A dramatic silhouette and reputation for British engineering excellence long made the Avro Vulcan bomber a favourite at British air shows.

But for the admiring crowds who watched it soar overhead at Duxford and Fairford and Shuttleworth, the spectacle of the jet in flight obscured the grim reality of its Cold War mission.

As one of the “V-force” bombers, along with the Vickers Valiant and the Handley Page Victor, the Vulcan’s role was to drop nuclear bombs in the event of a war between Nato and the Soviet Union – an act that would likely have heralded the onset of global catastrophe.