Anyone know if the Vulcan will fly this year?

pieman109

pieman109

pieman109

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I took the missus to Northweald fighter meet a few years back and the Vulcan flew whilst we were there. She was so impressed she keeps asking if its gonna fly this year or at all and if so from where. So does anyone here have any info? Thanks.
 
They stopped flying a few years back.

They cost an absolute ton to maintain and fly.
My old man used to fly them Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the 60's
 
The RAF retired all their Vulcans way back, IIRC the last airworthy one withdrew from RAF service around 1993.

That last airworthy one (XH558) was bought by a private company with aimed to maintain it, and service it, for use on the airshow circuit, but its so expensive that they haven't actually flown it yet. They had hoped to raise enough cash to get all the servicing work completed by this year, for the summer airshow season, but the costs have spiralled and they're running short of money again :(

http://www.tvoc.co.uk/index2.php

Thats the website for the company behind the Vulcan project...not sure how they're doing at the moment, I expect it'll be at least another year.
 
I'm not 100% sure but I think there has already been a test flight this year - I'll check with one of my mates (he's working for one of the grant groups who are helping to fund the project).
 
I hope it does, I will drop everything to go and see it :)

:o That sounded rude, I jusr really want to see the vulcan fly - I have never seen one in the air :(
 
Putty said:
I'm not 100% sure but I think there has already been a test flight this year - I'll check with one of my mates (he's working for one of the grant groups who are helping to fund the project).
Click to expand...

The only airworthy Vulcan is XH558 and it's in many pieces. No other Vulcans have flown.
 
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Vix said:
I hope it does, I will drop everything to go and see it :)

:o That sounded rude, I jusr really want to see the vulcan fly - I have never seen one in the air :(
Click to expand...

They are very, VERY loud.

They only really have one party trick and thats flying over the crowd, bringing the nose up as they go over and throwing the throttles wide open, it literally is like nothing you've heard before.
 
Bruningthorpe open day is a good day out. They run the Comet, Lightning, Bucaneer, Victor etc up the runway at high speed and the crowdline is next to the runway :cool:

crowd.JPG
 
Putty said:
I'm not 100% sure but I think there has already been a test flight this year - I'll check with one of my mates (he's working for one of the grant groups who are helping to fund the project).
Click to expand...

You don't need to I can tell you. They are rebuilding it at brungtinthorpe and it's not going that well. The project is about to run out of money Again.

The company I work for provided the engineers and technicians and quality assurance for the job and as soon as they get a sniff of the money getting low the guys will be pulled back to base before they know it.

I think its going to come to a grinding halt again.
 
As far as I last heard in April, things weren't looking too rosy for XH558 - the costs were looking too high for them to actually fly it (£30k per hour) and the costs of getting it flying again were much higher than they anticipated, and unless they got a big sponsor it wasn't going to happen.

If the RAF couldn't keep one single Vulcan flying in the 90s, then there isn't much hope for a Civilian outfit with little sponsorship and OEM's who only care about profit.
 
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We lived in a house at the end of the runway where they used to take off. Oh how the windows used to rattle. I have a picture of myself stood underneath one somewhere.
 
I remember from my earlier years (1980 or 81) I went to the Abbotsford air show in Canada. One of the events was a flyby of a Vulcan.

It was the most impressive plane I had ever seen. The announcer had to tell us where it was coming from so everyone would look. You couldn't hear it on approach!! Then as it flew over it dropped the bay doors open and throttled up. :eek:

It then did a sneak approach and blasted overhead from behind so as to scare the crap out of the crowd. Worked a treat!! :D

I will always remember that airplane. And if I ever win the lottery, I will be donating to any private organisation that's trying to fly one as I think everyone should get a chance to experience what I did!!
 
It has to be the single most impressive aircraft I have seen at any airshow or airbase. Nothing even comes close, if they get one flying it would be worth going any distance to any airshow in the UK just to see it again.

Turn up the sound
 
I can vaugely remember seeing one at an airshow, possibly the first Southend one? All I can remember is WOW WHAT AN AWESOME SOUND!!!!
 
Some info here:

http://www.vulcan558club.com/

This quote seems to confirm what dannyjo22 said, the project is cash strapped:

"we are now getting to a stage where we are experiencing a cash flow shortage... as you will probably know to draw down finance from the Lottery Grant we need to have sufficient capital to pay the bills first then present the receipts to the Heritage Lottery Fund for them to reimburse us... this is our problem"
 
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