V Bombers

The last Valiant, at Cosford air museum

 Image via Brian Jones

The three V Bombers, Valiant, Victor and the Vulcan, were the mainstay of the RAF for many years, even though the Valiants life was cut short in its prime.

The other two served in a variety of roles for over forty years all over the world.

The Valiant

The first flight was in 1951, and the aircraft went into Squadron service in 1955 with various Squadrons

The Valiant was used in several roles, including Bombing, refueling and photo reconnaissance  Unfortunately due to structural problems in 1965 the whole fleet was scrapped bar one, which is on display at Cosford Air Museum

Images courtesy of Steve Bond

The Victor

The Victor was used much like the Valiant, as a Bomber in the first instance, and with the demise of the Valiant, soon converted into the air to air the refueling role.Eventually even some of the Victor SR2s of 543 Squadron were converted for refueling. The Victors swan song was refueling Vulcans on their bombing runs down to the Falklands which used up a lot of fatigue life and made early retirement inevitable.

Images courtesy of Terry Senior

The Vulcan

The Vulcan had the longest flying life of all three, with XH 558 doing the last ever flight on the 28th October 2015, sixty three years after the first flight.. The Vulcan was used in a variaty of roles, even being pressed into service for air to air refueling.

 Image courtesy of Jim Baker

 Images courtesy of Terry Senior