Past Talks : February 2024
“Flying the Vulcan – A personal experience”, by Sqn Ldr (retd) Joe Marsden
The moment Joe Marsden started speaking, it was apparent that he is an aviation man through and through. The list of his current aviation related activities would be a distraction, so I will not even go there.
Joe left school with the intention of practising architecture and instead spent the next 29 years in the RAF, piloting such aircraft as the Chipmunk, Jet Provost, Varsity, Canberra and Vulcan – the subject of tonight’s talk.
In addition to pilot training Joe also took the course at the School of Air Navigation and was the only pilot on the course. The air training element was in the Dominie and the Jetstream aircraft. Additionally, between 1985 and 2000, Joe was a Fighter Controller and did three tours in AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) based in the Falkland Islands.
On retirement from the RAF, Joe joined the Italian company IAMCO at its base in Venice. IAMCO specialised in the support of the NATO AWACS fleet of aircraft, which was very familiar work experience for him. From there he spent time with BAe/Raytheon on the R-1 Sentinel, after which NATO caught up with his vast experience and offered him a 10 month contract, which did not end for 6 years, as part of the NACMA (NATO Air Command and Control System) Management Agency programme.
So, how do you follow a career like that? Joe did, and by way of introduction he presented a clip of film showing a Vulcan taking off and gracefully arcing across the sky. Among other things Joe became involved with the Vulcan Restoration Trust and fast taxying the Vulcan at air shows.
A few members of the audience were ex-Vulcan pilot’s and throughout the evening the exchanges of conversation were entertainment in themselves.
The Vulcan was one of the trio of Cold-War V-bombers (plus the Valiant and Victor) that emerged in the 1950s. Joe reminded us that the Short Sperrin was also a contender, but even though its simpler design could have put it into service sooner than the others, it was also less capable and therefore not put into production. It is astonishing to think that just 10 years separated the Avro Lancaster and its jet successor the Avro Vulcan.
The Vulcan crew comprised two pilots, a navigator, a radar operator and an AEO (Air Electronics Officer). Its principal roles during its service life, were bomber (conventional or nuclear), maritime reconnaissance, air sampling and flight refuelling.
In the 1950s and for a decade or more after, the Cold War with the USSR meant that a nuclear war could break out without warning. It was a very real threat and most Vulcan-type sorties were conducted in a live context towards Russian targets. When the return point was reached, if the coded war signal had not been received, the aircraft turned for home. Every member of the crew knew that each sortie could be a one-way trip with the home base and much of Britain obliterated by a Russian nuclear bomb while they were air-borne. Having dropped the bomb, the Vulcan (if it survived the blast) would optimistically set course for arrival in Turkey.
A typical operation timeline and what it meant for the crew was highlighted by Joe:
Pre take-off – 3.15 hours before t/o – Met forecasts and briefing
– 2.15 hours before t/o – eat
– 1.15 hours before t/o – board the aircraft
Departure and sortie duration – several hours
Post-landing + 0.15 hours after landing – technical debrief
+ 0.45 hours after landing – operational debrief
+ 2.00 hours after landing – debriefing completed
It was a long day, or night.
Entry to the Vulcan is by a single ladder clipped to the drop down door just ahead of the nose wheel. Both pilots had ejection seats, while the other three crew members sat at a lower level behind the pilots, facing aft and without ejection seats. Instead they had parachutes built into their seats. The seats, could swivel 180º, and when required, a cushion in the seat inflated to help lift the occupant, complete with parachute, to a standing position. The crew then opened the entry hatch in the floor and slid down its chute, clear of the aircraft. That was the theory and they practised it many, many times. Joe assured us that the Vulcan was a reliable aircraft and very few emergencies ever occurred and no pilots would ever intentionally abandon other crew members.
The cockpit was a tight fit. The cockpit windows look small, but visibility-out for the pilots, who sat quite close to the windows it was in fact ‘ok’. Fuel balance to maintain the centre of gravity was an important task which fell to the co-pilot, whose principal responsibility, according to Joe, was ‘to ensure the catering box was brought on-board’ – usually containing soup, sandwiches, chocolate bar, an apple and a drink for each member. The galley was little more than a soup heater. Some sorties could take up to 14 hours and audience members jokingly shared their experiences of the toilet facilities, which comprised for each crewman a chrome funnel attached to a bladder-bag. Forgetting to ensure the bung was in place at the bottom of the bag caused some memorable moments.
