V Force Operational Readiness Platforms?
 

Morning All

Got another question on the V Force, why did they only have the Operational Readiness Platforms for 4 aircraft at the one end of the runway, and not both ends. With using runway 21 one day and 03 the next.
If using 03 this would have meant a slower get away for 4 aircraft that had been scrambled.

Cheers ( Vulcan Nut!! )
Glider 90

I would guess at the prevailing winds normally westerly in the UK.
If,in the event of a scramble when the wind was favouring the other end, the rule book would have gone out of the window!
I would imagine, certainly with the later Mk2 V's, there would an excess of power to compensate for any headwind?

I think the answer would be the infrastructure that accompanied the ORP's. There were the railway carriage like sleeping accommodation and the eating place and cookhouse etc.

ACW

...if indeed the QRA aircraft were parked on the ORP at the time.

Oops- wrong way round!

BGG @ #3

With the Victor K1/1A it was !!!!!!

Curvature of the Earth essential even on a cool day.

Example ... EGXW was on RW21 for probably 90% of the year. Ignoring the QRA infrastructure aspects mentioned above, it would essentially be a waste of good concrete. ;)

The ORP was not regularly occupied even during the days of V Force 24/7/365 QRA. The loaded aircraft were parked on a nearby H Dispersal. At Waddo I think it was near where the E3s now live. They only moved to the ORP at certain readiness and alert states. When the ORP was occupied there were limits on routine flying ( was it cross wind?)

The ‘H’ dispersal likely to have been Bravo, being nearest to the ESA (and the ORP).

QRA was on Alpha, behind the Ops Block.

YS

Yes, I remember seeing the 10,000 ft marker at Darwin (en route to Tengah) before hearing ‘rotate’ !

The ORP was relevant to force generation rather than to QRA.

QRA at Waddo 64
 

Obviously, Q at Waddo was located on the pans nearest to the aircrew feeder ....by necessity. (Back of Ops Block) 🍳😆

At the time, many of my 'short holiday breaks' with my mate Micky Finn, we were accommodated in portakabin type sheds alongside the ORP. Quite noisy!

At Waddo I saw the ORPs used several times for practice or demo scrambles as my section was overlooking the end of the runway. but perhaps my most memorable was the filming of Thunderball when, IIRC, the systems trainer next to us was also full of Luvvies for a week....

I will never forget those somber tones coming out of the tannoy at some ungodly hour...

"THIS IS THE BOMBER CONTROLLER......."

Spooky even now. 🙉

(Recommended further reading for the over sixties - The Secret State.)

On Victor 1s I often wished the rear crew had been supplied with pedals to assist the take-off! I certainly wouldn't have fancied our chances taking off with a tailwind on a hot summer's day.

Great aircraft once it was in the air - it was getting there that was sometimes a problem.

Victor 1s at Tengah only tried to take off early in the day. The next task was to send someone out to untangle the upwind arrester barrier, which obviously had to be in the down position for the takeoff. They used almost all of Tengah's 9,000 ft.

Thanks for clarification of Waddington's Q arrangements. That task had long gone by the time I got there (1981), so everything 'launched' from the various Sqn Dispersals (B, C, D, E). during Exercises. Any extra aircraft generated would usually be on A, while F remained usually empty for visiting ac.

There might be something of interest to the OP in these old threads.

https://www.pprune.org/military-avia...t=V-force+ORPs

https://www.pprune.org/military-avia...t=V-force+ORPs

https://www.pprune.org/aviation-hist...t=V-force+ORPs

My understanding of the terminology is that the V-force had specifically constructed and fully-serviced QRA pans, in which each segment (of up to four) held one aircraft.

The term ORP - Operational Readiness Platform - was an earlier, more generalised un-serviced hard strip fully contiguous with the runway end, on which you could park as many fighters as you could squeeze in. Fighter Command airfields might theoretically have as many ORPs as runway ends - and some not even at the end, if the runway was later lengthened .

LFH

...........

Should the balloon have gone up (or at least being inflated) the V force would have been bolted far and wide, presumably including civvy airports. Was there any extra concrete laid at civvy airports to accommodate the V's? Thinking about it, it would have rather given the game away re the location of bolt holes but was wondering.

The 4 dispersals I had the pleasure of visiting with Micky F (see earlier) were Thurleigh; Macrihanish, Brawdy and Filton. A quick look at the latest google maps shows that evidence of additional work still exists. however filton is not entirely clear. I cant remember where the jets were parked there - we were billeted in the old wartime RAF huts long since gone. there still appears to be a teardrop shaped hardstanding near western end which could probably take up to 4 vulcans.

Brawdy shows 2 slots, Macrihanish 2 and Thurleigh 4.

I seem to recall that someone said on PRUNE that no V Bomber had ever flown with a bomb loaded, except for the Valiants in Operation Grapple.

If the above is true, not that I doubt it, the question must be asked how did the required weapons get to the dispersal airfields? It is a long journey by lorry to some of the dispersal sites.

Of course I understand that a Bucaneer was seen flying with a loaded weapon.