Midland Publishing

Handley Page Victor – The Crescent-Winged V-Bomber : Aerofax Series

by  Phil Butler and Tony Buttler

Reviewed By  Paul Bradley IPMS# 35554

MSRP: $31.95 ISBN-10: 1857803116 ISBN-13: 978-1857803112 Website: www.specialtypress.com The futuristic Handley Page Victor was the third in a series of British "V-Bombers", preceded by the Vickers Valiant and AvroVulcan. Designed as high-altitude nuclear bombers, these advanced machines gave sterling service to the RAF for four decades from the early 1950’s until the early 1990’s, serving first as bombers, then in the strategic and maritime reconnaissance roles before ending their careers as aerial tankers. While not seeing combat (thankfully) in their original role, they did go to war as tankers in the Falklands, where they supported the "Black Buck" Vulcan raids, and in the Gulf War in 1990-1991. Being the third in a series of V-Bombers to enter service, the Victor is also the last of the trio to be covered by Aerofax; please see my reviews of the Valiant book from 2004 and Vulcan in 2007. This volume is written by the same team as the Vulcan book, Phil Butler and Tony Buttler, both long-established and well-respected British aviation historians. Using much primary source material made available by the Handley Page Association, the authors trace the background, design and development history of the type in great detail, followed by a brief service history – only some 80-odd airframes were constructed and the type was never exported; though South Africa wanted eight, political considerations scuppered any deal. Full details of all marks, modifications and roles are given, along with a description of the various proposed variants that didn’t make it off the drawing board. Most upsetting is the way in which the British government of the time refused to give the company any military contracts following the company’s refusal to be merged with other British aircraft companies during the sixties. This directly led to the cancellation of existing Victor contracts, as well as an advanced transport type based on the Victor that could have been a world-beater; by 1970 the company had basically starved to death. The text is backed by many illustrations, including a good colour section at the rear. Many of the photos have never been published before and will be of interest to historians; quality and reproduction on the heavy, glossy paper stock is mostly very good. There are also some diagrams from tech manuals, though unfortunately these are reproduced too small to be of much help to the modeller. And speaking of the modeller, there have been precious few Victor kits over the years. Matchbox released one in 1/72 in the 1980’s and this makes a reasonable model from the box; re-released by Revell, it can still be found quite easily and is a great basis for a super-detailing project. Lindberg and Frog released 1/96 kits sometime back in the dark ages – enough said. There have also been 1/144 vacforms, if that’s your lot. While this book is not specifically aimed at the modeller, there is a lot here of interest to us in that role. As an historical reference, it is an excellent primer and I can thoroughly recommend it. Our sincere thanks to Specialty Press for the review sample. Midland Publishing books are available from the Specialty Press website, or by calling 1-800-895-4585. A $6.95 shipping and handling charge is added to each order.