Military AI Works

I have seen a photo of the restored Vulcan with the canopy removed and tried to figure out how the crew would access in such a narrow cockpit.
The answer can be found here
http://www.kenmcbride.com/360photography.htm

Also available other 360° cockpit views

Yep, big long climb up into the "belly", then to the rear compartment, turn 180 to get up to the pilots position.

That big long ladder was also the means for the rear 3 crew members to bail out of the aircraft as none of the V Bombers (Victor, Valiant and Vulcan) carried ejection seats for the back seat boys.

Of course the pilots were okay!!

Stewart Pearson wrote:Yep, big long climb up into the "belly", then to the rear compartment, turn 180 to get up to the pilots position.

That big long ladder was also the means for the rear 3 crew members to bail out of the aircraft as none of the V Bombers (Victor, Valiant and Vulcan) carried ejection seats for the back seat boys.

Of course the pilots were okay!!

I'd be curious to see it in person to understand how big it actually is. It looks terribly narrow and Wide angle lenses usually make miracles!
I knew the V bombers had bang seats for the pilots only, maybe those sitting in the back office were not as worth! As far as I remember, also the Canberra PR9 (the reconnaisance version) had this peculiar feature... quite weird indeed, as well as the fact that the co-pilot/system operator had to access his cockpit through the aircraft's nose!


EDIT: I made a mistake. The nose member of the Canberra crew had an ejection seat
http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/lofi ... 33416.html

james84 wrote:EDIT: I made a mistake. The nose member of the Canberra crew had an ejection seat
http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/lofi ... 33416.html

Yes he had an ejection seat, but no heater controls. The Pilot controlled the heating, and because he was getting the sun through the canopy, he'd want it relatively cool.

Meanwhile the poor guy in front was freezing most of the time.