Easy Model Vulcan B.2 XM607 – 1:144 Scale

Vulcan B.2 XM607

Includes:

– Detailed ready made, pre painted plastic model

– Fixed Undercarriage in down position

– XM607 Squadron Markings

– Display stand

– Packaging and inner box features prints of original technical drawings of the vulcan

– 1:144 scale

Aircraft information and history:

Seventy-four days in 1982 (At war with Argentina 02.04.82 – 14.06.1982)

On April 2nd 1982, Argentina invaded the British Overseas Territories of the Falkland Islands and (on April 3rd 1982) South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, in an attempt to rest sovereignty of the South Atalntic islands from the United Kingdom.

In London the Governments immeditae response was “to see that the islands were freed from occupation and returned to British administration at the earliest possible moment”, and a British Naval Task Force was despatched to the South Atlantic with all speed to repossess the islands. To Protect the Task Force, a plan was developed to knock out the Falklands solitary runway at Port Stanley airfield to deny use as an Argentinian forward operating base, and to prevent airbourne attacks against the Task Force from fast jet fighter-bombers. 

The RAF’s ageing Avro Vulcan Cold War V Bomber (due to be replaced in 1982) would play a significant role in recapturing the Falkland islands. 8,000 Miles from home; a colossal distance far beyond the Vulcan’s maximum operating range. Only the Vulcan had the capability of delivering the neccessary ordnance, but it would require multiple air-to-air refueling (AAR) to reach the Falklands. The hazardous bombing misson – code name “Operation Black Buck” – would be the longest distance flown by any aircraft in British Military aviation history.

In just three weeks in April 1982, the vulcans disabled AAR systems were reinstated and on April 29th 1982 the aircraft were flown 4,000 miles from RAF Waddington to Widawake Airfield, Ascension island. The Anglo-American base in the mid-Atlantic from where Operation Black Buck would be launched.

As the Falklands Islands lay nearly 4,000 miles to the south. The complex mission would require eleven Victor K.2 Tankers from 55 and 57 Squadrons, RAF Marham (arrived Ascension by Mid- April), flying in relay to refuel one Vulcan. Five Victors refuelled five Victors, and the eleventh Victor refuelled the Vulcan.

Minutes into the first Vulcan raid “Black Buck 1” on the night of April 30th/May 1st 1982, primary Vulcan XM598 failed to pressurise and had to abort. Reserve Vulcan XM607 took over with a payload of twenty-one 1,000lb high explosive (HE) bombs to be dropped by radar, with no visual assistance, in the dark. Sixteen of the twenty-one bombs dropped detonated, one scoring a direct hit on the runway. XM607 sent the code signal “superfuse” confirming the mission was accomplished.

The huge effort delivered a bomb on Stanley runway that denied its use for the Argentinian jets and warned Argentina that the mainland was in reach of the RAF. Of the seven Black Buck sorties planned, five were carried out. It was the Vulcans first and last action. British troops landed on the Falklands on May 21st 1982 and Argentina’s surrender followed on June 14th 1982.

Vulcan B2 XM607 was completed in late 1963 and nineteen years later was one of the five Vulcans selected for Black Buck along with XL391, XM597, XM598, XM612. All except XL391 survive.