[sci.military] Vulcans in the Falklands

james@castle.ed.ac.uk (J Gillespie) (04/01/91)

From: J Gillespie <james@castle.ed.ac.uk>

cga66@ihlpy.att.com (Patrick V Kauffold) writes:

>Black Buck 6 - 2 June 1982. Target Argentine radar installations on
>East Falklands. Launched 2 Shrikes.  Diverted to Rio de Janeiro when
>refueling probe broke off.

Which is another mini-epic in itself.  From what I remember from the
book "Air War South Atlantic", the aircraft was _very_ low on fuel by
the time it got to Rio.  It ended up too high on the approach, and the
pilot did a spiral dive to lose altitude.  Rather a dangerous
manoeuvre in a large aeroplane at low altitude, but as it turned out
there wasn't enough fuel left in the tanks for a circuit.  Pretty
impressive flying.

-- 
James Gillespie
Edinburgh University
james@ed.ac.uk