RE: Help Keep The Last Vulcan Flying

[havoc]

2volvos said:

Anyway, is there not a case, notwithstanding yesterday's announcements, that the Vulcan should be taken on by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and widening its remit to more of an RAF Heritage Flight? Add in a Hunter and Lightning from the sadly now defunct Thunder City while they're at it.

Imagine the equivalent of the BBMF Lanc, Spit and Hurricane formation with a Vulcan, Hunter and Lightning....

Excellent idea. Can't see it happening, sadly, but it's what we should be doing.

[RacingPete]

havoc said:

2volvos said:

Anyway, is there not a case, notwithstanding yesterday's announcements, that the Vulcan should be taken on by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and widening its remit to more of an RAF Heritage Flight? Add in a Hunter and Lightning from the sadly now defunct Thunder City while they're at it.

Imagine the equivalent of the BBMF Lanc, Spit and Hurricane formation with a Vulcan, Hunter and Lightning....

Excellent idea. Can't see it happening, sadly, but it's what we should be doing.

Good idea to have a heritage flight, but not sure I would want the Vulcan drowning out the lovely Merlin sounds!

[Zad]

2volvos said:

Anyway, is there not a case, notwithstanding yesterday's announcements, that the Vulcan should be taken on by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and widening its remit to more of an RAF Heritage Flight? Add in a Hunter and Lightning from the sadly now defunct Thunder City while they're at it.

Remind me, which part of the Battle of Britain was the Vulcan in?

Beautiful and importand though it undoubtedly is, it is a money pit and there are other causes more worthy of the cash. Sorry.

[2volvos]

That's true, you wouldn't hear a bloody thing other than the jets. But they wouldn't all have to share the same bit of sky at the same time - the BBNF already share shows with modern jets, Red Arrows etc.

Never gonna happen anyway, but it's a nice idea...

[2volvos]

Zad said:

2volvos said:

Anyway, is there not a case, notwithstanding yesterday's announcements, that the Vulcan should be taken on by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and widening its remit to more of an RAF Heritage Flight? Add in a Hunter and Lightning from the sadly now defunct Thunder City while they're at it.

Remind me, which part of the Battle of Britain was the Vulcan in?

Beautiful and importand though it undoubtedly is, it is a money pit and there are other causes more worthy of the cash. Sorry.

I did say that the BBMF also have its role widened to be a RAF Heritage Flight - as I am aware that Avon engined delta-winged bombers designed to carry atomic bombs were't used in the BoB.

Ultimately though, I think you are right, otherwise it might have already happened by now. Like I said, just a nice thought...

[AMV8Nick]

RacingPete said:

havoc said:

2volvos said:

Anyway, is there not a case, notwithstanding yesterday's announcements, that the Vulcan should be taken on by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and widening its remit to more of an RAF Heritage Flight? Add in a Hunter and Lightning from the sadly now defunct Thunder City while they're at it.

Imagine the equivalent of the BBMF Lanc, Spit and Hurricane formation with a Vulcan, Hunter and Lightning....

Excellent idea. Can't see it happening, sadly, but it's what we should be doing.

Good idea to have a heritage flight, but not sure I would want the Vulcan drowning out the lovely Merlin sounds!

I have a Merlin engine :-)

Edited by AMV8Nick on Thursday 21st October 15:27

[2volvos]

AMV8Nick said:

RacingPete said:

havoc said:

2volvos said:

Anyway, is there not a case, notwithstanding yesterday's announcements, that the Vulcan should be taken on by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and widening its remit to more of an RAF Heritage Flight? Add in a Hunter and Lightning from the sadly now defunct Thunder City while they're at it.

Imagine the equivalent of the BBMF Lanc, Spit and Hurricane formation with a Vulcan, Hunter and Lightning....

Excellent idea. Can't see it happening, sadly, but it's what we should be doing.

Good idea to have a heritage flight, but not sure I would want the Vulcan drowning out the lovely Merlin sounds!

I have a Merlin engine :-)

Edited by AMV8Nick on Thursday 21st October 15:27

That's one overpowered trolley...

[AMV8Nick]

2volvos said:

AMV8Nick said:

RacingPete said:

havoc said:

2volvos said:

Anyway, is there not a case, notwithstanding yesterday's announcements, that the Vulcan should be taken on by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and widening its remit to more of an RAF Heritage Flight? Add in a Hunter and Lightning from the sadly now defunct Thunder City while they're at it.

Imagine the equivalent of the BBMF Lanc, Spit and Hurricane formation with a Vulcan, Hunter and Lightning....

Excellent idea. Can't see it happening, sadly, but it's what we should be doing.

Good idea to have a heritage flight, but not sure I would want the Vulcan drowning out the lovely Merlin sounds!

