I’m pretty sure the movie never shows the rogue pilot actually taking control of the aircraft.
I’d have to check, but he does (50-year-old spoiler) land the Vulcan on the water where the landing strip lights are set up underwater.
(More spoiler from 1965) Just opened my $4.99 Blu-Ray copy.
The fake Derval is given a small breathing apparatus about the size of a hardcover book, and a killer gas canister about the size of a short cigar tube. At the critical moment, he is sitting in co-pilot seat, unhooks his gas mask from the plane supply, hooks to his own breathing supply. He then plugs the poison canister into a spot on the instrument panel (??) and hits the “depressurization warning” (red) button. Everyone chokes in their mask and is dead in 5 seconds. After he lands the plane in the water, he can’t get his seatbelt off and asks the scuba bad guy to cut the harness. Because he threatened to back out unless paid more, they cut his air mask tube instead. Apparently he felt $100,000 for delivering two atomic bombs after a year of plastic surgery and training was not enough - he wanted $250,000 for the job.
Six months later, it turns out that Israel did operate the Sud Aviation Vantour for about a decade.
15 out of 28 were lost in combat.
Per the post-1962 Tri-Service Aircraft Designation Service, “X” means “experimental”, and “Y” means prototype. The practical difference is that an “X” prefix aircraft is not expected to become a production system, and a “Y” system is after it completes development.
This is a distinction carried over from the earlier 1924 US Army Air Service Aircraft Designation System. This explains why the B-52 bomber (developed in the 1950s) proceeded from an XB-52 flight-experiment airplane to a YB-52 operations prototype, and thence to an unadorned B-52 production aircraft.
No not the only bombers.
Israel expanded their airforce , overshadowing the replacement of the Vantours, with many Douglay A-4 Skyhawks, which are unsophisticed and slow, so as to be able to carry a B17 worth of bombs.
Labelled as Attack jets, they are basically bombers…as per OP… why the change to light fighters only… These is only happening in the last decade, its not that Isarael has never had attack/strike jets.
Why the change ? Countries around Israel can have 1000 airplanes , so sending up retaliation strikes is madness… All you can do is defend… Its hard to stop them arriving the first time… But you get as many as you can while you disturb their targetting of your country, and when they head home, you catch those attack aircraft with your faster, defensive, fighter, and prevent them coming back a second time…
You can also use your light figher to get in to harrash naval and ground forces… run the gauntlet with your speed … and if the enemy are in attack mode, they may be short of defensive fighters…you have their airforce as secondary targets on the way back .