Mayday, Mayday.............

Post by **Trev Clark** » 01 May 2007, 15:51

.................is today

Sorry :redface:

petermcleland · Post by **petermcleland** » 01 May 2007, 16:27

On this day a quarter of a century ago, a Vulcan dropped a stick of bombs on Stanley airport...One hit the runway and the others walked off into the wilderness. That was at dawn and just a little later the Harriers made their first raid on the Falkland Islands, inflicting a fair amount of damage on Stanley airport and one other airstrip with many parked aircraft damaged or destroyed and many buildings left burning. David Morgan who was flying the last Harrier to bore across Stanley at near zero feet, stopped a cannon shell in the tail. This made a "bloody great hole" in the tail and it was considered that the "Reation Controls" were probably damaged. He therefore made the very first RVL (rolling vertical landing) at sea. He made a good job of it and the Hermes "Goofers" were impressed.

Later that evening Brian Hanrahan made his famous report which ended:-

"I'm not allowed to say how many planes joined the raid, but I counted them all out and I counted them all back"

Post by **Trev Clark** » 01 May 2007, 18:31

..........as a recently qualified 'Forces Veteran', that makes me feel even older Peter, it seems only a few years ago!

petermcleland · Post by **petermcleland** » 01 May 2007, 18:50

calypsos wrote:..........as a recently qualified 'Forces Veteran', that makes me feel even older Peter, it seems only a few years ago!

Well, I watched most of it from my hospital bed, having just had a discectomy. But as you know my wife was pretty involved and is receiving a certain amount of publicity and also has a pretty busy schedule during this 25th anniversary period...So I'm just helping out around here as various media people and veterans like Simon Weston seem to take over most of the house

I just keep out of the way up here in my "Flight Deck" mostly :think:

But yes Trev, I know what you mean about time flying and since I retired it seem to pass at about ten times the pace it used to :shock:

Chris558 · Post by **Chris558** » 01 May 2007, 23:32

Here's something I've often wondered; Does any footage of the Vulcan dropping those Bombs exist? Presumably it's classified or something, because I've never seen it on TV.

I'd like to see it, any ideas if it's available?

petermcleland · Post by **petermcleland** » 02 May 2007, 00:00

Chris558 wrote:Here's something I've often wondered; Does any footage of the Vulcan dropping those Bombs exist? Presumably it's classified or something, because I've never seen it on TV.

I'd like to see it, any ideas if it's available?

Chris,

I think it was on its own and at high altitude so who would take the footage

AlexP · Post by **AlexP** » 02 May 2007, 10:01

Peter Wrote

On this day a quarter of a century ago, a Vulcan dropped a stick of bombs on Stanley airport

That very aircraft is still in existence and is current undergoing a repaint. I took a few pictures recently. See below:
http://www.cbfsim.org/cbfsimv5/cbfsbb/v ... php?t=9777

Iâ€™ll try and pop by again soon and see if theyâ€™ve finished.

With luck XM607 will be joined by XH558 at the Waddington Airshow this year. Now there's a photo opportunity I don't want to miss (I may even change my signature pic).

Alex

Motormouse · Post by **Motormouse** » 02 May 2007, 14:30

Gents...please before there are any more mentions of 'only one bomb on the runway'; may I suggest you go and read the book 'Vulcan 607';
fact is, the 'top neddies' knew, with the technology of the Vulcan, and the ballistics of the bombs involved, that only one bomb would be likely to land on the runway, which is why the 'stick' was angled across the runway and not along it.

I was 'on Harriers' at the time, and yes we did reckon the Harriers could have done it better, but having read the book has changed my mind,
its' doubtful if the type of bomb carried by the Harrier would have penetrated the runway to the same depth.

ttfn

Pete

Post by **Garry Russell** » 02 May 2007, 14:40

Just out of interest.......some of the craters are visible on Google Earth

Garry

AndyG · Post by **AndyG** » 02 May 2007, 14:59

Motormouse wrote:Gents...please before there are any more mentions of 'only one bomb on the runway'; may I suggest you go and read the book 'Vulcan 607';
fact is, the 'top neddies' knew, with the technology of the Vulcan, and the ballistics of the bombs involved, that only one bomb would be likely to land on the runway, which is why the 'stick' was angled across the runway and not along it.

The Mouseman speaks the truth. That was standard high altitude 'dumb' bombing procedure and had been since the 1940's; if you angle a stick across you're bound to hit something vital, any other method almost certainly guarantees a miss. Also, dropping from altitude also gives you a nice bit of kinetic energy to add to the package.

The other comment about the Harriers is also spot on. The Israelis found that during the 1967 war, low level bombing of runways ensured accuracy but the bombs either caused only superficial damage or skipped off completely. They began to look at a concrete 'dibber', which eventually matured as the Durandal from Matra.

AndyG