"March 1944 the squadron converted to the Avro Lancaster, which it used till the end of the war. During 1946 the squadron participated in a goodwill tour of the United States, later returning to RAF Stradishall, due to Graveley's closure. The Lancasters were replaced by Avro Lincolns in September 1949, and the squadron later disbanded on 23 February 1950. On 1 September 1951 the squadron reformed at Marham equipped with the Boeing Washington. In April 1954 the squadron re-equipped with its first jet powered aircraft type, the English Electric Canberra twin engined light bomber. The squadron again disbanded on 11"
"RAF in 1943, the Meteor commenced operations in mid-1944, only some weeks later than the world's first operational jet, the German Messerschmitt Me 262. Crucially, it became the first RAF aircraft with a high enough top speed to enable it to fly alongside V1 flying bombs, tip them under the wing so as to render the V1's gyro incapable of recovery and the V1s crashed prematurely to earth in open countryside before they could reach London. In 1945, a Meteor F Mk.4 prototype, stripped of armament, achieved a World Airspeed Record of with Group Captain H. Wilson at the controls."
"jet propulsion and nuclear weapons. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, an entirely new jet-powered bomber fleet comprising three aircraft, the Vickers Valiant, the Avro Vulcan, and Handley Page Victor, which were collectively known as the V-bombers, were developed and introduced to service with the RAF. The V-bombers were purpose-built to be armed with the first generation of Britain's nuclear weapons, designated as Blue Danube, and served as the airborne carriers of Britain's nuclear deterrence for many years. Even as the V-bombers were being introduced, the RAF had identified a need for a very-long range supersonic strategic reconnaissance aircraft"
"Arado Ar 234 The Arado Ar 234 ""Blitz"" (English: lightning) was the world's first operational jet-powered bomber, built by the German Arado company in the closing stages of World War II. Produced in very limited numbers, it was used almost entirely in the reconnaissance role, but in its few uses as a bomber it proved to be nearly impossible to intercept. It was the last Luftwaffe aircraft to fly over Britain during the war, in April 1945. In late 1940, the Reich Air Ministry (, abbreviated RLM) offered a tender for a jet-powered high-speed reconnaissance aircraft with a range of"
"V bomber The ""V bombers"" were the Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft during the 1950s and 1960s that comprised the United Kingdom's strategic nuclear strike force known officially as the V force or Bomber Command Main Force. The three strategic bombers, known collectively as the ""V class"", were the Vickers Valiant, which first flew in 1951 and entered service in 1955; the Avro Vulcan, which first flew in 1952 and entered service in 1956; and the Handley Page Victor, which first flew in 1952 and entered service in 1958. The V Bomber force reached its peak in June 1964 with"
"made from concrete. The first five Valiants produced were completed to a pre-production standard, the first being WP199. On 21 December 1953, the production aircraft conducted its first flight; this had again occurred within the schedule that Edwards had promised. On 8 February 1955, this first production Valiant was delivered to the RAF. Britain's ""V-bomber"" force, as it had been nicknamed in October 1952, formally entered operational service on that day. The Victor and Vulcan would soon follow the Valiant into service, for a total of three types of nuclear-armed strategic bombers in RAF service. In September 1957, the final"
"events. It will be used as a centrepiece for engineering excellence, showing what an advanced design it was for the period. V bomber The ""V bombers"" were the Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft during the 1950s and 1960s that comprised the United Kingdom's strategic nuclear strike force known officially as the V force or Bomber Command Main Force. The three strategic bombers, known collectively as the ""V class"", were the Vickers Valiant, which first flew in 1951 and entered service in 1955; the Avro Vulcan, which first flew in 1952 and entered service in 1956; and the Handley Page Victor,"
"be placed on the creation of a large bomber force, which would form the spearhead of British offensive power, had been recognised; accordingly, a new command organisation within the RAF, Bomber Command, was formed that year to deliver upon this requirement. In early 1936, an initial prototype, ""K4049"", which was originally designated as a ""Type 271"", was assembled. The prototype could accommodate a payload of nine 250lb or 500lb bombs, and both nose and tail gun positions were fitted with hand-operated turrets furnished with a single gun in each, provisions for a third retractable gun in a dorsal position were"
