History of the
Vulcan Bomber
Vulcan Bomber
Specifications (Vulcan B.1)
General characteristics
- Crew: 5 (pilot, co-pilot, AEO, Navigator Radar, Navigator Plotter)
- Length: 97 ft 1 in (29.59 m)
- Wingspan: 99 ft 5 in (30.3 m)
- Height: 26 ft 6 in (8.0 m)
- Wing area: 3554 ft² (330.2 m²)
- Empty weight: 83,573 lb (including crew) (37,144 kg)
- Max takeoff weight: 170,000 lb (77,111 kg)
- Powerplant: 4× Bristol Olympus 101, or 102 or 104, with higher thrust turbojet, 11,000 lbf (49kN) each
Performance
- Maximum speed: 0.96 Mach (627 mph, 830 km/h 607 mph (1040 km/h) at altitude))
- Cruise speed: 0.86 Mach at 45,000 ft (567 mph, 971 km/h)
- Range: 2,607 Miles (4,171 km)
- Service ceiling: 55,000 ft (16,760 m)
- Thrust/weight: 0.31
Armament
- 21,000 lb (9,500 kg) of conventional bombs or single free-fall nuclear weapon
Crew (All Mks):
Pilot, Co-Pilot, Navigator Plotter, Navigator Radar and Air Electronics Officer
(two extra seats could be fitted for Crew Chiefs if required, for a total of seven crew).
Fuel capacity and range are for main tanks only.
Various combinations of extra bomb bay tankage (A, E or Drum) could be fitted dependent on the aircraft sortie requirements.
- B 1 (early production): --- (included in build total below)
- B 1 (later production) --- 45 built
- B 2 --- 89 built
- B 1a (B 1 converted to B 2 Spec internally.) 28 converted from B 1
- B 2a --- B 2 conversions
- B 2 (MRR)/SR 2 --- 11 converted (only 9 in existence at any one time.)
- B 2 K --- six converted – from three B 2 & three B 2(MRR)
- Total build 136

