White Avro Vulcan B1, black and white version

An Avro Vulcan B1 nuclear strike aircraft at high altitude. The aircraft portrayed in this Flight Artworks depiction, XA898, is shown in the beautiful but sinister anti-flash white paint scheme used on the early V bombers as a way of trying to mitigate the effects of a nuclear blast on the crew.

There appears to be a popular misconception that the B1 had the straight-edged wings, and that the airframes with the kinked leading edge, like these, were B1A or B2. But most B1s looked like this and the B1A designation was about avionics – while the B2 had an altogether bigger wing.

Airframe based on Crown Copyright material used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.