Two Avro Vulcan B1 nuclear bombers

Two Avro Vulcan B1 nuclear strike aircraft above the clouds. The aircraft portrayed in this Flight Artworks depiction, XA898 and XA899, are shown in the anti-flash white paint scheme intended to mitigate the effect on the crew of a nuclear blast.

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.