Handley Page Victor

The Handley Page Victor is a British jet-powered strategic bomber developed and produced by Handley Page during the Cold War. It was the third and final 'V bomber' to be operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF), the other two being the Vickers Valiant and the Avro Vulcan.

Entering service in 1958, the Victor was initially developed as part of the United Kingdom's airborne nuclear deterrent. It was retired from the nuclear mission in 1968, following the discovery of fatigue cracks, which had been exacerbated by the RAF's adoption of a low-altitude flight profile to avoid interception. The pending introduction of the Royal Navy's submarine-launched Polaris missiles in 1969 meant a large bomber force would no longer be needed, and the decision was made to retire the Victors from front-line service in favour of the Vulcan.

A number of Victors were modified for strategic reconnaissance, using a combination of radar, cameras, and other sensors. Prior to the introduction of Polaris, some had already been converted into tankers to replace similar converted Valiants. Further tanker conversions followed and in 1982 some of these re-purposed Victors refuelled Vulcan bombers during the Black Buck raids of the Falklands War. The Victor was the last of the V-bombers to be retired from service on 15 October 1993. The Victor was replaced by Vickers VC10 and Lockheed Tristar tankers.

Development

Origins

thumb|Painting of test Victor B1 XA918 by artist and former Handley Page employee Peter Coombs

The origin of the Victor and the other V bombers is linked to the early British atomic weapons programme and nuclear deterrent policies that were developed after the Second World War. The atom bomb programme formally began with Air Staff Operational Requirement OR.1001 issued in August 1946, which anticipated a government decision in January 1947 to authorise research and development work on atomic weapons; the US Atomic Energy Act of 1946 (McMahon Act) prohibited the export of atomic knowledge, even to countries that had collaborated on the Manhattan Project. OR.1001 envisaged a weapon not to exceed in length, in diameter, in weight, and suitable for release from to .

At the same time, the Air Ministry drew up requirements for bombers to replace the piston-engined heavy bombers such as the Avro Lancaster and the new Avro Lincoln which equipped RAF Bomber Command. In January 1947, the Ministry of Supply distributed Specification B.35/46 to aviation companies to satisfy Air Staff Operational Requirement OR.229 for "a medium range bomber landplane capable of carrying one bomb to a target from a base which may be anywhere in the world". A cruising speed of at heights between and was specified. The maximum weight when fully loaded ought not to exceed . The weapons load was to include a "Special gravity bomb" (i.e. a free-fall nuclear weapon), or over shorter ranges of conventional bombs. No defensive weapons were to be carried, the aircraft relying on its speed and altitude to avoid opposing fighters.

The similar OR.230 required a "long range bomber" with a radius of action at a height of , a cruising speed of , and a maximum weight of when fully loaded. Responses to OR.230 were received from Short Brothers, Bristol, and Handley Page; the Air Ministry recognised that developing an aircraft to meet these stringent requirements would have been technically demanding and so expensive that the resulting bomber could be purchased only in small numbers. Realising that the majority of likely targets would not require such a long range, a less demanding specification for a medium-range bomber, Air Ministry Specification B.35/46 was issued. This demanded the ability to carry the same 10,000 lb bomb-load to a target away at a height of at a speed of . Aviation author Bill Gunston described the Victor's compound-sweep crescent wing as having been "undoubtedly the most efficient high-subsonic wing on any drawing board in 1947". The sweep and chord of the wing decreased in three distinct steps from the root to the tip, to ensure a constant critical Mach number across the entire wing and consequently a high cruise speed. The other parts of the aircraft which accelerate the flow, the nose and tail, were also designed for the same critical mach number so the shape of the HP.80 had a constant critical mach number all over. The profile and shaping of the crescent wing was subject to considerable fine-tuning and alterations throughout the early development stages, particularly to counter unfavourable pitching behaviour in flight.

The HP.80 and Avro's Type 698 were chosen as the best two of the proposed designs to B.35/46, and orders for two prototypes of each were placed. It was recognised, however, that there were many unknowns associated with both designs, and an order was also placed for Vickers' design, which became the Valiant. Although not fully meeting the requirements of the specification, the Valiant design posed little risk of failure and could therefore reach service earlier. The HP.80's crescent wing was tested on a ⅓-scale glider, the HP.87, and a heavily modified Supermarine Attacker, which was given the Handley Page HP.88 designation. The HP.88 crashed on 26 August 1951 after completing only about thirty flights and little useful data was gained during its brief two months of existence. By the time the HP.88 was ready, the HP.80 wing had changed such that the former was no longer representative. The design of the HP.80 had sufficiently advanced that the loss of the HP.88 had little effect on the programme.

Two HP.80 prototypes, WB771 and WB775, were built. WB771 had been partially assembled at the Handley Page factory at Radlett airfield when the Ministry of Supply decided the runway was too short for the first flight. The aircraft parts were transported by road to RAF Boscombe Down where they were assembled for the first flight; bulldozers were used to clear the route and create paths around obstacles. Sections of the aircraft were hidden under wooden framing and tarpaulins printed with "GELEYPANDHY / SOUTHAMPTON" to make it appear as a boat hull in transit. GELEYPANDHY was an anagram of "Handley Pyge", marred by a signwriter's error. On 24 December 1952, piloted by Handley Page's chief test pilot Hedley Hazelden, WB771 made its maiden flight, which lasted for a total of 17 minutes. Ten days later, the Air Ministry announced the aircraft's official name to be Victor.