In all, Avro supplied 134 Vulcans to the Royal Air Force. The final version of the Vulcan, the B.Mk2, had gracefully-curved leading edges added to its 34-metre delta wingspan, making a beautiful, instantly-recognisable design.

From 1957 to 1969, during the dark days of the Cold War, the Avro Vulcan was the main British contribution to the NATO strategic nuclear deterrent.

For 24 hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week, RAF Vulcans and their crews stood on "Quick Reaction Alert", to take off within 2 minutes in the event of a Soviet attack. Each Vulcan had a crew of five: two pilots, two navigators and an air electronics officer.

This picture shows a practice "Scramble".

Latterly Vulcans were equipped with the British hydrogen bomb, code-named "Yellow Sun", which had a power of 1million tonnes of high explosive, or a nuclear-tipped cruise missile called "Blue Steel".

No British bomber ever flew with a live nuclear weapon; the deterrent strategy was a success.