How the Falklands Was Won: Ashtray At 3 O’Clock

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See More... TWENTY-five years ago, Flt Lt Martin Withers took Black Buck 1 on abombing raid of bombing run on Stanley airfield, Falklands Islands.

He was flying a Vulvan, a less than state-of-the-art machine.

As the Telegraph notes:
To fly a Vulcan to Stanley required the help of all of the 14 Victor refuelling tankers that the RAF possessed.

The V-bomber was intended only for low-level attacks carrying nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union.

To adapt the Vulcan to air-to-air refuelling and to conventional bombing - required finding various bits and pieces that had not been used for decades.

Some were reclaimed from museums.

"One part they needed for the bomb-aiming equipment was being used as an ashtray in the engineers' mess at Waddington," said Mr Withers, who is now a pilot for Zoom, a new no-frills airline flying across the Atlantic from Gatwick.

"Elements of the preparation for those flights were Heath Robinson in character."

An ashtray? Do Health and Safety know?