Vickers Valiant

Vickers-Armstrongs · United Kingdom · first flew 1951 · bomber

The first of Britain's V-bombers to enter service, a clean swept-wing jet that dropped the UK's first atomic and hydrogen test bombs.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — Wings	High-mounted, swept
E — Engines	4 × turbojet, embedded-mounted
F — Fuselage	Clean moderately swept wing set high on the fuselage
T — Tail	Conventional

WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.

Spot it by:

Clean moderately swept wing set high on the fuselage
Four Avon turbojets buried in pairs in the wing roots
Conventional tail with the tailplane mounted low on the fin

The cleanest and most conventional of the V-bombers: a high swept wing with buried engines and a normal low-set tailplane, lacking the Victor's crescent wing or the Vulcan's delta.

Specifications

The Vickers Valiant has a length of 33 m (108 ft).
It has a wingspan of 34.9 m (114 ft).
Its maximum speed is 912 km/h (567 mph).
Typical crew: 5.

Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.

History

Vickers' Type 660 first flew in 1951 and entered RAF service in 1955, the earliest and most conventional of the three V-bombers. It carried out the UK's first operational atomic-bomb drop over Maralinga and the first British hydrogen-bomb tests at Christmas Island.

Variants

The main B.1 bomber spawned photo-reconnaissance, tanker and the one-off B.2 low-level prototype. Most aircraft served in pathfinder, reconnaissance and air-refuelling tanker roles alongside the bomber fleet.

Where you'll see it

A frontline RAF V-bomber, the Valiant also flew conventional bombing during the 1956 Suez crisis. The entire fleet was grounded and scrapped in 1965 after fatigue cracks were found in the wing spars, ending its career abruptly.

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