AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 83 / 119

Plate 83 of 119 · Early jet age · V-bomber and tanker

Vickers Valiant

Valiant B(K).1, painted as XD818, a Vickers Valiant B(K).1 four-jet strategic bomber and tanker of the Royal Air Force, the first of the V-bombers, powered by four Rolls-Royce Avon turbojets buried in the wing roots, which as an aircraft of No. 49 Squadron dropped Britain’s first live hydrogen bomb over the Pacific during Operation Grapple on 15 May 1957 and is the only complete Valiant left, kept by the Royal Air Force Museum Midlands at Cosford; painted as it is shown there: anti-flash white overall with pale roundels in thin pale blue and pale pink on the rear fuselage, the serial ‘XD818’ in thin pale-blue letters high aft of each roundel, the No. 49 Squadron badge and the Grapple crew list on the port nose, red blanks in the four intakes and the two 1,650-gallon underwing tanks on their pylons; no photograph shows the wing surfaces as displayed, so the wing roundels and underwing serials are left off, the starboard serial follows standard RAF practice, and the main-gear track and tank dimensions are estimated from photographs.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as XD818, a Vickers Valiant B(K).1 four-jet strategic bomber and tanker of the Royal Air Force, the first of the V-bombers, powered by four Rolls-Royce Avon turbojets buried in the wing roots, which as an aircraft of No. 49 Squadron dropped Britain’s first live hydrogen bomb over the Pacific during Operation Grapple on 15 May 1957 and is the only complete Valiant left, kept by the Royal Air Force Museum Midlands at Cosford; painted as it is shown there: anti-flash white overall with pale roundels in thin pale blue and pale pink on the rear fuselage, the serial ‘XD818’ in thin pale-blue letters high aft of each roundel, the No. 49 Squadron badge and the Grapple crew list on the port nose, red blanks in the four intakes and the two 1,650-gallon underwing tanks on their pylons; no photograph shows the wing surfaces as displayed, so the wing roundels and underwing serials are left off, the starboard serial follows standard RAF practice, and the main-gear track and tank dimensions are estimated from photographs. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.1 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Valiant B(K).1 modelled here.

History

The Valiant B(K).1

The Air Ministry wanted a jet bomber that could carry Britain’s atomic bomb, and in the late 1940s it ordered two advanced designs, the Victor and the Vulcan. Both looked likely to take years, so it also accepted a more conventional design from George Edwards at Vickers as an insurance. The Valiant had a shoulder-mounted wing swept more steeply inboard than outboard, with its four Avon engines buried in the wing roots. The prototype first flew from Wisley on 18 May 1951, and the first squadron formed in 1955, well before the other two V-bombers.

Valiants dropped Britain’s first live atomic bomb at Maralinga in Australia in October 1956, and in the same month they became the first V-bombers to go to war, bombing Egyptian airfields with conventional bombs during the Suez crisis. In 1957 they dropped the bombs of the Grapple hydrogen-bomb tests over the Pacific. Later aircraft were built as B(K).1s that could be fitted out as tankers, and No. 214 Squadron used them to develop the RAF’s air-to-air refuelling, with non-stop flights to Cape Town and Singapore.

From 1963 the Valiant switched to low-level flying to get under Soviet missiles, and the extra stress showed. In August 1964 a crack was found in a wing spar of one aircraft, and inspection showed fatigue across the fleet. Repairing it was judged not worth the cost, and the Valiant was withdrawn in January 1965. Of 107 built, only XD818 survives complete; nose sections are kept at Brooklands, IWM Duxford and Morayvia.

This airframe

B(K).1 XD818

XD818The airframe modelled

XD818 joined No. 49 Squadron and on 15 May 1957, flown by Wing Commander Kenneth Hubbard, dropped Britain’s first live hydrogen bomb, Short Granite, off Malden Island in the Pacific during Operation Grapple. Retired with the rest of the fleet in 1965, it is the only complete Valiant left, and the Royal Air Force Museum shows it at Cosford in the National Cold War Exhibition. The model shows it as photographed there: anti-flash white overall with pale pink and blue roundels on the rear fuselage, a thin pale-blue serial, the No. 49 Squadron badge and the Grapple crew list on the port nose, red blanks in its intakes and two large underwing fuel tanks. No photograph shows its wing surfaces as displayed, so the wing roundels are left off.

See it at Royal Air Force Museum Midlands

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Valiant B(K).1 in 4 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 119 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.