mart360

Gutted

Just been announced that 2013 will be the last year XH558 flys

wing mods and lack of drawing are the chief reasons given

Engines were another,

One of the most iconic aircraft of the cold war, will be very sadly missed


Mart

Geezer

Why are they unable to make it work if they can keep other planes flying (not financially) like the BoB Flight? They are very old.

Geezer

yabbadoo4

iTrader: (8)

damn shame, seen it at leuchars air show this year always a fantastic sight in the sky.

Tidgy

plenty of plans and such for most of the ww2 planes, i suspec cost vs value is also a factor, ever seen how much spitfires are worth now?

jasey

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/defa...?storyId=26514

I guess the Vulcan is a bit more complex than the Spitfire / Lancaster etc.

Shame - but inevitable

Jamie

We all knew it was going to end next year anyway

Steve_PPP

iTrader: (3)

Real shame. Stunning aircraft, glad i got to see it recently.

Alan Jeffery

Amazing thing to see flying! and you don't so much hear it as feel it.
This is it with the Red Arrows at Dawlish in Devon a few years ago.

danos14

iTrader: (8)

that flew over my house only the other week.. awesome sight

Tidgy

so its all about money then shame

Clarebabes

Gutted, seen it a few times this year, most recently when it flew over Northampton with a spitfire and other planes. Very sad indeed.

Dr Hu

Mine too! Flew directly overhead at a few hundred feet, on its jubilee manufacturing tour, felt in the house before i saw it.... Ran outside and there it was passing directly overhead.... Awesome sight!

Oldun

Awesome pics above, got the hairs on the back of my neck standing up, what a sight that plane is.
First time I saw a Vulcan was back in the sixties, I was plane spotting from the observation area on the roof of Ringway when a Vulcan flew down the runway at about 30ft and then throttled up and made an amazing noise as it headed upwards and away.

Never did find out why it was there.

mart360

First saw or should i say heard, the Big V back in 77 when it was displaying at Mildenhall

The signature vertical take off was literally groundshaking!!!

A truley remakable plane

for an 11 year old to see blackbird within touching distance and the vulcan was amsolulty amazing.


Looking back and thinking about where i lived in relation to Mildenhall as a youngster, i was spoilt rotten

My daily sky view was

usual a mixture of
Phantom's
F1-11's
Hercules
with the odd
Galaxys
starlifters
SR-71's

to change the routine

Mart

mart360

If as they say 2013 is going to be her swansong year, then they should remove the kid gloves, and let her strut her stuff at full power.

A few signature vertical take offs complete with wingovers would be a fitting way to start,

Mart

Truss

iTrader: (2)

Id agree with that. RAF cosford is close to me, and a few years ago used to see this occasionally. Awesome machine.

Leslie

As anyone can easily imagine, that is very sorrowful news as far as I am concerned.

It is hardly surprising really since it is so expensive to keep it fully maintained in fully safe flying condition. It is a very complicated machine with all its electro mechanical parts and also the sources of spares are bound to dry up in time.

I fully agree with Mart 360, it would be wonderful to see it do the original normal Vulcan dislay to finish off its career, and I only wish I also had the chance to be flying it. Nothing quite like turning it upside down at the top of a wing over etc.! I can't see it happening since the CAA would forbid it in line with their policies on flying complicated military aircraft.

I wish I had been flying it also in recent times although it would have been very frustrating to be so restricted in what one is allowed to do with it. I did apply to fly it but all that had already been buttoned up and I was never allowed a look in.

I shall just have to be satisfied that I have at least flown it in the past and have it entered in one of my flying log books.

Les

^Qwerty^

I know this won’t be popular opinion, but I never really thought it was a good idea to spend so much money to get it back in the air, only for it to be grounded again due to lack of funds/on-going operating costs. Having pitched up at Waddington a few years ago only to find out that it wouldn’t fly due to a paperwork **** up didn’t do it any favours with me either.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed the times I’ve seen the thing fly, and working in SE York, we even got an impromptu display over Elvington the other week, and have had a fair few transits due to where MW lives I guess, but I really don’t think the project has offered much in the way of value for money.

