COCKPIT

The five-man crew of the Vulcan all sat in a single, crowded, pressurised cabin. Two pilots sat side by side behind fighterstyle joysticks, looking forward through a very limited canopy, intended to protect the crew from the blinding flash of the nuclear payload. Behind, facing the rear, were a navigator (radar), navigator (plotter) and air electronics officer (AEO), each with imposing banks of instruments. Cutting-edge in the 1950s, much of the navigational and electronic warfare avionics would be badly dated by the 1980s. Only the pilots had ejector seats.

The three rear-facing crew positions: two navigators on the left, and an air electronics operator on the right