FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1959
1959 - 2812.PDF
FLIGHT, 463 30 October 1959 VICTOR A TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION OF BRITAIN'S LATEST V-BOMBER I N 1945 a technical team composed of representatives from theaircraft industry and Ministry of Aircraft Production visitedGermany to study that country's work on swept wing and tail- less aeroplanes. Included in the team was Mr. G. H. Lee, now deputy chief designer of Handley Page Ltd. In the following year his company made a proposal to the Air Ministry for a swept- wing four-jet bomber. The evidence from Germany upon sweep- back, both plain and compound, had inspired the Cricklewood designers to consolidate their previous schemes for a tailless jet bomber into a design with a tailplane and a swept wing of high aspect ratio having wing-tip rudders. This project was planned round four 6,500 lb RoUs-Royce AJ.65 engines and was to have had a gross weight of 90,000 Ib; the span was 122ft and the length 92ft, and with a bomb load of 10,000 1b it was estimated to have a still-air range of 5,000 statute miles at 520 m.p.h. at 50,000ft. The original specification of the V-bombers is still classified secret, but has been generally rumoured to have a similar level of per- formance. It was issued on January 1, 1947. Such a specification posed a formidable challenge, and it was met by attacking the problems with two teams, under the co- ordinating control of Mr. R. S. Stafford (now technical director); these teams comprised an airframe and systems group under Mr. C. F. Joy (now chief designer) and an aerodynamic one under Mr. Lee. The original layout was, in the natural course of design (i.e., compromise) to lose its wing-tip vertical surfaces, grow a full tail and become increasingly crescent-shaped in plan-form. By January 1948, the cut-and-thrust of performance and possibility had evolved the H.P. 80s with a three-stage crescent mid-wing, leading-edge flaps outboard, a cylindrical fuselage and mid-high tailplane. At this stage a design contract was awarded by the M.o.S., and four 7,500 1b Metrovick F.9 axials (progenitor of the Sapphire) were chosen. By the following year the tailplane had been raised and the final design became substantially as we know the Victor today—or at least as the prototype B.I WB771, which flew on Christmas Eve 1952—and two prototypes with Armstrong Siddeley Sapphires were ordered. The production contract was placed late in 1952. During the early development erf the final layout the proportions of the crescent sections were modified in conformity with runnel results. It was also at this stage that dihedral was added to the tail to increase the effective fin area. Apart from a lengthened fuselage and a slight change in fin area, the production Mk 1, WHAT follows is perhaps die most elaborate description of a modernairframc which we have yet published. The subject is the Handley Page Victor bomber, and the text refers specifically to the Mk 2 version,differences from the Mk 1 being noted where they occur. Owing to security considerations little can be said about the electronics, fuel systemand military equipment Previous articles on the Victor include "The Crescent Wing" ("Flight," January 9, 1953) and "Parade of Victors"("Flight," September 19, 1958). with the 11,000 lb Sapphire ASSa.7, is essentially similar. Blackburn and General Aircraft, under contract from Handley Page, used an Attacker fuselage as the basis for a research aircraft with a crescent wing (to the original proportions) and a high tail; it was then designated H.P.88 but the aircraft crashed in 1951 before very much had been learned from it. Another setback in development was the loss of the first prototype Victor in a low- level run at Cranfield on July 14, 1954, as a result of tail flutter. The second prototype WB775 flew on September 11, 1954, and the first production B.I XA917 followed on February 1,1956. In June 1957 a speed slightly in excess of Mach 1 was reached in a shallow dive. Deliveries to No. 2 O.C.U. began in November 1957 and the first aircraft were in operational service by the spring of last year. (A report in Flight for September 19, 1958, stated: "No. 10 Sqn. is at full strength, No. 232 O.C.U. at Gaydon is training crews, No. 15 Sqn. is farming^ and some Victors have already joined a reconnaissance unit at Wyton.") The Victor B.Mk 2 made its first flight on February 20 of diis year. The installation of Rolls-Royce Conways (almost three times the thrust of the original Sapphires) has necessitated larger intakes, and IOft has been added to the span to match the thrust and raise the operational ceiling; but otherwise the original design remains unaltered in all its essential features. Aerodynamic Design In all aeroplanes the efficiency of performance is primarily dependent upon wing design, and where long range is required die wing is paramount. The designer of a bomber has an advantage over the designer of an airliner because he has a far less demand- ing payload. Even a megaton store and its associated services is as nothing compared with the drag of a passenger fuselage. The first design objective for the Victor was to evolve an envelope with a constant critical Mach number over its entire surface. That is to say, the curvatures which locally accelerate the airflow to the point where the shockwave drag rises sharply
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