Leslie

I think if you had been part of the organisation responsible for getting it airborne again you might have been a bit more understanding in their great achievement.

You would do well to remember the vital importance of that aircraft in playing its part in persuading the other side that it just was not worth the risk of starting anything during the cold war. They were frightened of its abilities right up to the day it ceased flying as a warplane.

Les

Jamie

Glad you had the time with them Leslie you lucky fekker

^Qwerty^

I'm not knocking the technical achievement at all, and clearly it has taken some very clever and dedicated people to do what they did from the mechancial point of view to the operational side of things. I can't even begin to imagine what the paper trail and all the assocaited auditing is like to manage. I'm just not sold on the value for money the whole project has been, to go to all that effort and then ground it again after a few years.

Yes, maybe I should be thankful just to have seen it fly again but I can't help but think they should never have started unless they had a means of maintaining flying condition, which would have included ways of dealing with fatigued parts, the manufacturer of parts no longer available, engine life and zero timing with the OEM etc. At least for 10 years or so anyway.

I'd love to see a Lightning in the air again, but if the cost of doing so was £10M up front, £1M a year to keep it going, and then ground it again after 5 years; again I don't think it would be worth doing.

Leslie

The reasons were that in the first place they had the chance of getting 558 and also because like me...they loved the aircraft. it has been one of the very special British aircraft, as important as the Lancaster and the Spitfire and Hurricane in it's part in defending this country. Even if it did not actually attack the other side thank goodness. We have to be grateful for being still here personally,and in a very large part due to its influence on the situation at the time.

The people who rebuilt 558 did so as a real labour of love and respect. They were desperate to get her back into the air and did so in the hope that it would be possible to keep her going. One had to have a great depth of feeling for the aircraft which did so much for so long, you obviously are unable to understand that which is why you are only able to take a dispassionate view of the effort that went into managing to get 558 back into the air. You might consider the views of the general public in fact-it is an incredibly popular machine with them even if they not have such a close association with it.

If 558 can't be kept in the air there will be a lot of very sad people about,and I shall be one of them.

The Lightning would not be allowed to fly in this country because of its great complexity which is why we dont see one flying any more. I believe South Africa is the only place where it is allowed in the air.

Les

^Qwerty^

So will I

Not anymore, you should also read the report in to why one of them crashed. It's quite shocking.

http://www.caa.co.za/resource%20cent.../2009/8706.pdf

Regards

Q

albob

FAO Leslie

our local 'yorks and lincs' magazine program 'inside out' has just done a feature on the anniversary of the 'Cuban Crisis'. It features some footage of Vulcans in Lincolnshire on alert and a renunion of Vulcan veterans at Newark, this year I think : also some footage of the 'Thor' missiles being made ready in case the Russians didn't back down.
Link to it is below (Vulcan/Thor article starts about 19 mins in)

alan

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...re_15_10_2012/

Leslie

Thanks for those reports, as you say pretty shocking in many cases. Looks like the CAA was quite right to refuse the aircraft a certificate to fly in this country.

I did manage to swap a Vulcan ride for a Lightning trip once in Malaya. The trip went off without a problem,maybe I was luckier than I thought. They certainly had a poor record for serviceablity. An exciting trip though as one might expect.

When I took the pilot up in the Vulcan as part of the deal, once he had a go at flying it he did not want to let go of the controls because the aircraft was so much nicer to fly than he expected. I got him doing landings and takeoffs as well as a bit of advanced handling and he could not believe how well such a large machine would handle.

Happy days!

Les

^Qwerty^

I think the Jaguar was even worse in terms of aircraft lost in accidents. That was quite a surprise to learn that.
Anyway, I'm glad I didn't blow my 40th fund on a trip to TC, since it looks like I would have been taking a gamble with my life, with what looks like to be shonky maintenance and corner cutting that was going on.

Leslie

I never did fly a Jaguar, I beiieve it had quite a few shortcomings one way and another.

I remember once leading a couple around the German low flying areas when they first entered service, I was flying a Canberra B(I)8 at the time. I had to change onto another route which I did as I normally would at low level but was asked to reduce the style of my flying because they could not stay with me. I found that a bit surprising!

Les