...said nav was pinned out in the garden using convenient croquet hoops; his buddies seemed to think that was just desserts, so left him there for quite a while...
Our UAS girls did something similar to one of the UAS male students who they'd caught doing a Peeping Tom on their accommodation at one summer camp. After completing croquet hoop crucifixion, a garden hose was inserted up his trouser leg, followed by several bowls full of dirty washing up water via a funnel attached to the other end.
We QFIs merely looked the other way....
JF, I did like the idea of the heroic P1127 test pilot driving to work in a 100E! Even brand new, it was blessed with a mere 36bhp (the 100E, that is!) and I can't believe that the ally head and twin SUs reduced the 0-60 in 29.4s time by very much. How ever did the extra gearbox thing work? You're right about those wipers though - a penumatic tank driven by inlet manifold pressure powered the things. I use the word 'powered' rather generously. As you put your foot down in an attempt to pass something (bicycle, horse, pedestrian or perhaps a pre-war Austin 7), despite optimistic pneumatic hissing from the engine bay, they would slow down completely until almost stopped - just what you need when trying to overtake in pouring rain. Lift off again and they would thrash themselves in a mad frenzy - we often had to recover the passenger side wiper from over the Somerset hedges! As for 'brakes'.....they really were pretty awful.
Yes, Black Buck should be a good docudrama whern Ch4 release it. Much of the filming was done using XM655 at Wellesbourne Mountford as it is far more representative of XM607 than any other surviving Vulcan able to be powered up.