Aircraft Design
The first V aircraft I was on was the Mk1 Victor which was, for its time, quite sophisticated with a very elaborate ac electrical system. I think that this aeroplane was in many ways over-engineered. An example of that was the extendable nose flaps which had coefficient of lift detectors that extended the nose flaps automatically in adverse circumstances but which were a nuisance. Eventually Handley Page riveted them to a permanently out position.
The Mk 2 Vulcan was much more robust but by then lessons had been learned from earlier models.
I served at Honington which had Valiants and we claimed that they were built by Vickers using the same materials and staff that they used for submarines, when demand for subs was slack.
Interestingly the Lockheed Neptune which we were using at the beginning of the 50's had immeasurably better electronics equipment than the RAF was using. The later Shackletons didn't really match up to the P2V5 in many respects. I believe that these Neptunes eventually found there to the Argentinian Air Force/Navy and were on the go at the time of the Falklands war but can't state that as definite.