Every lover of fine aeroplanes will want to be present for the first public flight of an Avro Vulcan in fifteen years. XH558 is due to lead the Falklands Anniversary flypast over London on June 17. Test flights are to begin in April.
The Vulcan is the largest and heaviest (204,000 lbs MTOW) delta winged aircraft ever flown. Designed in the late forties and operational in the fifties it could carry a 10,000 pound nuclear weapon or 20,000 pounds of conventional bombs from the UK to targets over 1500 miles away and bomb from 60,000 feet. The aircraft only saw battle once in their long career. Between April 30th and June 2nd, 1982, four successful bombing missions were performed at a range which at the time was the longest in history: 3900 miles to the target! Needless to say, this required in-flight refuelling. Even the in-flight refuelling aircraft required refuelling!
This magnificent beast has been brought back to life by the Vulcan to the Sky Trust. The group has laboured to do what most thought impossible. They have brought what is arguably the most complex British military aircraft ever built back to flight status. They fought many battles to get to this point and I hope that worthy crew take some time off after first flight to bathe in the glory of their accomplishment.
It is notable that XH558 was retired from display flight status by the RAF due to a required strengthening of the rear lower wing spar. The MoD estimated the cost of this at 1.2M pounds sterling. The Trust did it for 80,000 pounds!
Private enterprise wins even with complex bombers it seems.
Magnificent looking aircraft. Some of the nicest looking aircraft come from the 50s – the Canberra, Valiant, etc. The Vulcan is an awesome piece of engineering.
Mind you, it must have been a scary machine for the crew. Only the pilot and co-pilot could eject, the rest could not get out of the cockpit. Nasty.
Great stuff. It would be nice if someone could bring out some Mosquitos too. One of my all-time favourites. We could get one to bomb Cameron’s house.
Excellent aircraft, indeed. I saw one fly at Binbrook in 1986 (or was it 1985) and it is worth seeing.
It’s the most elegant and dominating aircraft I’ve ever seen.
Unfortunately, I’ve never had the opportunity to see it fly- I’m only 23- but I was lucky enough to go inside one once, when I was younger. I was amazed at just how big it was inside, split on two levels!
Where I grew up was on a Vulcan training route, a main military airway. We’d get Vulcans twenty times a day, and when there was a Cold War exercise, Lightnings, Harriers, Canberras, even the occasional B52G and, of course, Jaguars and Phantoms.
Now to something that definitely doesn’t fly:
The new BBC2 documentary ‘The Trap’.
Mendacity raised to the status of sainted purity.
Any thoughts?
My dad grew up near Leuchars Airfield in Fife and used to watch the Vulcans. He told me that watching three take off at once in formation was the most magnificent sight he’d ever seen. I have not had the pleasure unfortunately. Does Dale have any info on where the Vulcan will be flying from?
It will have to stop flying when the boy Cameron gets in (I’m back, just been washing my mouth out with soap) as no pilots will want to use up their permitted flying hours piloting a vintage aircraft at the cost of their families’ annual holiday.
Best bet for information on flights is the Vulcan to the Sky Trust web site which I link to in the article. I doubt they have anything definite yet as they are rushing to complete the final bits of testing and schedule will depend on sign offs, not the other way around!
Jesus, that’s a beautiful ‘plane. Haven’t seen that shot, either. It looks gorgeous from this(Link) angle, too.
Ack, bollocksed up the link. Sorry. Let’s try that again….
I remember seeing the Vulcan at El Adem in Libya when I was in the RAF there circa 1960. It was awesome!
I used to live very near one of the marshalling areas for the Royal flypast (locally called “Hollow Ponds”, one of the final tips of Epping Forest in Wanstead) and often saw the Vulcans and other wonders roar overhead. Beautiful, magnificent and a superb “recruiting sergeant”.
I suspect the MoD spent more than £80,000 working out that it would cost £1.2m!
Brilliant!
I’ve previously added links in my comments on Samizdata to the project. II hope some of the commentariat provided a few pennies.
Anyway, it’s great to see XH558 back in action.
First saw one as it pulled a vertical over my school as a wee bairn; saw the last flight a Scampton (saw first official flight of EAP now Typhoon 2 at same time); most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in the air
I remember seeing it (presumably shortly before it was withdrawn) at Biggin Hill (I’ve lived close to/under the flightpath most of my years). Magnificent.
That being said, my vote for the best sound in the air has to go to the Lancaster.
“The Vulcan is the largest and heaviest (204,000 lbs MTOW) delta winged aircraft ever flown.”
Not even close. Both Concorde and it’s Russian clone were bigger. But even they don’t hold the actual record. It is held by an aircraft that was both the heaviest and the fastest (an amazing combination) ever flown when it took to the air in the mid-60’s – the incomparable North American XB-70 Valkyrie.
My biggest memory of Vulcan’s is during The Cuban Missile Crisis when I was 15 . We lived 18miles away from the end of RAF Finningley runway. The planes were so heavily loaded with fuel, bombs etc they were still flying quite low near our house. Truly frightening experience to see the smoke and hear the noise. Interestingly Concorde used the same engines, I believe.
Not sure about the Vulcan engines being used for Concorde. I do recall seeing a Vulcan testbed-flying a single Concorde engine strapped underneath itself in the mid ’60’s. Its “Party piece” was to switch orff it’s own 4 engines and fly down the display path on only the Concorde engine. I never ever got to see a “Rapid response 4 aircraft in 4 minutes take orff”, but seeing video films of such events they must have been a stunning event. I understand that at Gaydon which was a Vulcan airbase, they used to finish the Battle of Britain air display with a 4 Vulcan Scramble. The spectators would stand with brains rattling for a few minutes afterwards. 🙂
I so look forward to watching this fabulous plane again. Well done to the Vulcan Team!!