The rapid start system on Vulcan aircraft let the bombers take off quickly and move toward enemy targets before any incoming weaponry damaged their air bases
In the first clip, titled “Scramble in 2 Minutes!,” Vulcans from the renowned No. 617 Squadron (Sqn) “Dambusters” engage in a classic scramble from the Cold War era.
As you may see the movie also shows a speedy start of the aircraft’s Olympus engines. The rapid start system was created to give the bombers the ability to take off quickly and fly toward enemy targets before any approaching weaponry could damage their airbases.
Although there were no additional aircraft during the Cold War, Bomber Command was able to increase squadron complements from ten to eleven crews in order to keep one crew from each V-bomber squadron permanently on Quick Reaction Alert (QRA), ready to go to war at the sound of a siren. The British could not afford to maintain standing patrols like Strategic Air Command (SAC), but Bomber Command did so.
In his book Vulcan Units of the Cold War, Andrew Brookes explains how Vulcan B 2s possessed simultaneous rapid starting systems that were self-contained for each of their four engines. The captain set the master start switch to “on,” adjusted all of the throttles to a 50 percent RPM setting and depressed the master Rapid Start button. Each side has a bulkhead with four air storage cylinders that were each charged to 3300 psi. These supplied air to each engine’s combustor unit via a pressure-reducing valve. The flying controls automatically started when the latter wound up and the alternators turned on. Within 20 seconds, the instrument’s gyros ran up, and everything was in motion.
To disconnect the ground electrics and intercom, Marshalls of Cambridge created a brilliant method using elastics and levers. As the aircraft went forward, spring-loading took care of the pitot head and Q-feel air intake coverings. The Vulcans just had to roll forward onto the runway after that and launch themselves into space one after the other.
Due to the lack of an internal rapid start feature in Vulcan B 1/B 1As, Bomber Command engineering staff officer Sqn Ldr C Dixon created the “Simstart” trolley. Using a bank of batteries, the trolley allowed an aircraft crew chief to virtually start all four engines at once while the crew was buckling up.
The legendary story of the furious Wg Cdr Arthur Griffiths and his No 101 Sqn crew setting their B 1A to battle readiness, locking the entrance door, and going to the crew room is related by Brookes. They hurried to the pan as soon as the hooter sounded, where the crew chief had already started the engines using the Simstart trolley. “Bootsie” Griffiths shouted to Tony Woodford, his co-pilot, “Give me the door key!”
“I haven’t got it,” said Tony, “You must have it.” “No, I fucking well haven’t. You must have it,” as the jet, which was powered by four engines, yanked at the chocks and attempted to escape. The crew chief finally had to break and reestablish order with a fire ax.
However, as you can see by watching the second video, which depicts Avro Vulcan XH558 “The Spirit Of Great Britain” conducting a scramble during an airshow, a Vulcan QRA take-off was quite a stunning sight.
Of the 134 Avro Vulcan jet-powered delta-winged strategic nuclear bomber aircraft used by the RAF during the Cold War, Vulcan XH558 was the last remaining airworthy example. It was the last Vulcan to fly after 1986 and the last one to serve in the military. The last flight was on October 28, 2015.
Photo by Airwolfhound from Hertfordshire, UK, via Wikipedia