Avro Vulcan as a carrier for parasite aircraft or drones

AMF

ACCESS: Restricted
Joined
4 May 2007
Messages
4
Reaction score
1
Hello everyone,
I am new to this forum. I would be grateful for information about the following topic: I have read somewhere on the Internet (I cannot remember the site) that there were studies for an Avro Vulcan as a carrier for parasite aircraft or drones. I think the Folland Gnat was the aircraft to be carried. Thank you very much in advance for any information!
 
God bless Google!!! ;)
Odd Vulcans
With the Vulcan airframe as a basis, several unusual proposals were made. One of them was the Avro Atlantic, which was supposed to be an airliner version of the Vulcan. Another was the fighter support Vulcan. It would have carried three Folland Gnat fighters in the fuselage and under the wings. In line with the F-100 Barn Launch project, a vertical take-off Vulcan was also suggested. This one would have had ten rocket motors in the bomb bay, allowing the 113 ton Vulcan to do Space Shuttle-style take-offs. None of these project ever went anywhere, but a later proposal called Phase 6 was at least taken to the drawing board.

The Phase 6 Vulcan would have had a longer fuselage to accomodate a second crew for extremely long missions and provisions for bomb pods on the wings. Because of the cancellation of the Skybolt programme, nothing became of the Phase 6. Some B.2 Vulcans got the Skybolt/bomb pod attachment points fitted however.

Source: http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1413769&lastnode_id=0
 
.. and a drawing from Derek Wood "Project Cancelled"
 

Attachments

  • Vulcan-parasite.JPG
    Vulcan-parasite.JPG
    18.2 KB · Views: 569
I think the Gnats were to be armed with nuclear weapons,in effect being manned cruise missiles.The pilots had two options,bail out before the plane hit the target,pretty close to the blast zone,or just ride it in,like Major Kong in Dr Strangelove.The idea was obviously crazy and was quickly laid to rest.
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom