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Old 16th May 2011, 10:36
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ian16th
 
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PN,

Yes indeed the Valiant squadrons filled the Sunspot role before the Vulcan.
Though they were for a period of 6 weeks not 2 months.
I did a Sunspot in Sept/Oct 1959 with 214 Sqdn. We had converted to Tankers and were carrying out the proving trials. Someone had forgotten to take us off the roster! When it was pointed out to Command/Group that we had bomb bays full of HDU, we were told that we had to go anyway as it was too late to ready a different squadron.
It was during that Sunspot that we lost XD869. Never did a detachment have such a 'mood swing'. The rest of the trip was really miserable.
See: http://www.pprune.org/military-aircr...am-1959-a.html

As for Valiant's surviving the scrapping of 1965. One of 214's a/c, XD816, spent a lot of time at Boscome Down being the 1st a/c to be fitted with an HDU. as a result it spent a lot of time in the hangar and had very low flying hours. This a/c took part in the fly past at the closing of Bomber Command.
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