Last flying Avro Vulcan, XH558, prepares for her swan song The Vulcan To The Sky Trust has announced "with considerable sadness" that this summer will be the public's last chance to catch Avro Vulcan XH558 thundering through British skies, as the legendary V-bomber will be permanently grounded at the end of this flying season. The trust explains that the axe will fall because "three …
Yep Rolls Wood in Scotland can fully service or rebuild your heavy marine Olympus only :(
Those zero-timed, bagged & audited Olympus 201s were from the last time RR serviced them in 1982, following the retirement of the Vulcan fleet all the tooling and equipment for servicing them went for scrap :( I understand that even car manufacturers only have to have parts available for 10 years.
along with another epoch-defining machine: the English Electric Lightning - the plane the Yanks refused to believe existed.
There's a Vulcan, Lightning, and TSR2 (now *there* was a plane) all on display at RAF Cosford, if anyone is ever in the Midlands. If you want a cultured day out, you could go there, and return via the Roman town of Wroxeter.
You've missed the Concorde there - as impressive as any on your list, but civilian to boot!
If you wish to see one of them (as well as a Vulcan, an Electric Lightning, a Nimrod, various WW2 fighters, etc) then head up to East Fortune - an absolute gem of a museum just under an hour's drive from Edinburgh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_Flight#Collections
You've missed the Concorde there - as impressive as any on your list, but civilian to boot!
Well reminded sir !
Last time I was there, an American visitor was describing some of the planes (and theatres of war) to his grandchildren, as with most USAians, he was blown away by the fact the whole museum was free.
Hence this shameless re-plug. Use it, or lose it.
I took my American uncle to Cosford once, years ago. Johnny was a WW2 veteran and was always happy to reminisce. We were looking at one of the flying bombs, when Johnny turned to an elderly gentleman standing next to him and said, "God, I remember how afraid I used to be whenever I heard one of these cut out in the sky above me!" The man replied, "Ja?"
I used to drool over the Lightning as a kid every time I went to Hendon. A fantastic aircraft, it isn't pretty, just brutish and functional.
The Sunderland was another great aircraft. My father flew the one that was in Hendon, ISTR that it went to India after Coastal Command were finished with it and my father was part of the crew that delivered it*.
They are all *fabulous* pieces of engineering, including the Concorde and TSR2, but I do get a reality check when I take my kids round Duxford and when walking under the Vulcan there, one of them asks...
"Daddy, what's that big space for?"
"That's where the nuclear bomb goes."
(see icon)
If (a big if) I remember correctly, with operation Black Buck, the logisitics of setting a rolling relay of in-flight refueling points, where the tankers had to be refuled in mid flight, to refuel the Vulcan's (I think there where two on the mission??) was mind blowing.
"a rolling relay of in-flight refueling points, where the tankers had to be refuled in mid flight, to refuel the Vulcan's (I think there where two on the mission??)"
There was an excellent documentary on the mission in general. There also seems to have been a TV movie?
Try this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBJ99bIhAVk
Indeed, it was a major operation, a marvel of planning and logistics, and something I doubt we'd see today - "too hazardous" since there were many problems that could happen, leaving one or more aircraft unable to refuel or reach land.
But, as you point out, while the damage was minimal - it showed that we could and would attack them even though they thought it was too far away to be practical. I guess it's like playing cards - you don't have to hold all the aces if you can make your opponent think you hold them.
Once saw one go vertical, then back off on the power, falling (slowly) vertically down towards the ground, and only putting on full power 100ft (or so it seemed) from the ground, to start ascending again.
I've seen space rockets take off, but they were not a patch on that Vulcan for spectacle, and the shaking effect was not dissimilar.
Someone got in a lot of trouble for the Vulcan stunt, so I'm keeping my anonymous head down.
Looking at the current schedule I'd try to make it a weekandahalf trip around the middle/end of August (15th at Eastbourne, 23rd at Shoreham or Bournemouth.) That way I get multiple chances of seeing it fly (and visit some of the many museums around those parts) Only problem now is that I don't really have the budget to blow on a trip "just to see an airplane" having just bought a house and all that... dangnamit I hate having to set priorities.
Amen... These birds are on my bucket list to see along with one more trip to Dayton for the USAF museum. History you reach out and touch and for some of those planes, smell.
I also want to see Portsmouth (the Victory), Chatham and as much of the NMM as I can handle.
The NMM does contain a huge amount of material, however little of it is on public display. Their publicly accessible displays are frankly bordering on a national disgrace. Might I suggest striking the NMM from your list and visiting the Shuttleworth collection instead? If your primarily interested in the historic RN then you might wish to visit HMS Trincomalee and HMS Unicorn instead.
I was part of the crowd at RAF Waddington who witnessed the last 2 flying Avro Lancasters meet the last flying Avro Vulcan. I feel more than just a little sad to know this will never. ever, happen again, but very happy to know that I was there to see, hear, smell and feel these incredible aircraft passing by.
I remember seeing a display by the Red Arrows with my partner (a Dead Sparrows afficionado).
As the display ended her comment was 'That's wierd, that's not how they usually end'.
Shortly afterwards they returned with the Vulcan in formation!
