XH558...

Author
Discussion

Eric Mc

122,010 posts

265 months

Thursday 4th July 2019
quotequote all
saaby93 said:
Erm are any of these close to XH558 - a delta wing perhaps?
The Russians did not seem to favour pure delta designs (they have some disadvantages too). The MiG 21 has/had a delta wing but it was still fitted with a tailplane.

The Vulcan's delta wing was extremely thick which limited its top speed. The Americans and the French took the delta winged bomber to a much higher level -





Yertis

18,046 posts

266 months

Thursday 4th July 2019
quotequote all
Eric Mc said:
The Americans and the French took the delta winged bomber to a much higher level -



I think the US took the delta bomber to a place they didn't want to go. The Mirage IV however was an unmitigated success.

chunder27

2,309 posts

208 months

Thursday 4th July 2019
quotequote all
The Mirage was a beautiful piece of work, but had a limited appeal, was never pushed to anyone else, but was almost in look at least just a jumbo Mirage III

I suppose in terms of Delta the Valkyrie could be drawn upon as a comparison but it was a failed project really, and the Hustler never really convinced the USA to drop the B52 and the B1 was already there, then dropped then came back again lol!

Seight_Returns

1,640 posts

201 months

Thursday 4th July 2019
quotequote all
Yertis said:
I think the US took the delta bomber to a place they didn't want to go.
Could you elaborate ?

Never understood why the B-58 had such a short service life.

Yertis

18,046 posts

266 months

Thursday 4th July 2019
quotequote all
Seight_Returns said:
Could you elaborate ?

Never understood why the B-58 had such a short service life.
Extremely expensive and difficult to operate, very short range, limited capability (nukes only) not good at low altitude and therefore very vulnerable to SAMs. (summary of wikipedia entry biggrin )

Eric Mc

122,010 posts

265 months

Thursday 4th July 2019
quotequote all
By the time these later deltas were coming along, it was obvious that the era of flying higher and faster for bombers was already over. Technically, there was nothing wrong with the XB-70 but even before it first flew it had been relegated to being just a test programme.

The emphasis had switched to low level smaller, tactical bombers and ballistic missiles.

The B-58 turned out to be a very demanding aircraft from a maintenance point of view and had a relatively short service life.

johnnyreggae

2,936 posts

160 months

Friday 2nd August 2019
quotequote all
Latest update on hangar funding (or lack of) https://www.vulcantothesky.org/news/1016/82/Trust-...

Its really too depressing to have lost all the momentum from the glories of the last flight let alone the first

mcdjl

5,446 posts

195 months

Friday 2nd August 2019
quotequote all
johnnyreggae said:
Latest update on hangar funding (or lack of) https://www.vulcantothesky.org/news/1016/82/Trust-...

Its really too depressing to have lost all the momentum from the glories of the last flight let alone the first
I'll paraphrase: 'Its someone elses fault, its all a secret, we can't tell you who, or whats happening'.
The plan seems to have been: lets make it fly, then we'll be rolling in the money. Half of that came through (and don't get me wrong I'm glad it did) but theres been a lot of optimism all the way through. Can you imagine the number of begging emails had RR/BAE agreed to relife the engines/spars?

Krikkit

26,527 posts

181 months

Friday 2nd August 2019
quotequote all
It's a travesty really, isn't it?

Why on earth they didn't get it to someone who could run it up once in a while and house it is beyond me. I suspect, like a lot of clubs, things descended into self-serving politics and unrealistic grand plans without basis.

Still, looking on the bright side, seeing her fly over Blackpool and bringing the whole place to a halt during that final UK tour was very special.

ThunderSpook

3,612 posts

211 months

Friday 2nd August 2019
quotequote all
My guess would be simply they didn’t want anyone else to have it, and if they couldn’t have it then nobody could.

saaby93

32,038 posts

178 months

Friday 2nd August 2019
quotequote all
ThunderSpook said:
My guess would be simply they didn’t want anyone else to have it, and if they couldn’t have it then nobody could.
It's probably not as complex as that
Anyway isnt there another thread for people wanting to whinge about the hangar arrangements?
can we keep this about the plane itself bounce


RoverP6B

4,338 posts

128 months

Saturday 3rd August 2019
quotequote all
I do wonder what can be done to wrest control of the Tin Triangle from Pleming/Edmundson and Peel Ports... it's not as if the latter barstewards give a flying wotsit about heritage (see also HMS Plymouth, Manchester Barton aerodrome)!

V41LEY

2,893 posts

238 months

Monday 5th August 2019
quotequote all
I stopped signing up for the updates as it was so depressing so this news is hardly ticker tape.
What happened to the plan to build an engineering centre of excellence with the aircraft at the heart of that ?


aeropilot

34,573 posts

227 months

Monday 5th August 2019
quotequote all
V41LEY said:
What happened to the plan to build an engineering centre of excellence with the aircraft at the heart of that ?
It was always just a bit of snake oil salesmanship IMHO, and only ever just a way of pulling money out of the HLF.


LotusOmega375D

7,613 posts

153 months

Monday 5th August 2019
quotequote all
Does anyone know if the Heritage Lottery Fund retrospectively audits what happened to their donations? I am not just referring to VTS, but all hand-outs. I bet quite a few individuals have done very well thank you over the past decades from this. Either that or the money has just been effectively flushed down the toilet of a failed project.

NDT

1,753 posts

263 months

Monday 5th August 2019
quotequote all
aeropilot said:
It was always just a bit of snake oil salesmanship IMHO, and only ever just a way of pulling money out of the HLF.
Agreed.
Maintaining an ancient (and lovely) aeroplane is hardly a showcase for modern engineering.

saaby93

32,038 posts

178 months

Monday 5th August 2019
quotequote all
Can someone start a thread for conspiracy theorists elsewhere >>>>>>>>>>
Thanks

For the rest of us it was great the Vulcan to the Sky team were able to keep XH558 flying for so long, so we could all see it around the country yes
Beautiful plane bounce

Riley Blue

20,953 posts

226 months

Monday 5th August 2019
quotequote all
I think it's entirely reasonable in a thread about XH558 to discuss its future.

Sixpackpert

4,558 posts

214 months

Monday 5th August 2019
quotequote all
saaby93 said:
Can someone start a thread for conspiracy theorists elsewhere >>>>>>>>>>
Thanks

For the rest of us it was great the Vulcan to the Sky team were able to keep XH558 flying for so long, so we could all see it around the country yes
Beautiful plane bounce
Yes it was...now look at it though. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to discuss the clusterfk it is now though.

marksx

5,052 posts

190 months

Monday 5th August 2019
quotequote all
It's going to end up a rusting pile or broken up and sold on eBay to milk out any final £££s they can from it.