Avro Vulcan Near-crash Landing

Vulcan at the opening of Wellington airport, circa late 50's, (will check date and re-post)narrowly avoiding scattering itself down the runway.
Possibly filmed by the National Film Unit.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• avro
• vulcan
• jet
• bomber
• crash
• landing
• wellington
• airport
• airshow
• airplane
• vintage
• aircraft
• new
• zealand
• historic
• movie
• footage

[Sqdrn1]

All very 'hurrah' and very British...what they don't say is that the pilots then released the ejection canopy ( I am led to believe and just in case of course) , but weel reported... the crew at rear ( who could not eject ) came forward and pushed the safety pins back into the ejection seats - telling the pilots by such means that - "quite frankly their company remained desireable- whatever the outcome". One cannot help but feel such action must encourage pilots to do their absolute best!

[tweetingsparrow]

@Sqdrn1 I have read elsewhere that the crew was fairly expendable and no provision for escape was provided. I guess they had 'chutes, but trying to bail out of a jet bomber going downhill at 500+ knots was probably not a feasible option either. NZ still very much a 'colony' at this point too, hence the BBC-style voices.

[MrWhelts]

@tweetingsparrow They had an entry hatch that came down and formed a slide under the cockpit. Halfway down the 'slide' they had to put their arm out and hook around the hatch strut and pivot around so as not to hit other parts of the airframe!!! Not something I would have liked to do.

[tweetingsparrow]

@MrWhelts all sounds bloody awkward.

[wolfe1970]

holly crap, even the wing tip struck the ground, great piloting to recover from that !!

[MrWhelts]

@tweetingsparrow Not as awkward as sliding down the hatch and going straight into the nose wheel haha. Must admit, I am glad I never had to use it.

[Sqdrn1]

@tweetingsparrow Yes. non flying crew could leave by 'traditional means' through a hatch directly before the nose leg u/c leg.. nmot practical when extended. I guess ti8nking was ... if low enough to extend gear one was too low to bail anyway. Makes sense but for pilots option to depart on rockets upward! Interesting comment on colonies. Harsh to say but a corsican chum claims current lack of popluous there stems from French use of their colonies before mainlanders as wartime 'canon fodder'

[SiliconBong]

I'm getting into a cheaper flat in the next couple of weeks, tweetingsparrow, so every cloud has a silver lining, Speaking of which it's slow and steady heavy drizzle at the moment, at least it's not windy though. Monday tomorrow, sigh, think it'll be a decent working week so I might be able to afford some scotch for christmas :)

[tweetingsparrow]

@SiliconBong after 10+ years of developing a property and having no spare coin it makes a change to be able to afford cheese and tomato juice. As my other half said, this trip will pay off some bills, maybe the next one will save some dollars. Still driving a 23-year old Holden. Need to finish my computing diploma for a start, those pieces of paper make a world of difference and give you some credit.

[SiliconBong]

What you get before tax in one day is what I can expect after tax in one week, tweetingsparrow. Admittedly it would be an easy week; less than forty hours work, but after taking off rent and buying some groceries anything that's left disappears into electricity and telephone and the occasional drop of whisky :)