The BAC Concorde bomber is the RAF's principal strategic bomber in the 1980-1990s. It is based on the Concorde supersonic airliner.

Contents 1 Genesis 2 RAF Mistrust 3 Into Service 4 Variants 4.1 Concorde B.1 4.2 Concorde B.2 4.3 Concorde B.3 4.4 Concorde B.4 5 A New Direction 6 The '91 Disaster & Beyond 7 Comments

GenesisEdit

During the late 1960's the RAF had come to decision the the V force would have to be redeployed into a low level role. However the air staff issued a new requirement for a new supersonic bomber with trans continental range to fourfill the world spanning role still envisioned by UK planners. B.A.C. looked at the proposal and came back with a bomber version of their new Anglo French airliner, Concorde.

RAF MistrustEdit

At first the RAF where frankly dismissive of the idea but once the detailed proposal landed on the desk of the accountants whom saw the saving of using an existing airfame, the deal was done. The concorde B1 entered service with the RAF rapidly with all the UK's initial production being of this version, leaving Air France to be the worlds first supesonic airliner operator , but not the last with Concorde serving in the National carriers of the UK, Australia , Canada and Portugal as well as 12 other airlines

Into ServiceEdit

The first B1 entered RAF service in August 1976 with the famous 617 sqd on quick rediness alert. The RAF then started to use its new bomber on a series of high porfile world wide deployments, nominally to help "western" contries deter Soviet encroachment but more a glorified sales tour.

Unfortunately no new customers appered and so the UK stayed the only operater of the bomber, meanwhile BAC had proposed a new upgrade of the airframe, installing canard wings, new power plant, digital flight controls and the ability to carry the new and upgreded Blue Steel missile. Though expensive the RAF accepted this radical plan and put the UK's 32 irfames into a series of rolling updates over the next 8 years.

VariantsEdit

Concorde B.1 Edit

Externally there was little to tell the difference between the civilian Concorde and its more deadly bomber variant especially since both had similar white colour schemes. The Concorde B.1 carried most of its weaponry externally since it had a rather pultry bomb bay.

Concorde B.2Edit

The B.2 introduced a whole host of ECM upgrades to improve survivability.

Concorde B.3Edit

The first major redesign the aircraft was fitted with large canards behind the cockpit which were intended to improve agility at low speeds where the basic Concorde B.1/2 suffered from clumsy handling. During supersonic flight the canards were fixed in place since they were not cleared for use above Mach 1. More powerful Rolls-Royce Olympus engines were added which negated the loss of speed from the drag incurred by the canards and external weapons.

Concorde B.4Edit

The B.4 introduced a wholly upgraded cockpit intended at easing aircrew workload. Multi-function displays (MFD) replaced most steam gauges and both pilots were given Heads Up Displays (HUD).

A New DirectionEdit

After the Falklands war the French Air force was in full receipt of the Commonwealths after action reports ( as a

close allie) and saw the ease with which the Concorde's had evaded the best equipment that the US could supply Argentina. A total of 6 airframes where aquired from Air France for conversion into a large strategic recce platform. fitted with the best equipment france could prduce or buy they served all over the world in support of French interests. Differing little externally from the RAF's b1 the only obvious differance was the large undewing fuel tanks to extend the already large range, though with these fitted the aircraft could not reach supersonic speeds.

The '91 Disaster & BeyondEdit

During The '91 Disaster the Concorde was tasked with the main transatlantic attacks upon the continental USA causing much damaged but at a high price in airframes. One such attack was against Goldman's Harbour on the US East Coast.

The airfame stayed in the classic anti flash white for its entire service life due to airframe cooling requirements and became a beloved sight at airshows around the world not to mention it's popularity to this day with plastic kit manufacturers .