Handley Page Victor

The Handley Page Victor was an early British jet powered bomber that first flew in 1952, entered service with the Royal Air Force in 1958 and served 35 years until it was retired in 1993. Over 80 Victors were built by the same manufacturer that produced the Halifax bomber of World War Two.

During the 1950s the Victor took part in a top secret operation called Banana Split, which aimed at testing the feasibility of using nuclear weapons. This involved flying the Victor through a radioactive cloud generated by the detonation of a nuclear bomb to study its effects on the aircraft.

The Victor holds the record for the longest-ever recorded non-stop flight by a jet powered aircraft, when it flew non-stop from London to Auckland in 1958, covering a distance of over 11,500 miles.

In the 1960s the Victor was used by the US Air Force for Operation Skyshield II, which tested the effectiveness of the North American Aerospace Défense Command early warning system against a potential Soviet bomber attack. Victors simulated Soviet bombers to test their response and detection capabilities.

There were several Variants of the Victor including the B1A, B2, B2R and the K2. The B2 variant of the Victor was modified to carry the Blue Steel nuclear missile. The wings of the Victor were swept at 55 degrees, which optimised its high-speed capability.

The Victor played a crucial role as an air-to-air platform during the Black Buck missions in 1982, when Avro Vulcans flew from Ascension to attack Argentinian positions on the Falkland Islands.
The Victor was powered by four Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire engines which were embedded in the aircraft’s wings. The aircraft had a crew of 5, a wingspan of 34 metres which for any Air Cadets is twice the span of a Grob Vigilant, an empty weight of 40,000 kg, a max take-off weight of 92,000 kg, a max speed of 627 mph, a max range of 5,200 nm and a service ceiling of 56,000 feet.

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