Especially Lemay who was, I believe the Air Force Chief at the time… LOL

In other ‘flying’ news…

A bunch of actual turkeys in PP’s back yard… until grandson let the Labs out, and there was apparently a BUNCH of flying all of a sudden… 10 birds launching in all directions ‘away’ from the dogs… LOL

Comments

TBT… — 12 Comments

  1. I have always loved the Vulcan — there is just something “right” about it.

  2. Stationed at Hickam, a Vulcan landed with an Avionics problem. Can you guys take a look? Oh, HELL yes, but I doubt if we can do anything for you. I’d been in a dozen or more types of ours, but that thing set the record for cramped, and with all the amenities of a Soviet, that is, almost none. I’ve always thought of that bird as the meanest looker around, and I can say I was actually in an operational one. And those guys took it, trans ocean, with only one ADI on the panel. Our guys would have (rightfully) grounded it until hell froze over or they got tired of Waikiki Beach.

  3. The early 1960’s (59-63)was my tenure in the U.S. Navy ASW actions. I do remember the British trip up. Lots of head shaking and eye rolls going on. From what I heard, General Lemay, SAC Commander(Strategic Air Command) in those days, wanted heads to roll but President Kennedy shut him down.

  4. According to a gent of my acquaintance, a Vulcan rolls quite nicely, with a decent roll rate for such a relatively large airframe. He did it well enough that the non-cockpit crew didn’t notice.

    Once a fighter pilot, always a fighter pilot . . .

  5. Turkeys are abundant around my house, and can be depended on to clean up all the leftover birdseed on the ground under the feeders. This past spring we had 2 new families hanging around, two hens and their brood of 10+ chicks each. They are really cute when they are little. The Tom’s stay further away in the woods, but they are there.

  6. If I understood the narrator correctly, the failure to stop the Vulcans coming from Scotland had to do with their flying at a higher altitude. If that’s the case, why did it work the SECOND time? Concentrating the fighters on the lower-flying B52s seems to be a failure of tactics, not technology.

  7. Ian- Yep! Pretty bird!

    Bob- Wow!!! And yes, the Air Force would have grounded it ‘forever’…

    Robert- Thanks for that, I hadn’t talked to any Navy guys about it.

    TXRed- LOL- Truth!!!

    Glypto- Yep, and wily as hell…

    Pat- Fighters didn’t ‘like’ 50K+… Lack of maneuverability.

  8. I am reminded that once my missile crew was helicoptered to our launch control facility. The pilot told us he was being transferred to B-52, and there was just NO comparison. I told him he was wrong; 52s also took off nose down.

  9. A little late in the day for another comment — but it’s interesting to note that the aircraft which Nevil Shute ((Norway — a brilliant aircraft designer before WW II and gaining some fame as a novelist) imagined for the novel In The Wet is a passenger and mail carrying variant of the Vulcan. The novel has some interesting comments on voting and democracy and race relations… worth reading, if you haven’t.

    • I liked “Trustee from the Toolroom”, but everything else of Shute’s I tried was an unmitigated downer. Enough that’s I’d be leery about starting another of his books.