"11 October 1956, a Valiant B.1 (WZ366) of No 49 Squadron was the first RAF aircraft to drop a British operational atomic bomb when it performed a test drop of a down-rated Blue Danube weapon on Maralinga, South Australia. Windscreen blinds were fitted in advance of the test to protect the crew from the intense flash of light from the nuclear detonation. Following the landing of the aircraft after deploying the weapon, WZ366 was assessed for potential damage and for radioactive contamination. On 15 May 1957, a Valiant B(K).1 (XD818) dropped the first British hydrogen bomb, the Short Granite, over"
"the RAF—in part to keep German defences dispersed, just as there had been raids on areas other than the Ruhr during the battle. The British bomber force consisted mainly of the twin-engined Vickers Wellington medium bomber and the four-engined ""heavies"", the Short Stirling, Handley Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster. The Wellington and Stirling were the two oldest designs and limited in the type or weight of bombs carried. The Stirling was also limited to a lower operational height. Bombers could carry a range of bombs—Medium Capacity bombs of about 50% explosive by weight, High Capacity ""Blockbusters"" that were mostly explosive,"
"25 October 1939. The type went on to become the first four-engined bomber to drop bombs on Germany in World War II. In July 1940, the second RAF Bomber Command Training Group (No. 7 Group RAF) was formed, with its Headquarters at RAF Bicester. This was required due to a demand in operational training, supplying squadrons of No. 2 Group. Throughout the war, RAF Bicester was used as a training centre, and in April 1940 became home to No. 13 Operational Training Unit RAF, under the control of RAF Bomber Command. In June 1943, the unit transferred to Fighter Command,"
"Fireflash Fireflash was the United Kingdom's first air-to-air guided missile to see service with the Royal Air Force. Constructed by Fairey Aviation, the missile utilised radar beam riding guidance. Fireflash had relatively limited performance and required the launching aircraft to approach the target from a limited angle astern. The approximately 500 production Fireflash missilers were mostly expended as a practice system for RAF pilots to familiarize them with missile firing. It was declared operational very briefly in 1957, thus becoming the RAF's first operational air-to-air missile, but was quickly replaced by the de Havilland Firestreak the next year. In 1947,"
"bombers and brought into operational service the bombers usually associated with attacks on German targets in Europe. From November 1940 the four-engined Halifax was introduced, followed by the four-engined Stirling in January 1941 and the under-powered twin-engined Manchester (which had relatively brief operational service before being replaced by the world-famous Lancaster) in February 1941. In November 1941, the fast twin-engined Mosquito light bomber was introduced and finally in March 1942 the four-engined Avro Lancaster came into service. The Vickers Wellington continued in service with RAF Bomber Command in Europe into 1943 although the squadrons were being converted to four-engined bombers."
"Handley Page Victor The Handley Page Victor is a British jet-powered strategic bomber, developed and produced by the Handley Page Aircraft Company, which served during the Cold War. It was the third and final ""V-bomber"" to be operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF), the other two being the Avro Vulcan and the Vickers Valiant. The Victor had been developed as part of the United Kingdom's airborne nuclear deterrent. In 1968, it was retired from the nuclear mission following the discovery of fatigue cracks, which had been exacerbated by the RAF's adoption of a low-altitude flight profile to avoid interception."
"by the world's first operational jet aircraft, the Me 262, in July 1942 and world's first jet-powered bomber, the Arado Ar 234, in June 1943. British developments, like the Gloster Meteor, followed afterwards, but saw only brief use in World War II. The first cruise missile (V-1), the first ballistic missile (V-2), the first (and to date only) operational rocket-powered combat aircraft Me 163—with attained velocities of up to in test flights—and the first vertical take-off manned point-defense interceptor, the Bachem Ba 349 ""Natter"", were also developed by Germany. However, jet and rocket aircraft had only limited impact due to"
"first aircraft to benefit. The next jet bomber to enter service was the Vickers Valiant in 1955, the first of the V bombers. The Air Ministry conceived of the V bombers as the replacement for the wartime Lancasters and Halifaxes. Three advanced aircraft were developed from 1946, along with the Short Sperrin fall-back design. Multiple designs were tried out because no one could predict which designs would be successful at the time. The V bombers became the backbone of the British nuclear forces and comprised the Valiant, Handley Page Victor (in service in 1958) and Avro Vulcan (1956). In 1956"
