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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1217.PDF
FLIGHT, 31 August 1956 HANDLEY PAGE, LTD. Claremont Road, Cricklewood, London, N.W.2.Telephone: Gladstone 8000 PowerpUnt Four AmMtroag SidddcySapphire Span ... 110ft Length"' '.'.'. ... lMft llin Victor. The production version of the Victor B.I bomber is barely distinguishable fromthe first prototype—a tribute to the basic "rightness" of the design. In detail, however, the two aircraft differ greatly. The production machine is powered by four very advancedArmstrong Siddeley Sapphire turbojets. The fuselage has been lengthened and the vertical tail is of notably cleaner design, with a much smaller root intake and a revised form of"acorn" at the junction of fin and tailplane. Additional transparent areas have been added in the roof of the flight deck, and subtle changes are discernible in the modelling of theintakes, the fuselage profile and the crescent wing. The filling and grinding of all external surfaces, coupled with the employment of sandwich-type construction, give the Victor anexceptionally smooth surface. There are many removable panels in the dorsal surface of the fuselage, which doubtless admit the grab of a crane for the loading of weapons.Beneath the cockpit floor is an exceedingly large dielectric area and in the rear fuselage is a corresponding area. Together these are presumed to serve an advanced radar bombingsystem. Stick aerials project from above and below the rear fuselage, and a small fixed tailplane is fitted to act as a bumper. The design philosophy underlying the Victor's crescent wing has frequently beenexpounded in Flight. It may be recalled here that the outermost panels of the wing have "droop-snoot" leading-edge flaps, each in two sections; the rearward-moving trailing-edgeflaps are shaped to the jet-nacelle contours, and there are large hinged air-brake panels on the tail cone to increase drag for deceleration in flight and upon landing. The poweredcontrols have progressive feel simulation. Internal bomb capacity is obviously very great and additional bombs may be carried in streamlined conuiners beneath the wings. The installation of Rolls-Royce Conway by-pass engines is probably intended, with aview to improving the already-notable range. Of the present Victor the Supply Minister has said, "So far as we can judge, when the Victor gets into the hands of the R.A.F. itwill be the equal in hitting power of any bomber in the world." Deliveries are imminent.
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