Vickers Valiant

The Vickers-Armstrongs Valiant is a British quadjet high-altitude bomber, and was part of the Royal Air Force’s V bomber nuclear force in the 1950s and 1960s. The Valiant was the first of the V bombers to become operational, and was followed by the Handley Page Victor and the Avro Vulcan, which were more advanced. The Valiant has the distinction of being the only V bomber to have dropped live nuclear weapons. Valiant was least successful of the 3 V-bombers. It had some structural airframe problems and was phased out years before the Vulcan and the Victor.

Valiant was also used by the RAF for other purposes, as a number were converted to perform support roles such as aerial refuelling tankers and aerial reconnaissance aircraft. Valiants were used for conventional bombing missions over Egypt for Operation Musketeer during the Suez Crisis of 1956. Valiant was retired in 1965.

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