Valiant Aerial
 

This is 90 Squadron's XD826 at Honington, 1960-61. It was formerly with 7 Squadron. The bomb is the casing of a Blue Danube thought to about to be dumped (the graffiti reads 'Uncle Bunkle's Bomb'. Ted Bunkhall was 90 Squadron's Flight Commander at the time and a former next door neighbour when I lived at Honington).

There appears to be an aerial under the tail cone. There is a photo in Eric Morgan's Valiant book (page 125) of XD816 in 1968 with this antenna, and another of XD823 (page 79). In the chapter on our nuclear deterrant there are some drawings (page 75 and 76) of the modified XD818 also with it.

Does anyone have any idea what it might be?

http://i36.tinypic.com/b3wvur.jpg

http://i38.tinypic.com/huq2py.jpg

Could be a tail skid , a la Vulcan?

Or a Static Wick?

Any idea what that gantry thing behind the aircraft is? And the port underwing tank appears to be hinged open?:confused:

I think it is going to be the same as the fitment to the Vulcan, although I believe that it is actually a switch rather than a skid. I.e. it won't prevent damage, but it will illuminate a lamp in the cockpit to let the driver know he's got to get his cheque book out when he disembarks.

What does the caption say - "Get Hat" ?

I cannot remember it and I've had a look at my Valiant pictures and none of them have it either, albeit they were tankers. Not a skid or even a warning as the fuselage would scrape just behind the bomb bay deflector door. (not me guv, 'onest). Not apparant from the picture because the nose was jacked, nosewheel retracted and the nose lowered to fit the bomb in through the back.
The underwing tanks, some 12,500 lbs of fuel each, had their own pumps and nitrogen system installed in the tank nose which is why there is a door there.
A static discarge, possibly, as the orange putter radome was at the extreme aft of the fuselarge, and then found unneccessary.
They only additional ariel added to my knowledge was in about 1963/4 when a trial airborne Tacan station was fitted to assist fighter aircraft to find the tanker. They never got round to fitting it fleetwise before they were scrapped.

This is a gantry attached to a tractor used for loading bombs. The end was placed over the fuselage and a hydraulic ram was lowered through a tube to the bomb bay, attached to the bomb or group of bombs which were then raised and locked into place. You can see how it was handled on the DVD 'Classic British Jets - The Valiant'.

Thanks Hipper and FE Driver, I never knew that bombing up a Valiant was such an arcane procedure. Probably explains, in part anyway, why the Valiants were later dedicated to SACEUR with a couple of smaller bombs?

Good point, Gainsey. The thought had briefly crossed my mind as well. It makes you wonder which came first - Valiant or Blue Danube? If Valiant was designed to carry it (or something at least vaguely similar), then how did the design gain approval when such a laborious loading procedure was necessary?

I guess it might have something to do with the number of times you expected to drop it operationally.

Yes, I suppose it was somewhat a 'one-shot' kind of deal in an operational sense, although it must have been foreseen that even if you do only use it once in anger, there must be many more times that you handle/practice/train/etc with the thing.

Incidentally, how did the Victor fare? His belly was a little low-slung as well, although obviously not quite as low-slung as his chin...

Did such a complicated loading using highly specialised kit restrict the Valiants to their home base rather than dispersing?

That aerial was definitely not on the Tankers and I can not recall any indication of a tail rub in the cockpit.(Except for a scraping noise) We had to land flapless if the hose was stuck out, a not uncommon occurence in those days, and that put the nose up fairly high but I do not remember many, if any, scrapes.

The V force specification called for the carriage of a 10,000 bomb for all three V bombers. On the Valiant the nosewheel was designed to be retracted independently from the nosewheel bay to cater for this. The B29 that carried 'Fat Boy' (Nagasaki) had to be jacked up by the mainwheels to get it in.
As there is a noticeable lack of black Omegas in my part of the woods I can venture the opinion, as a totally disinterested observer that, if the political situation warranted it, they may have been possibly bombed up before they were dispersed.

Something to do with red steer?

Not sure about the 18 Sqn aircraft, but none of the other Valiant squadrons had Red Steer, only the fairly useless Orange Putter.
From the camera angle on the photo of XD 826 it could almost be the starboard wingtip.

I have to agree with NRU74 - it's the wingtip.

I had a look in Photoshop, and if you run a line along the horizon (using the fence line on the right of the image) the measurement upwards from the line to the port wingtip is exactly the same (to within 2 pixels) as the measurement upward to the "aerial".

Phew. Thank God for that. Mystery solved. A wingtip.

I know - I'd have been up all night worrying but now I'll be able to relax. A forty year-old mystery finally laid to rest - hurrah! :}