"size, which were normally of all-metal construction. It was fitted with a 20 mm autocannon in the nose to meet the bomber destroyer part of the requirement, and four defensive Browning machine guns, one each in dorsal, ventral and tail positions, with one capable of being switched between two waist positions. It had a bomb-bay under the centre fuselage capable of carrying up to 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) of bombs. A contract was signed for 16 T.Vs on 7 December 1936, with the first aircraft (not a prototype as such) flying on 16 October 1937 from Schiphol airfield. The first"
"the Quteibi tribe at Thumier in Aden in October 1947. On 25 May 1950, the squadron took delivery of its first English Electric Canberra B2 thereby becoming the RAF’s first jet bomber unit. Without a training unit in existence, conversion to type was achieved by the squadron itself with assistance from English Electric test pilots. Most of the type’s service trials were flown by the squadron and, by the end of 1950, nine Canberra B2s were held on strength. Out of the pool of type-qualified crews, a wing of five squadrons had been formed by August 1952 at Binbrook, comprising"
"carry two 1,000 lb (454 kg) bombs or eight unguided rockets. Following its retirement from service in 1956, Attacker F.1 Serial number ""WA473"" was placed on display on the gate at RNAS Abbotsinch. Completed at VAs South Marston factory in July 1951, it had served with 702 and 736 Naval Squadrons. In late 1961 it was moved to the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Somerset, UK. Supermarine Attacker The Supermarine Attacker is a British single-seat naval jet fighter built by Supermarine for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA). The type has the distinction of being the first jet fighter"
"operational. Cobham's company FRL soon realized that their looped-hose system left a lot to be desired and began work on an improved system that is now commonly called the ""probe-and-drogue"" air-to-air refueling system and today is one of the two systems chosen by air forces for air-to-air refueling, the other being the flying-boom system. In post-war trials the RAF used a modified Lancaster tanker employing the much improved probe-and-drogue system, with a modified Gloster Meteor F.3 jet fighter, serial ""EE397"", fitted with a nose-mounted probe. On 7 August 1949, the Meteor flown by FRL test pilot Pat Hornidge took off"
"with the RAF, where it was named Firestreak. Firestreak was deployed by the Royal Navy and the RAF in August 1958; it was the first effective British air-to-air missile. For launch, the missile seeker was slaved to the launch aircraft's radar (Ferranti AIRPASS in the Lightning and GEC AI.18 in the Sea Vixen) until lock was achieved and the weapon was launched, leaving the interceptor free to acquire another target. A downside was that the missile was highly toxic (due to either the ""Magpie"" rocket motor or the ammonia coolant) and RAF armourers had to wear some form of CRBN"
"the first RAF bombing raid upon German territory and remained an integral part of the early British bomber offensive. By 1943, it was being superseded as a bomber by the larger four-engined ""heavies"" such as the Avro Lancaster. Its front line service included maritime reconnaissance with Coastal Command and the second line roles of glider-tug, trainer and transport aircraft. The type was also procured by British Overseas Airways Corporation as a civilian freighter aircraft. The aircraft was named after Whitley, a suburb of Coventry, home of one of Armstrong Whitworth's plants. In July 1934, the Air Ministry issued Specification B.3/34,"
"to settle on a single-engine, twin-boom aircraft, powered by the Halford H.1 turbojet engine (later produced as the ""Goblin""). Aside from its propulsion system and twin-boom configuration, it was a relatively conventional aircraft. Despite being originally ordered as an experimental aircraft only, during May 1944, it was decided to mass-produce the aircraft as an interceptor for the Royal Air Force (RAF). During 1946, the first production Vampire entered operational service with the RAF, only months after the conflict had come to an end. The Vampire quickly proved to be an effective aircraft and was adopted as a replacement for many"
"Avro Vulcan The Avro Vulcan (later Hawker Siddeley Vulcan from July 1963) is a jet-powered tailless delta wing high-altitude strategic bomber, which was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1956 until 1984. Aircraft manufacturer A.V. Roe and Company (Avro) designed the Vulcan in response to Specification B.35/46. Of the three V bombers produced, the Vulcan was considered the most technically advanced and hence the riskiest option. Several reduced-scale aircraft, designated Avro 707, were produced to test and refine the delta wing design principles. The Vulcan B.1 was first delivered to the RAF in 1956; deliveries of the improved"
"a bomber-transport, then saw the H.P.54 as a more likely winner. In the end neither type was a candidate for C.26/31, since in June 1935 the Air Ministry, anxious to expand and modernise the RAF wrote specification B.29/35 around the Harrow, emphasising its bomber role though retaining its transport capability. On 14 August, months before the first Harrow flew, the Ministry put in an order for 100 aircraft. Powered by Bristol Pegasus X engines of , the first Harrow flew on 10 October 1936 from Radlett. The Harrow was designed to have powered nose and tail turrets, with a manually"
