What he did not tell you is that on this mission to the Falklands he was supposed to be on stand by ,but the primary Vulcan shortly after take off had a cabin pressure problem, and had to abort, he was the next in line .Also encountered some really bad T storms ,lightening, and turbulence over the Atlantic on this mission ,a very humble man On his way back to base ,he was flying on fumes before he finally spotted the Handley Page Victor tanker ,thought he may have to ditch over the drink. The storm was so bad that one of the tankers broke its refueling probe ,and could give only half of the allotted fuel to Vulcan XM607.He could have aborted but decided to press on knowing that he was about 7 thousand pounds of fuel short to rendezvous with the tanker on his inbound flight back to base ,he was awarded the DFC.

What a jackpot of a guy for Vulcan interview. Also the quickly referenced animated Falklands air raid video is most probably the one from Operations Room channel. It's a really good one.

Great interview! An entire episode on the Falklands war would be outstanding.

The incredible howl of a passing Vulcan is something I'll never forget

Another guy who would be awesome on the Podcast is Dave "Mog" Morgan, he flew the Sea Harrier in the Falklands and has some amazing stories from there, including taking a round through his fin and bringing the aircraft back to the carrier

As a child in England I remember the Vulcan's well. They would come from AVRO workshops down the Broadway on Pickford tractor trailers to get to Ferranti next door to my 3 room school, Eve's Lane of Chadderton. Each aircraft was white with RAF roundels on the nose and full letter sets. As testing around AVRO's field continued, we could often see Vulcan's in the sky around the neighbourhood. Sometimes there was an enormously loud ominous howling sound from the front of the aircraft, that can only be described as the emanation of evil. Black Buck was the lead aircraft on the Falklands raid. Per Ardua Ad Astra

Wonderful episode! Vulcan and Victor are ones of the most unusual and strange-beautiful aircrafts. And Martin Withers is the great guest.

One of the best interviews I've listened to and a great insight to first hand experiences and stories. Still a much loved aircraft in the UK. Great job.

The Vulcan was also used for maritime reconnaissance by the RAF

Really interesting episode, would really love to get an episode on the Blackburn Buccaneer as well.

You haven’t lived until you’ve played the bagpipes at 50,000 ft in an Avro Vulcan. You can only get these kind of stories from people who were there. Thanks again for another great podcast.

The good olds days, when we engineered beautiful airplanes. Now we’re a nation of IT consultants 🇬🇧

There's a fantastic video on KZfaq that outlines the logistics of getting that one Vulcan to the Falkland Islands - amazing. Martin's aircraft was actually the spare, the #1 aircraft had a windscreen pressurisation leak 1/2 hour out of Ascension Island and had to turn back.

What a delightful interview, thank you Martin and Jello! I was lucky enough to see the Vulcan's last flights in 2015 at Bournemouth Air Festival and a flyover at Old Sarum on the final farewell tour. Such a beautiful aircraft and a fascinating history!

Saw three of these on display all in Chicago (NAS Glenview) 1978 was XL-390 (Sadly, Its last flight) The RAF didn't come in 1979 but returned in 1980 with XL-443; XM-575 ended the tradition in 1981. I got an inside / outside tour of XM-575, and the accompanying Nimrod that came with that year. 1978-1981 was eons ago -- but I can still remember it all like it was yesterday.

Fun fact, the RAF had a small detachment of Vulcans stationed at Offutt AFB until 1982. I often saw them flying around Omaha. Great episode!

They went from the Avro Lancaster to this.

THANK YOU!! Fantastically brilliant interview and guest!!! A fitting tribute to truly one of the greatest, most awesome aircraft the world has ever seen!! It is by far the most imposing aircraft one can see and hear banking at low level making the unique frightening howl that it produced as well as the thunderous air splitting roar that is by far the loudest plane i've ever heard. Having been a regular visitor to the old Mildenhall Air shows where one could see/experience basically every miitary aircraft from around the world including SR71 Blackbird, Rockwell B1 bomber and Soviet stuff too -- the incredible sounds and volume of the Vulcan was in a different league to ANYTHING ELSE!!

You could not possibly have found a better person to interview regarding the Vulcan . One of the best episodes yet !

Awesome that you’ve gotten Mr. Withers on the podcast!

