Shaping the Vulcan (May 2025)

The vast delta wing form of Avro's Vulcan has become an iconic symbol of cold war Britain. From starring alongside James Bond in Thunderball to striking improbably distant targets during the Falklands War, the unique jet bomber has attained legendary status. But why was its shape so different from that of its contemporaries?

RAF Bomber Command had successfully fought its way through the Second World War with conventionally laid-out aircraft, such as Avro's own Lancaster, so what prompted the radical rethink which resulted in the Vulcan's visually striking design?

It didn't happen by chance or by accident. Vulcan represented the applied scientific and engineering might of a nation – a combination of new propulsion systems, new electronics, a new understanding of aerodynamics and, above all, new ordnance. Avro's postwar bomber became the cutting edge of Britain's nuclear deterrent; forged in record time as a means of delivering atomic destruction should the necessity arise.

In Shaping the Vulcan, aerodynamicist Stephen Liddle traces the origins of the technology underpinning the Vulcan's development and how it was combined to create a weapon like no other. His account includes previously unpublished images, expert analysis of contemporary data and a detailed review of the engineering effort applied, to establish a new understanding of precisely how and why the Vulcan emerged as one of the most celebrated and distinctive aircraft in British aviation history.

This is not a tale of eye-patches and Black Buck – rather, it is an origin story; an account of how previously unimaginable technology came together in the form of a beautiful aircraft, operating at the edge of the possible, to defend the nation against a threat greater than any seen before in human history.