History The Handley Page Victor was initially designed as a Strategic Bomber, but following problems with the Valiant Fleet, the Victors were converted to a refuelling role. The cockpit we have was for the K2 version of the tanker, the conversion be carried out by Hawker Siddeley following the Demise of Handley Page. The Victor conversion was done during the 1970’s and after seeing action in the Falklands War in 1982 and the Iraq war in 1991 The Victor fleet was retired in 1993. Black Buck One of the most famous missions that the Victor was used on was the Black Buck missions during the Falklands War. The Mission was to carry out a long range (8,000 mile) bombing raid to Bomb Port Stanley Airfield to deny the Argentinian land based aircraft using the airfield. The Bombing raid deployed a Vulcan Bomber and Victor Tankers to the Ascension Islands 3800 miles away. A mission was then planned, using refuelling tankers, to enable a Vulcan Bomber to carry out a bombing raid, using 21 1000lb bombs, and return safely. The mission had to be timed to happen before the British fleet reached the Falklands, ideally in early May. This caused quite a few problems, particularly as only the uprated Vulcans, required for the mission, were no longer fitted with the correct Bombing and Navigation Systems. These had been removed, and some had to be retrieved from the scrapyard, where they had been sent!!! There was also problems with the re-fuelling probes, several which had been broken during training. RAF Technicians had to raid aircraft museums to remove the probes from aircraft that had recently been delivered to the museums. On April the 29th 3 Vulcans and 5 Victors set off for the Ascension Islands. After passing the Azores the reserve Vulcan returned home. On the 30th April the order was given to bomb the runway on May the 1st. Two Vulcans and the Victors set off but the primary Vulcan had to turn back due to problems leaving one Vulcan to carry out the raid. A series of refuelling stages took place, but following a problem with one of the Victors refuelling probe only one Victor remained to fuel the Vulcan. The Vulcan was using more fuel than expected and in order that Vulcan could complete its mission the Victor had to give it more fuel leaving it with not enough fuel to return. The flight time was seven hours and the Victor only had enough fuel for five!! The Vulcan went on to complete a successful mission and Victor was able to return safely after it was refuelled by another Victor. Come along to the museum to see the cockpit and learn more about Victor and the role it played during the Cold War.

Victor K2 Cockpit. The cockpit is a new addition to the museum and was used as a Training Simulator at RAF Marham. The Cockpit has all the original fittings that were used during in Service.