Photograph
by
Andy Leitch
Vulcan
XJ784 of No 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron at CFB Bagotville, Quebec in 1978.
XJ784 was originally delivered in May 1961 to Boscombe Down for trials.
Within a year it was returned to Avros for retrofitting with 301 engines
and was the second aircraft thus equipped and used for engine trials.
Retrofitting the engines was not a simple process as the 301 was slightly
larger. The larger engines can be recognised by with their wider, shorter,
and convergent-divergent nozzles. XJ784's first RAF unit was 230 OCU at
Finningley in 1966. It later served at both Akrotiri and Waddington.