I do like my Military aviation photography, and it's been a good while since I did some.. But last night, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Falklands War Black Buck air raids, where the RAF send Avro Vulcan bombers on a near 7000 mile trip to bomb Port Stanley's runway, I was shooting a Vulcan bomber, under the lights.
A long day for me, but not as long as the many airmen that conducted those raids... which involved numerous aircraft for refueling mid-air... a 16 hour flight was required for the bomber, taking off from the Ascension Islands, the bomber was refuelled 7 times on the way into the Falklands using Victor tankers who were themselves refuelled mid air..7
Loads more info here on the wiki page, its a good read and theres plenty of videos on YT!
Here's also a tweet from the RAF remembering the missions.
40 years ago today, during the Falklands conflict, the Royal Air Force began a series of bombing missions using Vulcan bombers from @RAFWaddington. These missions were known as Operation Black Buck. More: https://t.co/NVYKnWy3w8 pic.twitter.com/8AKXGqym9T
— Royal Air Force (@RoyalAirForce) May 1, 2022
What was incredible about this operation is that the Vulcan was planned for retirement and had to be brought upto date for this mission at the drop of a hat.
Onto the actual shoot and the aircraft we're taking images of, while this airframe wasn't part of the black buck raids, it did have a busy life with the RAF and was the Vulcan display aircraft until it came out of service and made its final flight to Southend airport, where it still lives and while it's not allowed to fly anymore, it is kept in a 'live' state and still does fast taxy's down the runway a few times a year..
While we're remembering the missions, they can't happen without the people that tend to the aircraft and of course the aircrew... Last nights shoot had some re-enactors, which is a first for me, and something I'd been looking forward to for a while
These were re-enacting cold war times, and yes a bit of faffery has gone into this image....
I'll post more from this shoot later..... it was a late night and a long time driving... I'm off for a snooze..