XH558...

Author
Discussion

Yertis

19,030 posts

281 months

Thursday 4th July 2019
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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

223 months

Thursday 4th July 2019
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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

216 months

Thursday 4th July 2019
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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

19,030 posts

281 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

123,848 posts

280 months

Thursday 4th July 2019
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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

3,067 posts

175 months

Friday 2nd August 2019
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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

5,567 posts

210 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

27,407 posts

196 months

Friday 2nd August 2019
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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

3,805 posts

226 months

Friday 2nd August 2019
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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

193 months

Friday 2nd August 2019
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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

4,419 posts

143 months

Saturday 3rd August 2019
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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

2,980 posts

253 months

Monday 5th August 2019
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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

38,231 posts

242 months

Monday 5th August 2019
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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

8,672 posts

168 months

Monday 5th August 2019
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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

1,766 posts

278 months

Monday 5th August 2019
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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

193 months

Monday 5th August 2019
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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

22,284 posts

241 months

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

Sixpackpert

4,875 posts

229 months

Monday 5th August 2019
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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

5,143 posts

205 months

Monday 5th August 2019
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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.


saaby93

32,038 posts

193 months

Monday 5th August 2019
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Only if people continue to gripe rather than try to do something positive about it coffee

What funding did they say they had lined up and what were they waiting for?

The plane is back at its ancestral home the old RAF Finningley
How much does a hangar cost to create a heritage centre?