"Graham Harrison" wrote in message
...

There's a story, which I cannot verify, that the RAF took a Vulcan across
the Atlantic to a bombing competition. They watched the B52s lumber away
and decided a bet was in order. I don't know what base/how long the
runway but the bet was that a fully loaded Vulcan could make 5000 feet
altitude over the "far" end of the runway from a standing start. The
Vulcan won (I think a case of good whisky).

I can believe it. In 1974 I watched an RAF Vulcan take off from Andersen AFB
after a refuel on its way to Australia. After it left the runway, it circled
the field with the landing gear still down, then when it came back above the
middle of runway, the engines spooled up, up came the gear, and it zoomed
off upwards like a fighter, disappearing into a low cloud layer.