After the Second World War and before the development of accurate inter-continental ballistic missiles the RAF needed a long range nuclear capable bomber. Three were commissioned from major aircraft manufacturers: the famous Avro Vulcan, the Handley-Page Victor and the first introduced into service, the Vickers Valiant. It first flew in 1951, entering RAF service in 1955 just in time for its first and only operational sorties, against Egyptian airfields in the Suez crisis of 1956. It was withdrawn from service as early as 1965, its airframe suffering from metal fatigue and unable to continue with its new roles of low-level attack, refuelling and reconnaissance missions.
This is not a model we built when were young, for the simple reason that this kit was only introduced by Airfix last year so, we don't have an old box to compare it against. 105 examples were built but only one complete one survives, at the RAF museum in Cosford (see below).
This is a hulkingly attractive cold war relic and Agent Triple P is rather tempted to buy the Airfix model even though we haven't built one for years!
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