The following crew descriptions were kindly provided by Pat Keating,
an ex-Vulcan crew member.

Vulcan rear crew did not have ejection seats but to help them in an emergency an inflatable assistor cushion was built into all their seats. The Nav Rad and the AEO had seats that could also swivel to make it easier for them to get to the entry door that also serves as the emergency escape door.

The position in this photograph was occupied by the Navigator Radar (Nav Rad). He was a qualified navigator who had also undertaken specialist training in radar techniques. His main responsibilities on the aircraft were to operate the Navigation and Bombing System (NBS), to control the switching of any weapons carried and to carry out sights on astronomical bodies such as stars.

The items in front of him include the 9inch circular radar display, a radar control unit immediately to its left, a unit on the right to control the navigation functions and immediately on top of this unit, a display unit (Nav Panel) giving navigation information calculated by the NBS. A radar altimeter is to the left of the Nav Panel.

The Radar is a direct descendant of the H2S system developed during the Second World War for bomber aircraft. Depending on modification, various scales from 3 million to million can be displayed on the screen. By moving the timebase origin away from the screen centre with the small joy stick in front of the screen, the radar can look out to a range of approximately 180 Nautical Miles (NM) from about 40000ft altitude. The scales have an accurate electronic marker system that provides accurate fixes to determine aircraft position for en route navigation or bombing runs. A camera is mounted on top of the radar display to record radar information.

 
The weapons carried are controlled from a panel on the left hand cockpit side. Depending on the type of weapon carried, the panel was changed. Weapon releases were planned to be automatic but a backup manual bomb release button is on the cockpit side near the radar control unit and another under the coaming panel in front of the first officer.
nav1

 

 This is the position for the Navigator Plotter (Nav Plotter). He was often the more experienced Navigator having completed at least one other tour before being posted onto Vulcans. His responsibilities were to navigate the aircraft to a position where a successful attack could be completed by the Nav Rad using the NBS.

When the aircraft was first designed, the Nav Plotter was to use the same basic techniques that were used by bomber navigators in World War 2 although the NBS would have made the task considerably easier. However, rapid technological developments after the war meant that by the time that the Vulcan entered service, he had a groundspeed and drift measuring doppler radar feeding into a Ground Position Indicator (GPI).

The GPI6 was designed to work with the Blue Steel stand off missile and could be used to provide markers on the Nav Radar's screen.. This was not routinely used as in exceptional circumstances such as a strong following wind, the equipment would never catch up and indicate the correct aircraft position!!

Immediately above and slightly to the left is the control unit for a Heading reference system. This equipment was fitted to the aircraft to provide a better heading source than the standard magnetic of the Smiths Military Flight System (MFS) compasses. It represents an in between stage of the magnetic heading source of the MFS and the Inertial Systems Fitted in more modern aircraft such as the Tornado or a Jumbo Jet. The control unit for the MFS compass systems is to the right of the Nav Panel. The sensing units for these compasses are in the port and starboard wing tips. As an independent rapid fixing aid under his control, the plotter controlled a Tactical Navigation System (TACAN) which gives a bearing and distance from a ground based radio station. A radio compass system mounted in the cabin roof also provided bearings from ground stations but was more difficult to use.

 
nav2

 

 Using the rapid fixing aids, the plotter would aim to continually determine the aircraft position at low level, every few minutes at high level but went to a 40 minute fixing cycle if astro sights were to be used. This was because a complicated set of calculations had to be made and independently checked before a sequence of 7 one minute sights spread over 13 minutes were made. The results were then checked after the sequence before they were plotted on the navigation chart being used. Allowing for all the possible errors that exist with astro sights, an accuracy of 10 NM could be achieved.
aeo2

 

 Like the Nav Rad, the Air Electronics Officer (AEO) had a swivel seat in his position . The AEO as an aircrew member was specially created for the V-force to operate what was decided were the more complicated electronic systems that were to be introduced in V-bombers. This particularly referred to the electronic warfare equipment. He also controlled the main aircraft power supplies, acted as the main radio communicator, and held the aircraft system reference books including the aircraft check-list or Flight Reference Cards (FRCs). The checks were read out by the AEO with a challenge or response given by other crew members.

The main aircraft power supply panel is on the cockpit side to the right of the AEO. 200v 400hz AC is the main source of electrical power in the Vulcan Mk2 with four other supplies derived from it through frequency changer units (FCUs), tap offs or transformer rectifier units (TRUs). A schematic diagram is used to assist the AEO by showing which of the main power supply sources was connected to the aircraft power supply bus-bar. The normal source would be from one of the four engine driven alternators, any one of which was capable of providing all the aircraft power needs. A ground power source could be used before the engines were started while in the air, an Airborne Auxiliary Power Pack (AAPP) or Ram Air Turbine (RAT) could also be used. The 115v 400hz and 28v DC supplies are also shown on schematic diagrams which are to towards the rear instrument panel. A combination of electromagnetic 'dolls eye' indicators, warning lights and dials assist the AEO in this vital task of ensuring safe aircraft operation.

 
aeo1 Radio systems controlled by the AEO are a combined VHF and UHF radio by his right elbow and an HF system just to the right of the GPI6. His transmission button is a morse key on the right hand side of his desk. Left handed AEOs could find this position awkward.

