Ep.230 - Banshee with Lindsay Rumbold

Well, we first met at Yeovilton at an air day, and I'm going to say it was 10 years ago now.

I can't quite remember the exact date, but that's where we saw XH558, of course, and that was about to fly.

But it sort of makes me think about the V-bombers and V-force and rod and that whole thing.

What makes the V-bombers so intriguing to you?

It's a number of things.

I think one is it's so soon after the end of the Second World War and you have, you know, the jet age is in full swing and the massive leap in technology.

You know, it's often quoted that there's 11 years between the first flight of the Lancaster and the first flight of the Vulcan.

Yet you compare them as aircrafts.

the complexity, the step change in complexity between the piston engines of World War II and aircraft like the Vulcan, the Victor, the Valiant, is absolutely incredible.

And the other thing that fascinates me is that there were three...

Aircraft, the V-bombers, designed for the same specification effectively as long-range strategic bombers.

Can you imagine that in defence these

days? Here's a single contract.

We'll do three aircraft.

There just wouldn't be the budget for it these days.

So there's that aspect.

But the fact that the three aircraft are also very different.

The Victor itself was pushing the boundaries in different ways to the Vulcan.

So that diversity of technical creativity is really what captured my imagination with it.

Now, you're not, you're, well, you're definitely younger than me, but you're not that old that you saw them come into service.

How did you first sort of pick up these V-Bomber thematics that run through everything you do?

It was a number of things.

My first job out of university was at Land Rover, at their Gaydon site.

And this was actually before I got fully immersed in aviation.

But it was quite clear that the site had passed as an Air Force base.