Yesterday's War 4 - Untimely Excursions by Gerald Hall

Author:Gerald Hall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-12-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Seven: RAF Bomber Command RAF Whittering August 14, 1957

Air Marshal Cliff Warfield looked over the line of new jet bombers that had entered service in the RAF over the past few years. These advanced aircraft had finally replaced the Avro Lincoln propeller-driven heavy bombers that had entered service at the end of the European War. The Lincoln’s themselves had replaced the war-weary Avro Lancaster’s that had served through most of the war.

The replacement of these obsolete bombers had come none too soon after the events over the Suez showed the extreme vulnerability of such slow aircraft to modern jet fighters. Some of the Lincolns had only been in service a few years before they were consigned to the scrapyard or sold to the air forces of third world nations.

Another man in a flight suit walked up to Air Marshal Warfield at a jaunty pace. Even though he wore the insignia of a squadron leader on his flight suit, the newcomer appeared to be at least a decade younger than most of the RAF’s squadron leaders were. At precisely three paces away, the younger man stopped sharply and immediately gave a crisp salute.

“Squadron Leader Albert Connelly reporting, SIR!”

Air Marshal Warfield chuckled for a moment before saying ‘At ease, Squadron Leader.”

“Good afternoon, Sir. It’s been a long time since I was addressing you as Squadron Leader.” Albert laughed.

“Yes, indeed. You just one of my junior Lancaster pilots back then. God, we were both so young back then.”

“Yes, Sir. We were quite young then, as were so many of own fellow pilots. I remember them all, especially the ones who didn’t make it back after those long nighttime bombing missions over Germany.” A hint of sadness invaded the squadron leader’s voice.

“I miss them too. We now have a new crop of young pilots. They are just as eager as we were too.”

“Only their Valiant jet bombers fly far faster than our old Lancasters, don’t they, Sir?”

“Yes, they do. Our latest bomber types will be even faster still. The new Vulcan bomber is a joint venture between Avro and Miles Aviation that is just entering RAF service. Look out over there towards the end of the runway, Albert.”

Just as the Air Marshal spoke, a brand new Vulcan bomber became visible on final approach. The light grey-painted bomber seemed massive as it gracefully flew closer. Its thin delta wing seemed massive as it extended beyond the two powerful jet engines buried within the wing roots on each side of the fuselage. The fuselage extended beyond the wing roots with a distinctive hump on top of the nose where the crew compartment was located. All moving canard foreplanes were mounted along the upper edge of the cockpit hump.

A subtle narrowing of the fuselage at the thickest point of the wing revealed the use of area rule design to reduce the effects of compressibility. Long landing gear legs extended down from the wings and under the cockpit. Shortly before the aircraft reached the runway threshold, the

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