I have a Merlin engine :-)

Edited by AMV8Nick on Thursday 21st October 15:27

That's one overpowered trolley...

Great leaf blower !!!

[2volvos]

I seem to remember my old 70s copies of Speed and Power magazines a Merlin engined car that looked like the back end of a Capri and then a huge long bonnet. I think it was the non-supercharged Centurion tank version though, so probably a bit underpowered.

[thatone1967]

that sounds like "The Beast"

[phil1979]

2volvos said:

I seem to remember my old 70s copies of Speed and Power magazines a Merlin engined car that looked like the back end of a Capri and then a huge long bonnet. I think it was the non-supercharged Centurion tank version though, so probably a bit underpowered.

[2volvos]

This was the one I was thinking of - did it end up morphing into the tasteful looking beige machine above? As opposed to the subtle and tasteful looking burgundy machine it was of course...

[thatone1967]

ASK mid shows that as a Rolls Royce... they wont be pleased after the court cases!

[2volvos]

I'm sure that BMW bought R-R Motors just for the production rights of that very car...

[masermartin]

I like the idea of the PH sunday service in support. It would probably have to be at the home base though (I think Lyneham at the moment IIRC?).

I was speaking to one of the VTTST team at Farnborough this year asking if they had any plans to look at returning any of the other V's to the sky. He said that it cost some astronomical amount (can't remember the exact figure now) per hours flight for the Vulcan as it was and they had serious funding issues for it on its own. Taking on another restoration project is obviously out of the question. Was disappointed it had brake problems on that day, but I live a mile away so saw it flying every day the rest of the week \o/

As an aside, we in this country are so surrounded with heritage (architectural, industrial, engineering, even motoring) that we get blasé about it. Sadly if we carry on like we are, we will have nothing but that heritage left, and it will all be knackered and useless.

Donated.

Edited by masermartin on Thursday 21st October 16:53

[zebedee]

Having seen it at RAF Leuchars as a school kid and again at Coventry for the fly-in earlier this year, the chance to watch this beast take off, pounding your chest with noise and the sheer impressiveness of the thing getting airborn - huge and graceful, powerful yet smooth, is literally a sensation or series of sensations that you will take to the grave. Even my wife, who knows nothing about planes, was massively impressed after I have been hyping it up for weeks, all based on what I remembered from being a kid. It would be such a shame for her to stop flying or to leave the country.

[RRG]

Well flagged PH staff. Donated. Brilliant machine.

Pity we can't contribute to keeping a Concorde flying... :-(

[fatboy18]

2volvos said:

This was the one I was thinking of - did it end up morphing into the tasteful looking beige machine above? As opposed to the subtle and tasteful looking burgundy machine it was of course...

COOR, THAT'S a blast from the past, used to see that in the banstead area a fair bit, think it belonged to a guy who had a Gearbox repair company (autos)

[///ajd]

will261058 said:

///ajd said:

A fine tribute to large complex aircraft engineering in the UK.

It should be inspiring stuff for new generations to get into science and technology, but the current climate is not a good one.

Not a good week for the last ever wholly UK produced large aircraft project.

RIP MRA4 & good luck in the future to all the fine engineers who put so much energy into it.

Edited by ///ajd on Wednesday 20th October 23:36

Edited by ///ajd on Wednesday 20th October 23:36

I echo your sentiments, however although the MRA4 was built by BAE it is not wholly British. I have spent the best part of the last 30 years working on Nimrod MR1 and MR2 so I know a bit about them. The main British part of the MRA4 is the fuselage. The rest of it is a mixture of Airbus Industries and BAE. The engines are by Rolls Royce/BMW. The hydraulic systems are mainly off the shelf Airbus. The Avionics are a mixture of euro/Canadian/US systems and some British. I dearly wanted this thing to be put into service but it was the same as the last Nimrod variant - the AEW version- took too long and way over budget. When will we learn! Now we have nothing suitable to do the job the Nimrod needed to do

Edited by will261058 on Wednesday 20th October 23:52

Of course you're right it has much international content - but it was all designed, integrated, assembled and flight tested in the UK (noting of course some of the key mission systems were off shore sourced).

My intended point really was that the end of Nimrod is truely the potential end for a range of engineering skills associated with whole large ac design, integrated, flight test & production. Whilst we can be proud that UK engineered wings are still be to found on nearly all Airbuses, the majority of the key aerospace skills associated with large ac airframe assembly and flight testing left these shores for Germany, France and elsewhere many many years ago. Now they are all gone. Very sad.

[peaktorque]

GAjon said:

Slightly off topic, but the book 'Vulcan 607' is a very good read.

I remember as a kid one of the Vulcans flying at low level over my parents house, a beautiful sound , before West Malling air field became Kings Hill housing estate

Fantastic plane......