My Passion For The Victor

My life–long passion for the Handley Page Victor began as a youngster when I spotted it in my little blue “Observer’s Book of Aircraft” and when the Victor featured in the movie “The Iron Maiden” in the early sixties.

My next sighting of a Victor was in 1970 during Exercise Bersatu Padu in the Far East. I was a Radio Operator with the Royal New Zealand Navy and on the final day of the Exercise, before sailing into Singapore, the participating aircraft performed a fly–past. The Victor was a magnificent sight despite the Vulcans, Lightnings , Canberras and Phantoms taking part. This image was taken at that exercise.

I consider the Handley Page Victor to be one of the most beautiful aircraft ever designed. Technically, it was an extremely advanced aircraft for its time.

Later on I ventured into flight simulation and finally created a version of the HP Victor. It was at this time I found many people associated with the Victor namely Andre Tempest and Roger Brooks. This led to the trip of a life time — to take a ride in XL231 at Elvington August 2004. On the way to York, we stopped at Bruntingthorpe where I met with a Victor for the first time. The Vulcan  XH558  was there undergoing restoration before the Lotteries Board took over and I took the chance to crawl through every space for a closer look. Bruntingthorpe was where I uplifted my Victor complete fuel panel which originated from XL190. After the Elvington Air Show at York, there were visits to Hendon and Duxford. Images from there are in the Museum page.