Vulcan sorties could be as high as 48,000ft, where temperatures of -48ºC are not unusual, and they could also be almost entirely over water. Clothing was consequently comprehensive and well illustrated by Joe. Typically, crew wore an air ventilated suit, a fleece, an immersion suit and a pressure jerkin/suit. That is a lot of kit, all with zips in the right places and water-tight cuffs. Additionally you carried a ‘dinghy-knife’, and wore a heavy helmet and visor, although a cloth helmet was invariably worn whenever possible by Vulcan crews.
Fuel could total 9,260 gallons, of which 3,090 gallons was carried in forward fuselage tanks and 6,170 gallons in the wing tanks. Being a delta aircraft there were no separate elevators and ailerons, but instead power operated elevons, controlled not by a yoke, but a single fighter-like control column. This made the Vulcan extremely manoeuvrable to the point where it could out-manoeuvre all the fighters on Fighter-affiliation sorties. Similarly Joe told us about ‘Exercise Sky Shift’ held in the USA in 1961. The idea was for B52 bombers to ‘attack’ the US while fighter aircraft defended it. Seven Vulcans were invited to join the exercise, of which six flew high, while one instead flew in low and landed at the US air base before anyone was aware of its existence. According to Joe it was 1997 before the US would admit it happened.
In the maritime role, the Vulcan carried extra fuel in tanks installed in the bomb bay, enabling it to carry out very long range reconnaissance over vast areas. When the radar picked up ships it had to determine whether or not the fleet was naval or a fishing fleet. This was usually simply done – a naval fleet sailed in a formation, whereas fishing boats did not. If the fleet was of ‘interest’, a message was sent back to base and the contact would be investigated more closely by a Shackleton, Nimrod, Canberra or even a Gnat, depending on the distance involved.
Air sampling was undertaken during nuclear testing. The West and Russia agreed to all nuclear weapon testing being carried out underground, but China was not a signatory and carried out atmospheric testing. By capturing a sample of the contaminated air, it was possible to determine the size and the type of nuclear bomb itself. Special lead-lined under-wing pods were fitted to Vulcans which then flew to Midway Island to await the anticipated bomb test. The Chinese did not advertise their plans, so weeks would go by until eventually the duty aircrew received the call to take-off and fly to a predicted location, where the invisible sample might be. It worked and a sample was collected. On landing the sample was taken to a laboratory and the aircrew and the Vulcan were decontaminated. They then flew to the USA where the crew and aircraft were again decontaminated. The same again in Canada and again back in the UK. Joe believes that the Vulcan itself in fact never returned to service and was scrapped pretty quickly.
QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) operations in the early days were conducted at high altitude and the Vulcans were painted white. However, in 1960, Gary Powers was shot down over Russia in his Lockheed U-2 spy plane at an altitude higher than fighters or missiles could reach, or so they thought. In all 14 missiles were fired and one lucky hit brought Powers down. Not too long afterwards QRA operations were conducted at low level instead, resulting in the Vulcans now being camouflaged. It was at this point that Victors were shown to be less good for low level bombing and were converted to fuel tankers.
For QRA purposes, in the cockpit was a large black button, which when pushed started all four engines and fired up all the systems and instrumentation. Hence the ‘4 minute response’ we all used to hear about.
During QRA readiness the process was: QRA Readiness 15, the aircraft was fully fuelled, switches were set, and the crew nearby. At Readiness 05 the crew was in the cockpit. At Readiness 02 the engines were started and the aircraft scrambled. Another clip of film followed this process through from armchairs in the mess to the race to the Vulcan, start up, followed quickly by take-off for a retaliatory strike against Russia. Joe talked to us in detail about the different weapons carried – Blue Danube, Blue Steel, Sky Bolt, etc..
When using conventional bombs at low level, up to 21 1,000lb bombs could be carried and each had a retarded tail fitting to enable the Vulcan to be well away from any blast effect. During the Falklands Conflict we watched film of the intricate ‘dance’ performed by refuelling Victor tankers to refuel themselves and the Vulcan en-route, ending with the pattern of bombs straddling the runway. In total 14 in-flight refuellings took place. Joe stressed just how very, very difficult air-to-air refuelling between the Victor and Vulcan was, due to the fuel line rippling. It was ascertained that a 27º angle across the runway was most effective to ensure a bomb hit on the runway itself – which is what happened.
A next generation Vulcan, the B3, was designed incorporating ejection seats for all crew members but it never went into production.
Joe Marsden presented an absolute feast of knowledge and humour throughout. A near record attendance of 80+ in the auditorium, plus the Zoom attendees, enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you Joe and to the SOFFAAM backroom team. Do join us next month in person or via your Zoom armchair at home. It is an excellent evening’s entertainment.