The Handley Page Victor.
 

Would anyone having had any experiences with the H.P. Victor, in all of its roles, in whatever capacity, care to share any anecdotes with us, please?

The question is a bit broad brush don't you think? What are you really after?

How about:

'Standing your Porch, looking through your letterbox, trying to land your house!'

How about standing in your porch, looking through the letter box, trying to land your house which allegedly lands itself, trying to stop it by opening the back door, which will often fall off and will then have to be put back on from a great height in the pouring rain and never quite fits.

Of course you had to get the darn thing airborne in the first place, if only Freds Shed had actually put intakes in front of the Sapphires instead of more letter boxes then the multi ton budgie might have been less of of a concrete gobbler, thank goodness for the Mk2.

MrBernoulli,
Hopefully a similar response to my other post in M.A., re-The Other E.E. Classic, etc.

Never flew it but took a lot of gas off it.

My favourite recollection of those who operated it was a cryptic comment penned beneath a notice in the planning room at RAF Gan that implored the captains of four-jets to line up at least 1000 feet down the runway in order to avoid damage to the approach lights on engine run-up:

"I will write off the approach lights at one end or the other - which would you prefer?"

Noah Zark,

Sorry, I hadn't NB'd that the Canberra thread was also yours.

Fred was convinced he could make the Victor with semi-skilled labour. He did.

The wing fairing, or whatever, had 4 master holes and the rest were drilled by the hired help using the TLAR technique.

Years later, against stiff competition, BWOS won the contract to rebuild the B2 into K2. The wings had to be shortened, stiffened, and refitted.

They got the first ac in, stripped it, created the plans, and made 25 ship sets. Only one problem. All 25 were identical. All 25 fitted just one aircraft.

Back to the drawing board <g>.

Not unlike the Vulcan bombay doors saga. When they converted a batch of B2s to Blue Steel carriers, they had to replace the bombdoors, because the missile was to be recessed into the bombay. They took off all the doors and carefully chucked them in a heap in a storeroom without noting which doors came from which airframe. Some years later, they had to convert them back to conventional bombers - and guess what, they couldn't match the doors to the aircraft, so they had to manufacture new ones. Guess who footed the bill?

F4 canopies weren't any better!

Pontius Navigator

BWOS did the same with wingboxes for the "new" Nimrod. They took one wingbox and copied it exactly - after being told they were wrong - and made 15. Now one Nimrod has 14 spares!!

Of course when you employ monkies and pay peanuts..............


CC

It was often said that if Fred had known we were going to leave his Victors out in the rain then he would have made them waterproof which they certainly were not until the cabin was pressurized. Water would drip all over the side panels and now and again cause short circuits. One switch on the captains side panel was the "ABANDON AIRCRAFT" switch which put lights on in front of the rear crew and depressurized the cabin and at height that would create a lot of noise as the air escaped. When trundling along on a high level navex one day with an OCU crew that circuit did indeed short and it was only by dint of a lot of shouting that I managed to avoid violating the GASO that stated the Victor could only be operated by a five man crew.

Then there was the Victor crew on the 22 West Borex. Fly out into the Atlantic as far as 22 west, switch on ALL the jammers and hope no one noticed.

On this particular trip all the crew swapped places, the Captain was not up front. The plotter was in one of the bang seats, live but not strapped, and another crew member was in the other. It could have been the co as co's are like what happened next.

Plotter asked "Whats that black and yellow handle" Don't know, came the reply, "pull it and find out"

Now the good news. It didn't work as advertised. The canopy refused to jettison. Now the bad news, it did depressurise.

At the subsequent courts martial they got the plotter, the captain, and the groundcrew. Guilty as charged milud.

Flying from an aierfield in Florida to Goose Bay one day up the Eastern Seabord at FL450.

"Centre, this is RAFAIR 9355. Can we have FL490?."

"Certainly, if you can reach it."

Two minutes later........

"RAFAIR 9355, level 490".

Short Break.

" RAFAIR, this is American xxxx, what sort of airplane (sic) are you?"

"A Victor".

Slightly longer break........

"Say buddy, who makes the Victor?

"Handley Page".

Silence..................................................... ...........!




PS. It was a Mk2.

Just to follow D.W's post, what altitude would a Mk.2 reach in top fettle on a good day?

In it's latter days the K Mk 2 was only cleared to FL 490 because of the way the Mk 17F oxygen regulator would behave if a rapid decomp occurred. The SR version used to go higher - those who flew it will no doubt tell more .....

Wittering in 1967 I think. Sitting on the pan in a 234 Hunter preparing for a practice 50th Royal Review flypast, and this Victor appears from behind the tower at nothing feet - utterly impressive, and flown by the then OC. Anyone remember his name - a real character -------

FL490 was a limit imposed by the MK17 reg as it was a pressure breathing gadget only. RAF rules required some sort of pressure suit to go above that. Prior to conversion to tankers, the B2s and SR2s had the facility to run a pressure jerkin - a partial pressure suit which covered the torso only and allowed the wearer to breathe the high pressure oxy supplied, as well as stopping the wearer's lungs going pop!.

The B2s could get to FL630, the SR2s to FL670 apparently. The K2 (tanker) had shorter wingspans, uprigged ailerons, refuelling pods and underwing tanks on - all of which reduced it's max alt.

I must say that from a non-expert point of view the SR2 FL670 is very impressive!

I got to F630 in an SR2, so I believe F670 although I don't remember the actual limit. What I do remember is being bundled up in Pressure Jerkin, G-suit and old-style immersion suit - two piece job which rolled together in a sort of 'tyre round your middle! Now I look like that without the goon suit...

smartman, that would have been Harry Archer, wouldn't it?