Vulcan versus Vulcan: Pic Of The Week
Could anything be more sinister than the Aston Martin Vulcan? How about a nuclear bomber of the same name?
Other powerful things named Vulcan include the Roman god of fire and - of course - the iconic delta-winged V-bomber. While it would have been nice to include the former in a photoshoot with the car that bears his name he sadly wasn't available. So it fell to the soon to be grounded XH558 and a carefully orchestrated flypast at Elvington to create this rather nice image we've prepared for your desktop as Pic Of The Week. And just in case you thought it was a carefully contrived bit of of Photoshoppery there's a video proving, yes, it really did happen.
After several stays of execution it seems this really is XH558's final month of airworthiness, this symbolic handover to its Aston Martin namesake combining two of PH's favourite things.
Traditional (4:3)
Computer widescreen (16:10)
TV widescreen (16:9)
Portrait (smartphone etc)
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Job jobbed
t. The souped up Astons of recent times have always looked a bit Halfords boy-racer to me. Somehow the other manufacturers manage to make some look more race car, while Aston always make it look more friday night at a McDonalds car park. They need to start thinking more about the shape rather than the details. It doesn't help that the current Corvette is a better looking, faster, much cheaper Aston at the moment I suppose... Perhaps time to shun the front engined and move amidships? Maybe then they'd stop trying to make cars that look like bloody Astons.
Actually, +quite a lot of people.
As a child of the 80's and 90's I was obsessed with the big V-Bomber even though it wasn't in service when I was old enough to appreciate it. My Dad, who served in the Her Majesties Royal Flying Club would tell me about them and we saw the odd one in museums.
I finally got to see XH558 last year at Little Gransden Airshow where it came to do its fly pasts just shortly after the 3 flying Lancasters and their fighter escorts made everyone grin did their bit. I watched it approach and thought "I don't know what all the fuss is about, it's not THAT noisy". Then it flew over and every molecule of my being vibrated with the aural assault that it presented as it buggered off for another turn. Once it had finished it's piece the announcer came back onto the PA and said any other aircraft was going to have to wait for 30-45 minutes for all the air turbulence to die down and the Vulcan had carved it's way through the sky.
I feel so privileged to have seen it, and the 3 Lancasters. I'd hate to be on the receiving end of either of them in their front line duties...
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