"In 1937/1938, two squadrons of the new Bristol Blenheim bomber arrived, followed in 1939 by two more squadrons with Spitfires and Avro Anson support aircraft, forming the No. 1 Camouflage Unit RAF. The aircraft were used for training, with no operational sorties being flown from the field. Later in 1939, having been built in Cricklewood just before war broke out, the first prototype Handley Page Halifax was taken by road to RAF Bicester and assembled in secret there before the company's chief test pilot Major Jim Cordes and flight test observer E A 'Ginger' Wright made its first flight on"
"the RAF's Hawker Siddeley (Blackburn) Buccaneer bomber. The first aircraft arrived in November 1969 and deliveries continued throughout the early 1970s. Nos. 12, 15 and 16 squadrons were formed. 15 and 16 squadrons moved to RAF Laarbruch in West Germany in 1971. These were followed by No. 237 OCU (Operational Conversion Unit) which was formed when the RAF took over Buccaneer training from the Royal Navy, then finally 208 and briefly 216 squadrons. The station was then selected to become a base for the RAF's Panavia Tornado fleet with the Tornado Weapons Conversion Unit (TWCU) established there in 1981. The"
"and rudder. The first of two aircraft first flew on the 18 September 1935 and the second flew in March 1936. A third aircraft, designated F.K.50A, was built in 1938 with a re-designed tail unit with twin vertical tail surfaces. It had a longer nose and larger mainwheels, with a higher all-up weight. Twp bomber variants, designated F.K.50B, were proposed but never built. The first was a straight conversion of the F.K.50; the second would have been powered by Bristol Mercury VIS radial engines. It would have been operated by a crew of four and carried a bomb load. The"
"The aircraft's two-bay biplane wings folded rearwards for storage. The crew of two sat in tandem open cockpits, with a planned armament of up to three Lewis guns on pillar mountings, while bombs could be carried below the lower wings. The first prototype, powered by a 230 hp (172 kW) RAF 3 V12 engine driving a four-bladed propeller was completed at Farnborough late in 1917, being sent to Hamble near Southampton for final assembly and initial flight testing on 25 December. The C.E.1 made its maiden flight, piloted by its designer, on 17 January 1918. After modifications to its controls"
"so that the small 4 lb (1.8 kg) incendiary bombs could reach the building interiors. The high capacity bombs were used only by the RAF, which was the only air force with bombers with bomb bays large enough to hold them. In 1947 Alfred Cecil Brooks of Stourbridge was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for creating the Blockbuster, although his citation was worded ""outstanding services to the King of a nature that cannot be revealed"". The local newspaper referred to him as ""Blockbuster Brooks"". The first type of aircraft to carry bombs operationally was the"
"they were too cumbersome. By the time that Britain had received large numbers of Vengeances, its opinion on the usefulness of specialised dive bombers had changed. As the Battle of Britain and operations over North Africa had shown the dive bomber to be vulnerable to fighter attack, it rejected the Vengeance for use over Western Europe or the Mediterranean. It was decided to use the Vengeance in the Burma Theatre to carry out dive-bombing operations in close support of British and Indian troops in the jungles. The first RAF squadrons (No. 82 and No. 110) received Vengeances in October 1942."
"in 1913. The T.B.8 was a single engine biplane built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. It was fitted with a prismatic bombsight in the front cockpit and a cylindrical bomb carrier in the lower forward fuselage capable of carrying 12 x 10 lb (12 x 4.5 kg) bombs, which could be dropped individually or all together. The T.B.8 was purchased for use both by the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) and the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). The Eastbourne RNAS Squadron, operating the T.B.3, carried out the first bombing attack of World War I: on 25 November 1914, under the command"
"problems, an annular combustion chamber, and an improved fuel control system. The resulting Avon 203 produced 10,000 lbf (44.48 kN) of thrust, and was the engine for the Hunter F.6. The Hunter F.1 entered service with the Royal Air Force in July 1954. It was the first high-speed jet aircraft equipped with radar and fully powered flight controls to go into widespread service with the RAF. The Hunter replaced the Gloster Meteor, the Canadair Sabre, and the de Havilland Venom jet fighters in service. Initially, low internal fuel capacity restricted the Hunter's performance, giving it only a maximum flight endurance"