The Electronic Warfare (EW) equipment is mounted in front of the AEO. To determine the nature of a threat to the aircraft, there is a Tail Warning Radar (TWR) and a Radar Warning Receiver (RWR). The TWR is the rectangular orange display at eye level immediately in front on the AEO and looked immediately behind the aircraft for any fighters or missiles. The RWR is a small circular display to the right of the TWR and detected signals from radars. Depending on the frequency, the scan rate, a number of countermeasures selected by other control boxes in front of the AEO could be selected to ensure the survival of the aircraft. The AEO could also visually scan behind the aircraft with a periscope set into his desk. Extra crew members to the normal complement are seated in the 6th and 7th positions.

 
The 6th seat position is immediately behind the Nav Radar seat with the 7th behind the AEO seat. Neither seat is comfortable being awkward to sit in with a guarantee of cold feet as there is very little insulation to the outside world on the cockpit floor. (The outside air temperature at 40000ft is approximately -50 deg Celsius).

The additional members could be aircrew checking or instructing various rear crew members or groundcrew such as crew chiefs on deployments. Checking officers had a difficult time observing from the lower positions but if they tried to stand up the 6th or 7th seats to observe, the weight of the mandatory parachute pack coupled with the attached emergency dinghy generally caused the observations to be short. Although crew chiefs could rest on a flight since they would come into their own on the ground, they would have to move position if an astro sight was required. The Vulcan is probably unique having two sextant mountings. They are one port and one starboard immediately above the 6th and 7th seat positions. The sextant was kept in a special boxed container just behind the 7th seat.

Behind the 6th seat back rest, there is the part of the NBS equipment that supplied a feed of height to the rest of the system. As this was required to be accessed during flight by the Nav Rad, if no extra crew member was present, the seatback would often be left on the ground.

When the Vulcan was conceived, visual bombing as practised in the Second World War was considered to be an essential requirement. Consequently, all the V-bombers had a visual bombing position.

All production Vulcans had a prone visual bombing position underneath the pilots' position and forward of the 6th and 7th seat positions. A bomb sight positioned underneath a metal cover was used by the Nav Plotter in his role as the visual bomb aimer. Meanwhile, the Nav Radar took over aircraft navigation. The Nav Plotter was able to direct the aircraft automatically to the release point and release the weapon while the first pilot and Nav Radar opened the bomb doors and selected the weapons to be released. Although visual bomb aiming was practised over Britain, there are very few days when this type of attack is feasible from the Vulcan's normal high altitude height of about 40,000ft. Using practice bombs, ranger flights to bombing ranges in the Mediterranean area were undertaken to practise in better conditions. The position fell into disuse when the V-force went low level. A vertically mounted camera was fitted into the position to film the ground under the aircraft during practice target runs.

The metal cover was eventually fitted with mountings for the ladder from the crew entrance door. Either side of the visual bombing position are more component boxes for the NBS. Forward of the metal cover is the cabin pressure bulkhead with a hatch to the H2S scanner.

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pilots The two pilot positions were the only ones in the aircraft with ejection seats. These saved the lives of many pilots.

The pilot in the left hand seat was termed the first pilot while the right hand seat was occupied by the co-pilot. Normally the aircraft captain occupied the left hand seat but would only use the term Captain when an executive decision was required. This would typically only occur in an emergency situation.

 
1st officer
 One set of engine controls and instruments are mounted centrally under the front coaming. Immediately in front of each were identical sets of flight instruments. On the Vulcan Mark 2 a number of separate instruments were combined into two in what was called the Military Flight System (MFS). One instrument displayed aircraft attitude with the other displayed directional information and steer demands. The MFS could be regarded as a forerunner to the integrated glass cockpits of modern airliners.

Under the left hand coaming panel are the switches that control engine starting and bomb doors. Only the first pilot was able to operate these controls. Under the right coaming panel are switches for the fuel system and cabin conditioning under the control of the co-pilot. The cabin conditioning included pressurisation which could be set to Normal at about 8000ft or Combat at about 25000ft. More fuel control switches are in a slide out panel under the throttles and between the two seats.

The pilots do not have a very good view of the outside world from the Vulcan. In part this was because the aircraft was designed for a high altitude nuclear role when it was important to protect the complete cockpit from the flash of the nuclear blast. Blinds are present on all windows with extra blinds between the front and rear cockpit areas. The poor view meant that when the Vulcan flew low level, it had to keep to cleared routes for flight safety purposes.

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