The noise accross the bay as she stood on her tail, went to full power and climbed near-vertically hit you in the chest with a sudden whoomph!!! and the alow motion aerobatics were a delight.
I'll definitely be making time to go to one of this years displays.
I live in a town with a major airshow and we have friends round to watch in our back garden. We'll see many amazing displays - A380 doing things it could never do with passengers on board, Red Arrows doing what they do, Eurofighter being fast and agile, but the one thing that people get wet over is Vulcan flying over my house at slow speed and that roar/howl. Simply awesome.
I'll be doing my best to get to one of the last flights.
Don't forget the Vulcan's most famous on-screen role as the nuclear bomber hijacked by SPECTRE and ditched in the Caribbean for James Bond to discover in the original Thunderball.
http://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2012/06/rare-photographs-avro-vulcan-bomber-mock-up-thunderball-bond/
and no mention of the Harrier ?
Now *there* was a engineering marvel AND beauty.
And the mention of Concorde has to be a cue to comment that when there was some interchange between the Apollo and Concorde engineers, the Apollo engineers conceded the Concorde engineers had the real challenges. Including (but not limited to) how to slow supersonic air down to almost zero over the space of just over a metre. (Spolier alert - they did it).
Having spent some time at Bruntingthorpe, which was where this wonderful aircraft was housed, it is an amazing place, with some stunning aircraft, and some equally amazing people working there. So very sad to see that this majestic aircraft is no longer flight-worthy, there has been so much work, great fundraising and heart-wrenching keeping this thing flying. I have been lucky to see it in the flesh, and (forgetting about it's intended role) it is one of the most beautiful sights in the sky (or on the ground) those delta wings are just wonderful.
I do agree though that it is best remembered as a wonderful legacy than a burning wreck on the ground.
Best remembered that way than the way Concorde is remembered for it's fateful Paris flight, especially when you consider it's otherwise impeccable safety record.
It is so cramped in that tiny dark cockpit. And not exactly a place you want to be if you had to leave in the hurry. Fine if you were up front in the posh seats, but if not so good in the back. Pilot and co-pilot had ejector seats. Everyone else had to clamber out of an impossibly awkward back door.
Many stories around of how the rear crew would put the pins back into the ejector seats to remind the pilots not to leave the plane without them...
Now that this will really be the last ever flights it does mean that they are going to be able to make the most of the last hours of those engines. Last few times I saw her they talked of how they were taking it easy on the engines to extend as much life as possible.
Shoreham airshow will be my last chance to see her in the air. That's going to be emotional. The parents used to take us to airshows even as small kids. I've grown up with that howl and will miss it. Power you don't just hear but you feel in your soul.
Talking about the cramped cockpit, I read that the original spec for the Vulcan has a single pilot.
Can anyone comment further on who/what department changed the design to have two pilots?
From what I've read the two pilots are crammed in very close.
I don;t know if the word 'romantic' is appropriate, but it is the best one I can think of for thinking of a lone pilot up top heading off on a mission.
The Midlands Air Museum in Coventry is great. We lived a few miles from it a few years ago - I had a season ticket! Mrs IP and I got chance to go in the Vulcan. Mrs IP is from a country that would have been on the target list if the balloon went up - she says sitting in the bomb-aimer's seat, knowing that someone had sat in it who could have completely destroyed her city and country, was one of the most chilling of her life.
Valiant, Victor, and Vulcan, were made with evil intentions, but they sure were beautiful machines.
The Vulcan, most of all. An evil beauty.
It is interesting that they used the 'V' such a short time after Germany had. I feel certain that an influence was at play there.
I have a book by a commander from Britain's H-bomb-dropping test programme, it is interesting (on technical and squadron points). He closes with a rant against disarmament. That was from Valiants.
So now, the UK poses as a nuclear power, completely reliant on US-supplied and US-controlled SLBMs, not that I particularly care (although I'd prefer they gave up the pretense and made the world that little bit safer), it is just a joke.
Do any of those companies (Avro, Handley-Page, Vickers) still exist?
I understand their concerns. But as I'm helping crawl thru the bowels of a 158 foot long WWII vintage combat vessel that spent too much time in salt water, spending weekends trying to stop rust and dodge toxic lead and asbestos, I know the reasons why we gotta keep trying to keep these relics afloat (or flying) as a reminder of what history MEANS. It's one thing to read about an event, or watch a dramaticized, sanitized movie about them. But with the popular contempt of defeated enemies, until you FEEL what it was like when your combat power screams overhead, or the tight sharp edged conditions our sailors lived in 24/7 for months at a time, you have no real idea the fear and doubt that drives an enemy into retreat, or defines the actual sacrifices made by all the "normal" people of the Greatest Generation.
As an aviation fan, let me add a despairing "NOOOOOOOOOooooooo *inhale* OOOOOOOOOO!" I'm not rich enough to get to Britain in time!
www.mightymidgets.org
Most aircraft look to me like they are defying gravity but delta wing air craft like the Vulcan and Concorde actually look like they should be able to fly! I expect it's because they look closer to a paper plane.
I should get a chance to see the Vulcan at Shoreham in almost its last flight. I'll miss it, but not as much as I miss Concorde. I took the day off and went to Heathrow to see the last three Concordes come home for the last time. Fond memories.
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