Begging bowl for aviation enthusiasts

**Turion** · 25 February 2009, 22:07

Personally I think it's the end of the line. Some aircraft should be grounded in a museum (not scrapped). She just does not have the nostalgia of a Spitfire or Lancaster.

**wxman** · 26 February 2009, 07:29

With respect I disagree. The Vulcan is an icon of its time (Delta Wing bomber) and saw active service in the Falklands – carrying out the longest distance active bombing missing of all time – 8,000 round trip from Ascension Island to bomb the run way at Port Stanley.

The plane is simply part of our heritage which can only be thrown away once. I was able to see the Vulcan fly over South Leicestershire during one of its trail flights last year and it is truly a site to behold.

One thing that erks me is that while £1Million is a lot of money – The money should be found - £43M provided for a new “elite” opera hall for London was a waste IMO.

**d000hg** · 26 February 2009, 07:56

Assuming the Vulcan is the one I think it is - the massive triangle shape - I'm sure I saw "the world's only working Vulcan bomber" at an airshow over 10 years ago in Cornwall.
Is it the same one?

**chef** · 26 February 2009, 08:07

from wikipedia's entry about the Avro Vulcan

"Testing the vehicle was relatively crude in those days, for example, recording the instrument readings involved filming the control panel and manually transcribing the results onto graph paper. As well, testing the brakes of the Vulcan included strapping the company photographer Paul Culerne to the front landing gear with the aircraft moving at full landing speed and photographing the brakes in operation...

Only the pilot and co-pilot were provided with ejection seats. The fact that the "rear crew" were not provided ejection seats has been the basis of significant criticism; there were several instances of the pilot and co-pilot ejecting in an emergency and the "rear crew" being killed because there was not time for them to bail out."

British engineering at its best

although i think the above is comic genius, I have pledged, it's a fantastic plane

**FSM with Cheddar** · 26 February 2009, 08:11

Hi PM-Junkie

Thanks for letting us know. I didn't realise things were so bad.

I saw it fly at Farnborough last year, and it was great to see it in the air again after so long.

It would be a tragedy for it to be grounded again.

I shall be contributing.

**Olly** · 26 February 2009, 08:24

My old man flew these for many many years during the cold war when they carried special barrels of sunshine.

I never really realised what his job was until I got older and asked whether a bomb detonating on target would affect the plane. He replied it didn't really matter as the place he would have taken off from (the base we lived on) would most likely not exist so there'd be nowhere to go back to and land.

When they scrapped the plane, the waste was terrible, 10s of brand new Olympus engines smashed up etc etc. They even sold the carcasses for scrap at below market value. The titanium blocks shielding the engines being worth far more than what they went for.

**Lockhouse** · 26 February 2009, 08:27

I remember being in school in LOndon over 30 years ago and the teachers letting us outside to see the Vulcans fly past (on the Queen's birthday etc...). Stuck in my memory ever since.

**Olly** · 26 February 2009, 08:28

see above - he was a full stop I think

**Cliphead** · 26 February 2009, 09:02

I had the privilege of sitting in the right hand seat of this baby during one of its last flights.

Linky

An awesome aeroplane.

Begging bowl for aviation enthusiasts