A Vulcan Bomber Tribute

[Mr Mud]

I was an air cadet in 401squadron (Portsmouth) (I think it was 401but the old memory ain't as good as it used to be) we used to fly out of Thorney Island RAF base in the old Vickers Varsity's and Chipmunks, also a twin engined twin seat jet but I can't remember the name of them, and the pilots of them always gave us boys a real scary flight in those, and made sure we filled our sick bags up
We also went to the Royal Navy 1,000 yard open air rifle range in Eastney Portsmouth, to fire Lee Enfield 303's, ex WW2 US army 45's, Bren guns, Sten guns the old water cooled Vickers machine guns, and various other weaponry mostly left over from WW2, and the Navy had tons of this sort of kit in those days, we even got to chuck Mills grenades about but only dummies!! in case we dropped one in amongst our mates happy days no 'elf and safety then not even ear plugs

[Roo]

I really wished that Dannii had her camera as the other day was walking in the Forestry with my Daughter and the dog and 3 RAF jets went over so we waved frantically and jumped up and down like lunatics and usually they just fly over once and then they have gone out of site but that day they came around the forestry 4 times and we jumped up and down each time they went around it was really to see em... And one tilted its wing it was soo good seeing the RAF Jets back ...

There was recently a woman, who hasn't lived that long here, in the Village, who got up a petition to stop them flying over the Village, so it looks like she didn't get her way ...Keep flying those Jets

Cheers
Roo

[Drift]

Reminds me of the story about the farmer fed up of the jets flying over his farm in Snowdonia, he painted in huge letters on the top of his barn "FECK OFF RAF" they had never seen so many planes and helicopters over that farm in the following weeks, they all flew over it to have a look, he had to paint it out in the end

[fatface]

many years ago (25ish) i did some work for an old guy in north wales and over a cuppa his started telling me about his life ! turned out to have been a lancaster pilot at the end of the war and the went on to be a test pilot for the vucan bomber but what a guy fantastic to hear his stories and his account of the vulcan. I do remember him telling me it was a pig to fly and vibrated like hell but he had been there and done it i should imagine he's long gone now but a real interesting gent. also remember watching the mosquito fly out of harden airport (airbus) near chester that was an amazing sight and the engine noise was fantastic

[Roo]

OMG That was Brilliant Ste, I bet he grumbled a lot in Welsh pmsl

Cheers
Roo

[Drift]

This is an interesting story, hope they can recover it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18038650

[25tds]

Looks like the Vulcan is flying at Cosford later this month
http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/cosford/

[Drift]

Watched this tonight on BBC4 or whatever lol, it was brilliant about how they built a Wellington bomber in under 24 hours at Broughton near Chester
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11107561

[Retro Pedro]

Was hoping to see the Vulcan up at Waddington this year. Unfortunately, looks like it's going to be grounded
http://mxm.mxmfb.com/rsps/wlnk/c/1216/r/207663/e/382

[SPEEDBIRD 202]

Was hoping to see the Vulcan up at Waddington this year. Unfortunately, looks like it's going to be grounded
http://mxm.mxmfb.com/rsps/wlnk/c/1216/r/207663/e/382

DEFINATLY NOT GROUNDED Bud

The Vulcan and the Red Arrows - (or the Reds to plane spotters ... ha ha ,) opening the Farnborough airshow - 2012
JUST HERE

ATB

[Retro Pedro]

That's brill news - I read it that two of the engines blew and it seemed to be long term.
My future son-in-law is in the RAF and at the time, word was it sounded a bit terminal, but seems it's all sorted now.
Not sure what the set up is with the Vulcan - I thought it was privately owned and maintained, unlike the Battle of Britain tribute flight (Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurrican) which are maintained and flown by the RAF.

[Wilberforce]

That's about the size of it Pete...
As you say it's privately owned and mostly supported by sponsorship & donations.
I think one of their biggest issues is definitely engines now - they only had 2 sets of 4 engines and they've all got a finite life hence the fairly limited displays.

Still, hopefully she'll be around for a bit longer.

[Drift]

Well looks like she will be at the Southport Air Show this year
http://www.visitsouthport.com/whats-on/ ... the-vulcan

We will be there parked on the beach

[Wilberforce]

I've got Bournemouth and Shoreham within a short drive of me too...
Might be worth a trip

[peej39]

She flew over us Monday together with assorted other aircraft on her way to Farnborough, what a sight we could almost throw stones at it, made my day.

[SPEEDBIRD 202]

For those of you who might be interested - the problem a while back was caused by bags of silica desiccant gel, which where ingested in too a couple of the engines. So both Engines are now write offs and can only be used for parts recovery.

The Vulcan team only ever had 8 engines, so now down to 6.

A bit more of the Vulcan and the Reds JUST HERE

[SPEEDBIRD 202]

After the excitement of the Olympics here is some amazing and unusal film of the Vulcan flying around Beachy Head - the Vulvan a real deal

... ATB

[SPEEDBIRD 202]

SAD NEWS!!

For anybody who wants to see the Vulcan fly - it looks like the year 2013 is going to be your last chance to do so

Full story JUST HERE

[Drift]

I think it would be wise to mothball the aircraft until such a time the financial position can be more certain, we live in a turbulent financial world at the moment but there is nothing to say things wont get better in the future and more investment will be found to upgrade the aircraft and give other generations the privilege of seeing her fly in the future.

[Trugga]

I though I might add these, taken at Southport Airshow, as part of this tribute:


IMG_5369 by Trugga, on Flickr


IMG_5387 by Trugga, on Flickr


IMG_5359 by Trugga, on Flickr


IMG_5380 by Trugga, on Flickr

It sure made a nice noise.

Lawrence