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The Vickers Valiant was the first four-jet bomber of Britain's Cold War nuclear strike V-Force whose Valiants, Victors and Vulcans, painted in distinctive anti-flash white, were a familiar sight in the 1950s and 60s. Widely regarded as the best-looking V-Bomber and the nicest to fly, the Valiant equipped nine squadrons during its brief career from 1955 to 1964, dropping bombs in anger during the Suez crisis and Britain's first atomic and hydrogen bombs. In his dramatic painting, Michael Rondot has brilliantly portrayed a Valiant taking-off with black smoke pouring from its four Avon engines against a backdrop of a typical V-Force dispersal airfield. The aircraft is XD818, the H-bomb dropper, now displayed at the RAF Museum, Hendon as the last surviving example of Sir George Edwards's classic design.
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