Maximum angle of climb or ascent of a vulcan bomber?

Question

I am trying to ascertain wether a vulcan bomber is capable of flying within 10degrees of vertical to settle a drunken wager

Answer 1

Sorry dont know the answer to your question ,but would like to say that the Vulcan Bomber to me was Britain's finest bomber,a magnificent plane

Answer 2

A Vulcan with half fuel and 301 engines can exceed 6,000fpm while going about 3 miles/minute air speed. That gives you about 19 degrees.

Hmm, some experts here aren't reading enough Wikipedia.

The maximum bomb load for the Vulcan was 21 1000lb bombs, the design load was 10,000lb but Avro were much better than that. Heck, even a Lancaster carried a normal load of 14,000lb to Berlin (compared to 4-6,000 lb for a B17).

Yes, the Vulcan had 4 Bristol Olympus 101, 201 or 301 engines (which my dad built), same as Concorde but without the reheat. Initial aircraft with the 101s had 11,000lb engines, the later 301s were 20,000lb. A major improvement. So with half fuel and no bomb load the Vulcan was a sports car, 140,000 lb with 80,000lb of thrust. B Mk 2s were able to reach 65,000 feet and M0.96.

Sorry, the rates of climb quoted thus far are mundane, normal for civil aircraft, not correct for the Vulcan.

In a delivery test of XM655 she hit 50,000 feet in 9 minutes still doing 2,000fpm and continued to 55,500 where she was still climbing at 500fpm.

Answer 3

Try the vulcan to the skies lads and lassies at bruntingthorpe they are on the web, and I am sure they would be only to pleased to answer your question.

Remember this though the angle of attack is directly proportional to the 5 principles that govern an aircraft i.e thrust drag etc etc.

Also if the vulcan carried a full bomb load then the weight would naturally have to be taken into account into any settings/ calculations for take off.

The same applies with landing as the plane will naturally be lighter on landing then you wish to reduce speed and would increase the a of a to slow down as well as using the air brakes, bearing in mind that you do not wish to enter a stall (scary)

Good book to read is the story of the Black buck bombing Raids by the boys in the RAF a lot of technical info is included, its worth a read.

Hope this helps

Current Pilot

Answer 4

I served in the RAF in Germany during the cold war, and remember vividly watching five Vulcans take off within 35 seconds, an operational requirement at that time.

The expression "Did the earth move for you?", must have been coined for this moment.

The Vulcan enetered sevice in the RAF in September 1956 and operated until 1984 and could carry, 10,000lb of conventional bombs, or one nuclear bomb.

It was subsonic (.96mach) and had a ceiling of 55,000ft, it's rate of climb, though awesome for such a large aircraft was 3,000 ft per minute.

THE ANGLE OF CLIMB WAS BETWEEN 15 AND 20 DEGREES.

Answer 5

"Capable"
is the clue in the question.
The rates of climb quoted above here are for the operational situations.
I have seen Vulcans at airshows, including a special one over the factory where it was built (Chadderton not Woodford...the latter just stuck it together and put the seats in :-)) and in "Show off" mode, she could get to about 45 degrees, but I've never seen one get steeper than that.
And send money to the restoration project, they got one flying again and now need to keep it flying.
Best looking (Jet) bird in the sky, perhaps only surpassed by the Concorde.

Answer 6

Saw them many times go quite a bit past 10 degrees. Pushing close to 30 or 40 during initial climb, depending on load and atmospheric conditions.

Answer 7

dont know about the rate of climb etc but there used to be one outside Blackpool airport it was simply left there then put on ebay dont know what happened to it does any one know i heard it was all cut up for scrap and weighed in though i dont know if its true but i climbed up it to see in the cockpit and even walked on the wings what an awesome machine i never saw one in flight would love to though i can only imagine the noise of it

I have just googled the Blackpool vulcan and sadly the photos
show it being chopped up by a hymac digger what a sad sad ending

http://www.pbase.com/midnight_express/vulcan_bomber

Answer 8

Just thinking about the Vulcan gives me goosepimples! I worked at the Bristol Aeroplane Company and it was the highlight of my day when I heard the roar of the engines and rushed to the window to watch it climb.
Is there a web site which will give you your answer?
If nothing else comes up, you could try contacting the archive department at Bristols.
P.S. Just seen Ron's reply and yes, the earth did move! Remind me were they Olympus engines?

Answer 9

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Answer 10

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