Saw the vulcan today

shimy182 · 7 Sep 2008 at 18:15

atpbx said:
I know a person who used to fly them, my Dad.

In fact i know about 12 people who have flown them, navigated in them, or been armorers and air frame technicians.

My mum was an ATC at waddington while they were operational there as well.

whoa thats pretty cool. do introduce :-p

atpbx · 7 Sep 2008 at 18:42

shimy182 said:
whoa thats pretty cool. do introduce

Last one of them I spoke to (other than the old man) was a former armorer who was now working in a slaughter house, and who, despite being trained to arm and maintain and fit nuclear weapons, wasnt qualified enough for the personel department to give him a job as engineering assistant.

sammie377 · 5 Dec 2008 at 20:55

Skii said:
It was a cold war bomber that was quite literally the envy of the word, to see one up close is nothing short of jawdropping, an immense delta-wing aircraft with a bomb bay that you could park a bus in.

In 1982 an RAF crew flew a Vulcan bomber for 8 hours from the Ascension Islands to the Falklands to bomb Port Stanley Airfield, a round trip of 4000 miles requiring 11 Victor tankers to provide fuel, probably the most incredible bombing raid of the last 60 years.

I have stood under a Vulcan at an airshow doing an aerobatic display that a light aircraft would be proud of, a 90 tonne bomber doing loops and wing-overs, 4 Rolls Royce Olympus engines making the ground beneath your feet tremble.

Quite simply it is the very embodiment of British engineering and achievement in the post war jet age. Nothing comes close.

So well put.

I turn cold when I see videos of them when I was a kid they flew over regular, my uncle was a navigaor in one but got killed on a motorcycle, I never knew him I would have loved to have spoken to him about them.

sammie377 · 5 Dec 2008 at 20:57

rpstewart said:
It was never about getting them all on target, dropping a 21 bomb stick diagonally across the middle of the runway was the best way a guaranteeing that something would hit the tarmac.

The true purpose was propaganda though, both as a morale booster to our side (both there and at home) and as proof to the Argentinians that we could deliver that sort of bomb load over that distance.

Almost they only wanted o partially disable the airfield for when we took over and need to land there with minimal repairs, which we did very soon after.

Frapple · 5 Dec 2008 at 21:41

Remember going inside the Vulcan at Newark Airfield about 15? years ago!

Lumeycom · 5 Dec 2008 at 22:23

Awesome machines, never fails to make me quake. The noise should be deterrent enough to those that dared mess with them!

Tefal · 5 Dec 2008 at 22:39

Skii said:
It was a cold war bomber that was quite literally the envy of the word, to see one up close is nothing short of jawdropping, an immense delta-wing aircraft with a bomb bay that you could park a bus in.

I thought the Tupolev Tu-160 would have been the envy of the world?

Skii · 5 Dec 2008 at 23:42

Tefal said:
I thought the Tupolev Tu-160 would have been the envy of the world?

One could compare bomb loads, range and design with the Vulcan, but the two aircraft are 35 years apart.

^^Gord^^ · 6 Dec 2008 at 00:20

Skii said:
It was a cold war bomber that was quite literally the envy of the word, to see one up close is nothing short of jawdropping, an immense delta-wing aircraft with a bomb bay that you could park a bus in.

In 1982 an RAF crew flew a Vulcan bomber for 8 hours from the Ascension Islands to the Falklands to bomb Port Stanley Airfield, a round trip of 4000 miles requiring 11 Victor tankers to provide fuel, probably the most incredible bombing raid of the last 60 years.

I have stood under a Vulcan at an airshow doing an aerobatic display that a light aircraft would be proud of, a 90 tonne bomber doing loops and wing-overs, 4 Rolls Royce Olympus engines making the ground beneath your feet tremble.

Quite simply it is the very embodiment of British engineering and achievement in the post war jet age. Nothing comes close.

Indeed, well put.

The only thing I would add is the sound! The sound at take off really is something else. The closest thing I could thing to compare it to is a Ti-Fighter!

I've been managed to catch one of the last displays of XH558 as a kid and again twice since it took to the air again. Good to see, hopefully they will find some way of funding it.

Witor · 6 Dec 2008 at 10:47

Man, there used to be one of these parked as a monument at Gibraltar Airport for *yonks*, remember seeing it in my childhood for yeeaaars. Been the only commercial/military runway where pedestrians/cars actually cross the runway, it was an epic sight for me at the time walking past this monolithic gateguard.

Edit: Was there from 1983 - 1990. (From 5 years old till I was 12)

Shame they packaged it up and...god knows what happened to it.

Would have loved it if they'd kept it in situ...pure history man

Edit2: Jesus that background has changed radically in 18 years...

^^Gord^^ · 6 Dec 2008 at 10:58

It was scapped in 1990

A list of surviving Vulcans can be found here...

http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/vulcan/survivors.html

Digital Punk · 6 Dec 2008 at 12:18

Without the backing of a major sponsor the project is struggling once more.
There's a 'pledge' campaign to help fund the Vulcan in displaying next year.

Effectively you pledge an amount of cash, but don't pay anything yet.
If enough pledges are made to fund next season, then you will be asked to honour your pledge.

That way, you only pay when there's definately enough to fly her again.

If you'd like to see this beast flying again next year, please pledge anything you can.

http://www.tvoc.co.uk/

NightSt@lk3r · 6 Dec 2008 at 12:30

I saw the Vulcan when it flew over Silverstone during the Le Mans Series race.