Handley Page Victor B.1: The Final V

[Would you like to see this in-game?]
  • Yes
  • No
0 voters

Handley Page Victor B.1

Hello! and welcome to my suggestion for the third and final V bomber, the Handley Page Victor, I feel this has a good reason for coming to the game given its rich history throughout British history and its fame alongside its V-bomber Brethren that are some of the most famous jet bombers in history.

History

Spoiler

The Victor and the V-force share a strong link to the British Nuclear programme and Nuclear deterrent doctrines of the early cold war, the Victors story begins in 1946 with OR.1001 issuing which anticipated a government decision on a future jet bomber design that would be issued the next year as Specification B.35/46 requesting the development of a Four engine swept-wing jet medium bomber with a cruising speed of 500 Knots and a ceiling of at least 55,000 feet.

Unlike Vickers initial design, the Valiant, two designs were chosen initially, the Handley Page HP.80 and the Avro 698, these would go on to be the Victor and Vulcan. Two HP.80 prototypes were built, WB771 and WB775, However midway through construction of the first prototype that the runway at Radlett airfield, where they were being built, was not long enough for the first flight and so the two airframes were transported to RAF Boscombe Down. On Christmas Eve 1952 WB771 made its first flight that lasted 17 minutes by test pilot Hedley Hazelden. 10 days after the HP.80 was given the designation “Victor”.

Initially the Victor B.1s were armed with Blue Danube nuclear bombs and later the Yellow Sun bombs when available, they also carried US made nuclear bombs on occasion. A notable event for the victors early career is that on the 1st of June 1956 Victor XA917 piloted by test pilot Johnny Allam broke the speed of sound whilst in a shallow descent at high power, the airspeed read Mach 1.1 and bystanders on the ground reported hearing a Sonic boom. the airframe maintained its stability and at the time was credited with being the largest aircraft to break the speed of sound at the time.

The Victors served for over 40 years, most notably during the Falklands and Iraq conflicts, in 1982 Victor K.2s were the only reason the RAF Vulcan bombers were able to reach Stanley airfield due to constant refuelling. additionally in Operation Desert Storm 8 Victors were sent to the middle east in support of British aircraft, here they operated around the clock to keep coalition air forces in flight leading up to and during the air war against Iraq.

Specs/ Armament

Spoiler

General characteristics

  • Crew: 5
  • Length: 114 ft 11 in (35.03 m)
  • Wingspan: 110 ft (34 m)
  • Height: 28 ft 1.5 in (8.573 m)
  • Wing area: 2,406 sq ft (223.5 m2)
  • Airfoil: Root: 16% Modified RAE Airfoil; Tip: 6% Modified RAE Airfoil
  • Empty weight: 89,030 lb (40,383 kg)
  • Max takeoff weight: 205,000 lb (92,986 kg)
  • Powerplant: 4 × Armstrong Siddeley A.S.Sa.7 Sapphire turbojet engines, 11,050 lbf (49.2 kN) thrust each

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 545 kn (627 mph, 1,009 km/h) at 36,000 ft (11,000 m)
  • Range: 5,217 nmi (6,004 mi, 9,662 km)
  • Service ceiling: 56,000 ft (17,000 m)

Armament

  • Bombs:

    • Up to 35 × 1,000 lb (450 kg) bombs
      or
    • 1× Yellow Sun, Blue Danube or Mark 5 free-fall nuclear bombs
      or
    • 1x Blue Steel Standoff Nuclear Missile

Photos

Spoiler


Victor shortly after landing, its drogue chute still attached

image
Victor Dropping all of its 35 1000lb bombs


Victor B.1s Cockpit

image
Row of Victors at what appears to be RAF Honington

image
Victors Nose, showing its unique Bombardier windows

image
Diagram of the Victor with and without standoff nuclear Missiles

image
WB775, the second Victor Prototype

Victor in game

Spoiler

In game the victor has potential to be a great addition after the Canberra, filling the gap between the Canberra’s and Buccaneer, it would play similarly to other british Bombers, with little to no defensive armament but extremely high bombload, if even a single bomber got through it could destroy all 4 bases AND still have enough to destroy the airfield.

in terms of BR i feel it would come in around 9.0/9.3 as it has fairly high speed but extremely low defensive capabilities, not having countermeasures or turrets, however it would be a testament to the V-Force as it is the verry last of the V-bombers, having served as a tanker up until 1993, a decade longer than the Vulcan.

Sources

Spoiler

Handley Page Victor - Wikipedia
Handley Page Victor B.2RS "Victorious Vic" - Passed for Consideration - War Thunder - Official Forum
https://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-duxford/handley-page-victor-xh648
Thunder & Lightnings - Handley Page Victor - History

7 Likes

Best looking V bomber, would love to see it.

4 Likes

Even the tanker version would be dope (A.i. Tankers in air Sim per example)

2 Likes

+1, we need more V-Bombers

3 Likes

Huge and awesome. Gimme! +1

  • 1 From me. We need all 3 V-bombers ingame, Washington B Mk.1 and TSR.2. There are so many bombers missing from Britain, same as the other nations.
4 Likes

+1

This, plus a game-mode overhaul to make strategic bombers more fun. I adore bombers but don’t really enjoy playing them.

1 Like

This bomber could be added to the game but way after the buccaneer in my opinion. This bomb load is enormous even compared to the F-111 wich is rank 7. By the way I have to mention that Australia had some F-111 in service so adding it would be just a new skin in british tree, wich is easier to do, than adding a new model of a plane. This could be a cool adition, because there are not so many australian vehicles in the tree and there is even a steam achievement for being an australian ace. However, this Handley Page Victor looks great and I would definitely like to see something like this in british tree.

1 Like

BUT it is far slower, less manoeuvrable, a larger target and has literally no way of defending itself, the F-111 is still only 10.3 and its bomb load is max 31500lbs (with nothing else other than CMs), has MAWS, has Air to Air Missiles, has up to 5 20mm Cannons, over 400 unguided rockets, and up to 4 Bullpups.

compared to the Vark the Victor is a sitting duck as it has nothing but bombs, anything above 9.0 would be a death sentence in the current environment of the game, so unless we see a new game mode specifically for Strat bombers then this would just get slaughtered at BRs anywhere near the Vark

1 Like

A ton of extra Photos thanks to @FENNEC3000

Spoiler

image

image

image

image

image

image

image

image

image

image

image

and my personal favourites

image

image

5 Likes

I hope we get this and the other V bombers soon for Britain. Same as the BAC TSR.2.

1 Like

+1. Should it replace the nuke Canberra in GRB?

1 Like

The Australian F-111 doesn’t even have the same wings as the F-111A currently in game, it’s close but not a simple reskin.

we could also get the british f-111 even though it was never finished it was i believe like 80% done? had a lot of differences to the american one

They would all sit at different battleratings as they all have widely different capabilities so would all fill some nice gaps, it could be something similar to this;

  • V bombers for 8.0-9.7

  • F-111K, TSR.2, Buccaneer S.2B for 10.0-11.0

  • *Tornado GR.4, F-111C for 12.0 plus

1 Like

Hopefully this comes soon as we currently have aircraft like the F-111A using 33,000lbs of bombs ingame already. So how come Britain has not gained jet bombers of near equal performance. Such as the V-Bombers like the Victor confuses me to no end. It’s just 2,000lbs more.

Looks so good, we need to have this!

1 Like