Thread: Aircraft
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Old 09-27-2015, 02:38 PM   #16
Carruthers
Junior Master Dwellar
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Buckinghamshire UK
Posts: 4,059
Just to tie up a couple of loose ends re the Vulcan.

During the Falklands War, a Vulcan was used in a raids against Argentinian positions on the islands, the first being on the airfield at Port Stanley.

Operation Black Buck had seven planned raids, of which five were completed.

At 6,800 nautical miles (round trip) they were, at the time, the longest range bombing operations in history.

The Vulcan was a medium range aircraft, being designed for attacks on the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries, consequently an in flight refuelling plan had to be devised.

The raids were carried out from Ascension Island and the attack aircraft was supported by eleven tankers.

Some of the tanker aircraft were used to refuel other tankers so they could transfer fuel to the Vulcan at extended range.

On the first raid, the Vulcan was refuelled seven times on the outward journey and once on the return leg.

There's a graphic showing the refuelling plan here:

Wikipedia - Operation Black Buck.


An animation of the refuelling scheme is featured in this video:



This Ch 4 programme was shown in 2012 on the thirtieth anniversary of the Falklands War.

If you have a reasonably fast connection it's worth downloading.
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Last edited by Carruthers; 09-27-2015 at 02:47 PM. Reason: Refuelling ops enumerated
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