Vulcan Test Pilot: My Experiences in the Cockpit of a Cold War Icon

by Tony Blackman, Duke of Edinburgh (Foreword)

In this memoir, the author of Rise and Fall details his experience testing the UK’s strategic bomber while flying for Avro during the Cold War. In 2007, a restored Avro Vulcan Mark 2—XH558—took to the skies to help commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Falklands conflict. To coincide with this, the memoirs of one of its test pilots, Tony Blackman, was published to great acclaim. Tony flew no less than 105 of the 136 built, logging 850 flights at over 1,327 hours. His book describes in layman’s terms what it was like to tame the first prototypes of the monumental delta-wing aircraft and to master the unusual characteristics necessitated by the Vulcan’s shape. Although Tony puts the developments, demonstrations, incidents, and accidents in their political and historical context, his story is a highly personal one. He explains how this awesome aircraft became a national treasure and captured the imagination of the whole country. His words, descriptions, and photographs will make people feel as he did the excitement of handling such an incredibly powerful monster always in the knowledge that he had to be always in complete control of the monster as it could, and did, bite back.Praise for Vulcan Test Pilot“Highly readable, keeping both the technical reader interested without perplexing the layman. A fine book for both.” —Logbook “Fascinating, gracefully written, and superbly knowledgeable.” —Air and Space Magazine

Genres: Military Fiction

388 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 15, 2007

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, but it really could have benefited from a good editor. There are a lot of interesting stories but you have to hunt a bit to find them. There many extraneous phrases and sentences that can make reading the book a chore, but the quality and uniqueness of the information mostly outweighs that.

If you are a diehard aviation fan, and specifically British aviation, then this book is worth a look.

[Chris Shepheard · Rating 3 out of 5]

First five chapters are very technical but the rest of the book is good general reading.

[Robert Hepple · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tony Blackman’s account of his experiences as a Vulcan bomber test pilot – something that he is well qualified to provide, having personally flown quite a few of the Vulcan’s that were built, as well as his having been acquainted with many other test pilots. The chapters break his experiences down into different phases, including ‘Developing the Vulcan Mk 1’, ‘Developng the Vulcan Mk 2’ and Weapons and Operational Roles’ amongst others. A chapter entitled ‘Incidents and Accidents’ is a summary of all major accidents affecting the Vulcan with details where these are available – clearly these are not Blackman’s experiences but they do serve to illustrate what can happen when things go badly wrong, often with deadly consequences for many of the crew. The description of the testing is, to the layman, quite technical at times and is supported by numerous illustrations of aircraft instruments and Blackman’s log books. There are several glossy pages of photos of Avro 707s and Vulcans, some in colour. The text is often quite illuminating, especially in the detail of interactions with management at Avro and, at times Smiths Industries of Cheltenham. It also highlights the difference in approach to test flying in the 1950s and 1960s to the approach now – the recent loss of an Airbus A400M shows that the life of a company test pilot is very dangerous – but I’d like to believe that things have improved a lot. A great book.

[Robin Houghton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable, fact-filled read. Well written, not dry at all considering the amount of information and detail. Many photo's and virtually a complete history of the aircrafts development and testing. A definite for the Vulcan fans bookshelf.

[Gwyn Owens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting.