Vulcan versus Aircraft Carrier
Many of my flights in the Vulcan out of Boscombe Down in the mid 50s were to achieve clearances of stores out of the weaopon bay. So it was one day after having released a full load of inert 500 pounders through cloud into the restricted area in Lyme Bay off southern England my OC Flying occupying the right seat expressed a desire to have a look at the coast line.
As we broke through cloud in the area where we had released the bombs there in all its glory was a lilttle old aircraft carrier. We knew it wasn't supposed to be there and I'll never know how close the bombs went. Now annoyed by the unauthorised penetration of our drop zone I decided to have a closer look and identify the intruder.
Lining up for about a 3 mile final I dropped the gear and set up an approach. At about a mile we began to see that it was firing its guns and it became obvious that it had entered the restricted are for gun firing practice. Guns soon went tight and I continued the approach pondering whether to touch the deck with the right gear. But I was wary that there may be some antennas in the way so gave it a little clearance. Over the deck at about 130 Kts I slammed the throttles whilst rotating for a pull up hoping that no one would be blown overboard. Those Olympus engines could spool up in about 2 seconds. Maybe they lost some loose items in receiving such a rebuff from the RAF. The admirals did apologise for the unauthorised intrusion
I would dearly like to hear from anyone who was on the deck of that carrier at the time.
By the way there were no flaps on Vulcan - just a lot of wing.