The Vulcan's part in the NATO nuclear deterrent force meant that not only have Vulcans been
preserved in the UK, four are also preserved on the North American continent; three in the U.S. and
one in Canada.
The list here is as complete as I can make it from
personal knowledge and scouring various books (in particular, Peter R. March's Military
Aircraft Markings and Duncan Cubitt and Ken Ellis' Vulcan - Last of the V-bombers). If you
have any changes please let me know.
I am not including examples on target ranges or examples used for fire fighting practice.
Some serial numbers are also links to a page with a recent(ish) picture of the preserved
aircraft.
| B.2 |
|---|
| Serial | Owner & location |
| XH558 | Vulcan to the Sky Trust (flyer!), Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome, Leicestershire |
| XL318 | Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon, North London |
| XL319 | North East Aircraft Museum, Sunderland Airport, Tyne & Wear |
| XL361 | Goose Bay, Canada |
| XL426 | Vulcan Restoration Trust, Southend Airport, Essex |
| XM573 | Strategic Air and Space Museum, Ashland, Nebraska, USA |
| XM594 | Lincolnshire Lancaster Association, Newark Air Museum, Winthorpe, Nottinghamshire |
| XM597 | National Museum of Flight, East Fortune Airfield, Lothian, Scotland |
| XM598 | RAF Museum Cosford, Shropshire |
| XM603 | Avro Heritage Society, BAE Systems Woodford, Cheshire |
| XM605 | Castle Air Museum, Castle AFB, Atwater, California, USA |
| XM606 | Eighth Air Force Museum, Barksdale AFB, Bossier City, Louisiana, USA |
| XM607 | RAF Waddington (displayed), Lincolnshire |
| XM612 | City of Norwich Aviation Museum, Norwich Airport, Norfolk |
| XM655 | John Littler, Wellesbourne Mountford aerodrome, Warwickshire |
| B.2 |
|---|
| Serial | Owner & location |
| XH560 | The Cockpit Collection, Rayleigh, Essex |
| XL388 | Mike North & John Morley, Aeroventure, Lakeside and Leisure Complex, Doncaster, South Yorkshire |
| XL391 | Scrapped |
| XM569 | Gary Spoors & Dave Price, Jet Age Museum, Gloucestershire |
| XM602 | Avro Heritage Society, Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome, Leicestershire |
| XM652 | Sue & Roy Jerman, Welshpool, Powys, Wales |
The Reigate Vulcan nose was from the B.1 and was known as XA909;
however it is now thought to be either XA889, XA890 or, more likely,
a nose section that never flew and never had an RAF serial.
| Variant | Type 698 | B.1 | B.1A | B.2 | B.2A | SR.2/B.2MRR | K.2/B.2K |
|---|
| First flight | 30th Aug 1952 | 4th Feb 1955 | ? | 19th Aug 1958 | ? | ? | 18th Jun 1982 |
| Crew | Two | Five - pilot, copilot, tactical navigator, radar operator and air electronics officer. |
| Armament | None | Blue Danube or Yellow Sun nuclear bombs, twenty-one 1,000lb bombs | Blue Steel nuclear missile (semi-recessed in internal bomb bay),
twenty-one 1,000lb bombs, four AGM-45 Shrike anti-radiation missiles (on wing hardpoints) | None; bomb bay filled with extra fuel tanks |
| Powerplant | 4 RR Avon, later Conway, then Olympus | 4 Bristol-Siddeley Olympus 101 (11,000 lb), 102 (12,000 lb) or 104s (13,500 lb) | 4 Bristol-Siddeley Olympus 201 (17,000 lb) or 301s (20,000 lb) distributed evenly through the production run. All B.2As had 201s however. |
| Max. speed | ? | 625 mph (1,006 km/h), 541 kt or Mach 0.92 at 36,000 ft | 645 mph (1,038 km/h) |
| Service ceiling | ? | 55,000 ft (16,764 m) | 65,000 ft (19,812 m) |
| Range | ? | 3,910 miles (7,240 km) | 4,600 miles (7,400 km) |
| Empty weight | ? | ? | ? |
| Max. take off weight | ? | 190,000 lb (86,184 kg) | 204,000 lb (92,534 kg) |
| Wing span | ? | 99 ft (30.17 m) | 111 ft (33.83 m) |
| Wing area | ? | 3,554 sq ft (330.1 sq m) | 3965 sq ft (368.3 sq m) |
| Length | ? | 97 ft 1 in (29.58 m) | 99 ft 11 in (30.45 m) or 105 ft 11 in if refuelling probe fitted |
| Height | ? | 26 ft 6 in (8.08 m) | 27 ft 2 in (8.28 m) |
| Production (total 136*) | 2 | 45 | 28 (all B.1 conversions) | 63* | 26 | 8 (all conversions from B.2) | 6 (all conversions from B.2) |
