When the as-yet-unnamed Avro Vulcan made its public display debut at the 1952 Farnborough Airshow (incredibly, a mere two days after its first flight on August 30), it caused one overawed aviation journalist to admit to “eerie sensations and a feeling that [it was] extra-terrestrial, manned by species hitherto unknown to man.”
It’s easy to imagine the open-mouthed amazement that would have greeted the Type 698 Vulcan prototype VX770 – fast, noisy, delta-shaped and gleaming white – among enthusiasts used to seeing sedate bombers like Avro Lincolns and Lancasters. Yet, five years earlier on August 23, 1947, the concept that would eventually become the Vulcan almost died along with its chief inspiration. Avro’s design guru Roy Chadwick was among those killed when the Avro Tudor 2 prototype that he was travelling in crashed shortly after take-off from the company’s Woodford, Cheshire base.
Tasked with creating a strategic jet bomber, and knowing that several rival companies such as Handley Page and Vickers were similarly engaged, Chadwick had already presented models of a delta-winged jet to the Air Ministry. These radical designs were taken seriously, but perhaps only because of the Avro man’s impeccable track record.
When the m…