Amazing interview. Beyond facinating

Great guest,thanks

Saw a doco on Netflix with guy Martin on this plane one of the all time greats

Vulcan did carry things that had rocket motors, before and during the Falklands War. The B Mk 2 was designed to carry a large stand off missile called Blue Steel, powered by a Hydrogen Peroxide / Kerosene Rocket Motor and fitted with a 1 Megaton Hydrogen Bomb. It was operational between 1963 and 1970 and an operational force of 48 missiles were fitted to Vulcans and Victors. The missile was not that reliable and the failure rate in test firings was around 50%. The other two missiles were emergency fits for the Falklands, the AJ37 Anti Radiation Martel missile used by the RAF Buccaneer Force at the time and the AGM-45 Shrike which were given to the UK by the US. The Martel was fired on the UK Missile firing range at Aberporth in early May 1982 off a Vulcan and it worked OK. The Aircraft's mission was to take out two Argentinian long range search radars in the vicinity of Port Stanley, an Air Force TPS-43F and an Army TPS-44. When photographic reconnaissance from the Sea Harrier force discovered the location of these Radars, it was found that they were located on the edge of the town and dropping a missile with a 300lb HE warhead on the edge of the town was not a good idea (seeing that most of buildings were made out of wood and sheet metal). Thus the British got the Shrike of the USAF and modified a Vulcan to carry them. There was no time to test the missile on a range, so the first firing of a Shrike off a Vulcan was in combat. 1st Raid was aborted due to Tanker Hose Drum Failure issues in some of the tankers, plus Radar failure in the Vulcan. 2nd mission fired two Shrikes at the TPS-43F which detonated around 30 metres from the radar Scanner and cause damage that took 24 hours to fix. On the third mission, the Vulcan took 4 Shrikes down, two tuned for the TPS radars and two tuned to go for the AAA gun laying radars around Stanley Airport. The Search Radars switched off as soon as they saw the Vulcan, but the Vulcan did get a sniff of a radar signal from one of the Gun layers and fired two Shrikes at it which destroyed the radar and killed four operators. The Vulcan then broke its probe on the return refuelling and had to make an emergency landing in Brazil. Between 1973 and 1982, a squadron of Vulcans were employed as a high altitude Maritime Radar Reconnaissance aircraft which would fly over the seas of the world (mainly North Atlantic or Mediterranean) and use its radar to find and track ships. They also did Air Sampling missions in the Pacific to get nuclear fallout samples from French and Chinese Nuclear tests.

First saw this gorgeous plane as a kid watching Thunderball (huge Bond fan). Thirty years later saw the original concrete pads for the underwater mock-up while diving in the Bahamas.

the victor and vulcan both look incredible! they look like space ships even 70 years later

The Yorkshire Air Museum is a few miles to the east of York, just off the main road to the city of Hull. The Vulcan had a strong relationship with the museum and people driving on that road would stop - during rush hour - to watch it. The tail-backs were horrendous but the view was well worth the wait. For its penultimate flight it came over every house in my village a few miles to the east of the museum at maybe 200 feet with the bomb bay doors open! My dog still has PTSD from it flying directly overhead whilst walking through Wheldrake woods, very close to the museum, at not much than tree top height! For those that never heard it, the Vulcan was just unbelievably loud. The Vulcan successfully 'nuked' New York twice, I wonder what the reaction would've been if we over-flew Buenos Aires at low level with the doors open. Risky, but what a reaction that would've caused. A little off-topic but Yorkshire Air Museum is where Richard Hammond had his dragster crash and used to host F1 straight line testing whilst testing was still allowed. Thank you for such an interesting interview.

Awesome

The sound of a Vulcan tearing over is something glorious, shame they are relegated to taxi-runs now.

This is great stuff. If he ever wrote one, I'd buy Mr Withers' book in an instant.

What a beauty!

That was absolutely superb 👍

What a magnificent aircraft. The infamous Avro howl on takeoff is unmistakable!

Vulcan can easily be qualify as next 'Bat Wing'. Easily it got almighty threat appearance. AirIntakes looks too tiny and impractical but they work. This design is 1 of a kind. This episode pairs best with 'Mackerson XXX' from London England

Love it!

Right on.

ONE OF THE MOST CRAZY MISSIONS EVER!

Martin is a legend

Martin Withers is an RAF legend.

really good sound quality for a remote interview

There was a Discovery channel Wings episode named Vulcans, Victors, and Cuba. A link to the video can be found on my 'usnraptor Great Planes ' website in the Miscellaneous section.

Good interview Jello, interesting to listen to.

MARTIN FRIGGING WITHERS, hell yes

Just a friendly reminder the B-52 got some MiG kills during Linebacker II, North Vietnam. The four .50 cal guns were replaced with a 20mm Vulcan cannon, and then eventually removed altogether.

Please, please tell me you are going to interview a Vulcan pilot!!!!.....YEEEESSSSSS!!!!

❤

The Valiant was the only V bomber to drop a British Atomic/Nuke/Thermal bomb AKA The Bomb.

NO WAY!!!!!

Super Sabre in 3...

47:20 : the video is from "the operation room" channel. A really awesome one. Link to the video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m5updNemvrase2g.html

Missed opportunity to have a Vulcan HOWL at the end! Awesome interview apart from that though! Check out this link to hear her howling kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fsVxhbZ2ndCpeIU.html

Wish the Brits still made aircraft but at least Rolls Royce still makes jet engines I believe.

If you are into aviation: Dan Gryder can save YOUR life!

if you havent done the YF-23 you seriously should do it

They have a cockpit at the Glouster jet museum, I took a girlfriend there once, she complained until walking up the ladder :)