Handley Page Victor

[RussC]

That'd be a belly tank Chris!  Saddle tanks sit over the top of the fuselage.  Slipper tanks are semi conformal with the wing & as Russ states, roughly slipper shaped.  All this for a minor slip up in terminology!

Russ, the Victor Mk.2's Ram Air Turbines are in the small pop-up intakes just in front of the fin.

Ahhhh, ok. makes sense, the APU is probably back there too.
 
 Maybe then - that mysterious wing slipper's nose is a radome or other antenna? , something that has to sit away from the main ground-plane of the machine and away from both the engines and the main electronics magnetic fields.

[kitnut617]

Kit has it right, according to the book The Handley Page Victor-Vol.2 they are air samplying equipment used with the SR.  There's another photo in the book which shows both tanks had it.

[NARSES2]

That'd be a belly tank Chris!  Saddle tanks sit over the top of the fuselage.  Slipper tanks are semi conformal with the wing & as Russ states, roughly slipper shaped.  All this for a minor slip up in terminology!

OK so I meant "conformal belly tank"   Getting old 

[PR19_Kit]

Kit has it right, according to the book The Handley Page Victor-Vol.2 they are air samplying equipment used with the SR.  There's another photo in the book which shows both tanks had it.

Was the entire tank given over to sampling stuff Robert or were the bumps on the front the only bit and the rest given over to fuel? Those SR2 had monster bomb-bay tanks as I read, so I doubt they'd miss the wing tanks.

[Aircav]

Ok, it was early and I was tired, I should of typed Slipper tank but thanks for the information Chaps.
Steve

[kitnut617]

Kit has it right, according to the book The Handley Page Victor-Vol.2 they are air samplying equipment used with the SR.  There's another photo in the book which shows both tanks had it.

Was the entire tank given over to sampling stuff Robert or were the bumps on the front the only bit and the rest given over to fuel? Those SR2 had monster bomb-bay tanks as I read, so I doubt they'd miss the wing tanks.

Had a re-read of the book (written by Roger Brooks BTW) and it says they were 'filter baskets' that were added to the front of the tanks.  These were collected immediately apon landing by a special handling crew, sealed in a special container then taken to the nearest airport and shipped back to the Lab on the quickest airline flight that was going that way.  I'm assuming the lab was in the UK and the sampling were done either down south of the equator or on the opposite side of the world going by what is written.  Most of the equipment was install in the fuselage and consisted mostly of radiation level monitoring (far as I can tell).  In all, ten Victor B.2's were converted to SR standard, with three of those fitted with the air sampling.

[Mossie]

Found another pic of the Victor with RATOG pods on the Key Publishing forum, to add to the one that Greg posted on page four.  The same pic (but of better quality) can be found in the Aerofax guide on the Victor.
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?p=1043286



Info on the Spectre rocket motor that was used:

Flight article in the achive with a good pic of the Spectre RATOG pod:
http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1958/1958%20-%200170.html
http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1958/1958%20-%200171.html

There were plans to fit rockets to Vulcan's too, but only got so far as a live firing on a test rig before the V-Bomber RATOG program was cancelled.  The Flight article above suggests the Spectre pods would have been used on the Vulcan.

Another Flight archive piece with the pic shown earlier:
http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1960/1960%20-%201354.html?search=spectre

Pathe newsreel showing ground firing of the Spectre as used on the SR.53:
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/the-rocket-race/query/Havilland

[McColm]

Was there ever a proposal for the Victor to carry pods either under the wings or in the bomb bay to transport troops?

[KJ_Lesnick]

The Handley-Page Victor is an interesting aircraft, and I'm curious about a few things while on the subject

Firstly, I did do a search on wikipedia: While it has become more reliable than it has in the past, I'd still like to verify with people who are knowledgeable about the aircraft

• Is it the longest ranged of the V-bombers?
  
• Would it be considered superior to the B-47 or B-52 in terms of accuracy?
  

I'm curious how the maneuverability of the Victor compares to the following airplanes

• Avro Vulcan
  
• B-52
  
• B-47
  
• F-106
  

[rickshaw]

Have you attempted to:

1. Google your questions?
2. Visited library and consulted books to find your answers?

If you haven't, Kendra/Robyn you're still a long way behind.  When you have, re-ask your question, please.   

[kerick]

The Handley-Page Victor is an interesting aircraft, and I'm curious about a few things while on the subject

Firstly, I did do a search on wikipedia: While it has become more reliable than it has in the past, I'd still like to verify with people who are knowledgeable about the aircraft

• Is it the longest ranged of the V-bombers?
  
• Would it be considered superior to the B-47 or B-52 in terms of accuracy?
  

I'm curious how the maneuverability of the Victor compares to the following airplanes

• Avro Vulcan
  
• B-52
  
• B-47
  
• F-106
  

This might help.
http://warships1discussionboards.yuku.com/topic/2243/Why-three-separate-Vbombers-for-RAF#.VPUQCPnF9MA

It doesn't answer all your questions but it mentions a book that might help. The article mentions that the Vulcan was considered more manuverable than the Victor but as compared to the aircraft you mentioned that info would be hard to come by. I do recall articles mentioning that if the B-52 wanted to pull a hard turn down low it had to pull up first to keep the wingtip from touching the ground.

[PR19_Kit]

Was there ever a proposal for the Victor to carry pods either under the wings or in the bomb bay to transport troops?

I can't recall anything like that, but a Victor B1 did carry a pair of large 'Red Neck' SLAR pods for trials, positioned where the drop tanks were carried on the K2s.

[Mossie]

I could have sworn I posted these, and McColm replied....

Recently come to light on Secret Projects, I've not seen them in any publication:

[martinbayer]

There's some additional explanatory text at http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6249.0
Martin

[PR19_Kit]

It's even got DOORS!