BEags
Glad you enjoyed the reminiscence. I think there is a great difference between the steady state approach case and the flare with any of the deltas. In free air it is pretty obvious that a flapped delta will fly more slowly than one which is not – all other things being equal. But in the flare I suspect things start to get quite type related because of the nature of the ground effect. I remember Brian Trubshaw saying how easy it was to stuff the wheels down hard into the ground if you pulled instinctively at the last moment, whereas if you just waited, the ground effect reduced the rate of descent at constant attitude. I never noticed the driving the wheels downward effect on the Vulcan but that beauty had a very low wing loading and a very steep lift curve gradient, so a very small nose up change produced a huge amount of lift. In fact the Vulcan was the only aeroplane I have never felt short of lift in whatever the height or speed. In difficulty with lateral and directional control especially at low speed yes, but short of lift never.
Your idea about a bit of wire may well have been true! They are a very practical bunch. I always like the story (which had a terrible ring of truth) that when the early cosmonauts and astronauts were finding their biros did not work in zero g NASA started a multi-million dollar exercise to sort out the biro while the Russians used a pencil.