AVRO VULCAN - PICTURES

AVRO VULCAN

PICTURES - FUSELAGE

AVRO VULCAN
PICTURES - FUSELAGE

NOSE

XH558 at Bruntingthorpe. The Panther's head marking is that of Strike Command.
Hendon's B.2 XL318; wraparound camouflage as worn in the Vulcan's later years of service.
XH537's emergency equipment storage compartment on the port side of the nose is seen here with the door open. Ominously the stencil above says 'EMERGENCY EQUIPMENT STOWAGE & DESTRUCTOR'. That's an explosives warning triangle within the compartment...!

BOMB BAY

Cosford's B.2 has an extra fuel tank in the forward end of the bomb bay; presumably this was because XM598 was a K.2 conversion at one point. XH558 has a similar tank, but in the rear of the bomb bay - this is to counterbalance the shift in the aircraft's centre of gravity caused by the lack of any ECM gear in the rear fuselage (558 was a K.2 conversion and had all her ECM gear removed, and on conversion to display aircraft the HDU box was removed but the ECM gear was not put back in).
XM655's bomb bay, looking forward.
XM655 again, looking aft this time.

TAIL

XM655's tail. The bulge on the top of the rear fuselage is the brake parachute door. You can just make out the tail scrape indicator on the bottom of the rear fuselage too - above the outermost starboard jetpipe. This would give the pilots warning that the rear fuselage was hitting the ground.
Now here's a photo that would have put me in jail when the Vulcan was in service! XM655's ECM bay showing off all the spooky electronic warfare gear. Tail bumper very visible here, and the heat exchanger for all these electronics is the boxy thing at the top of the picture.
Moving round for a side-on shot; note how each door has a light mounted on it as well.
For comparison, here's XH558's ECM bay. Somewhat empty as you can see - see the note under the bomb bay pictures above.
Moving back up top, this is XH558 again, looking into the brake parachute housing with the door opened up.