The Victor Story

After the success of the Halifax bomber that pulverized the Third Reich, Handley Page soon looked at new designs. In 1947, they developed a new bomber that could drop the atom bomb on Moscow. The Victor was born, one of three V-bombers with the Valiant and Vulcan. The first Victor B.1s came off the production line in early 1956 and proved to be a remarkable bomber?a pilot inadvertently achieved Mach 1.1 in a 1- or 2-degree dive. By 1959, minor improvements saw the B.2 variant take shape. But by the early 1960s, Handley Page was in trouble as the government merged aviation companies and the future of the Victor was in doubt. Many Victors were scrapped, with surviving examples converted into fuel tankers. Seeing action twice, the Victor was the unsung hero of the Falklands conflict as it was the only aircraft with the range to fuel a Vulcan on the famous Black Buck raid. The Victor also pounded Saddam Hussein's forces in 1991, dropping 35 1,000-lb bombs.

Tim McLelland is an author specializing in military aerospace subjects. His books include English Electric Lightning, Hawker Hunter, and Harrier. He has flown in a wide range of military aircraft such as the Tornado, Harrier, and Lightning, and has taken part in four Red Arrows display routines.