UK Vulcan could to be grounded.....

due to lack of funding.

Sorry in advance Mods if this should have gone in another fora but as this is Transportation related I thought raise it here.

I have been privileged to see Vulcan XH558 flying on a couple of occasions (FIA2008 and Jersey Airshow) and have previously read that her future on the airshow circuit was in jeopardy but if you read here http://www.vulcantothe​sky.org/

For myself I want to see & hear her fly again somtime but I am not sure how much I could give, certainly only a very modest amount, but its always a numbers game and they are asking for pledges AFAIK at this time to reach their target.

So just a heads up to all my fellow aviation lovers here in the UK and maybe our cousins overseas would care to look at what the worrld of aviation could b missing.

For the record I have no connection with the plane or the trust that owns & operates it. I would just like to think she will be able to fly for sometime to come.

A worthy cause so I have pledged £50. I'd pay twice that to see Concorde back in the air the loss of which still fills me with sadness.

I have made my pledge but the target is still sadly short by a goodly amount with only 2 days left to meet their £1m

Oh well, we shall see???

Not sure about the deadline but as of "now" they are under £100k short of that elusive £1m target.

???

Just to remind you all I took these on a grey day at FIA 2008

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I would be willing to bet someone will purchase it and it will fly, hopefully someone in the states so it can do the airshow circuit. But who knows.

How many Vulcan airframes are there worldwide?

As expensive as this baby is to operate, (and I'm guessing of course) it seems to me that keeping spares on hand (especially outside the UK) would drive up the overall cost of ownership exponentially.

I wonder how it compares on a per hour basis with, say, a B29?

I think there is at least one other in the UK that has got a taxi'ing "license" only i.e. not airworthy. How many more there are I have no idea. The Vulcan and the other Cold War birds (Valiant & Victor) were quintessentially British and as such I doubt that foreign ownership would be welcome

As for spares, well I would hope that there is enough as in airframe terms she is not all that old but she did do round trip bombing runs in 1982 I think in the Falklands war.

Running costs I think are stated somewhere on their site as £44000 per month for ground maintenance to ensure she is ready for re-certification for the airshow round in the UK.

One thing I recall from seeing her was the noise ~ the ground shakes and the subsonic noise shakes your stomach - awesome to see & hear. If she ever gets across the pond I think you would love to welcome her as a guest

I think the other Vulcan is down in Southend, not sure though...

The Vulcan is saved for this year anyway.

http://www.thisisleice​stershire.co.uk …53538-detail/article.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk …eicestershire/7​928243.stm

Awesome. I'm glad she'll get to fly this season. I was privileged to see a Vulcan up close at NAS Oceana right before they retired them the first time (prior to the Falkland War). They had it on static only during the show but they had crew signing posters and they let me look up into the crew hatch. I still have that poster, believe it or not. I was fortunate to be present when it left for the next show and it truly was an awesome experience to see, hear and feel it take-off.

Cheers.

I saw the Vulcan at Leuchars - unfortunately it couldnt fly due to the weather and the fact it is certified only for visible conditions.

Still an awesome aircraft that shakes you to the core when they ramp the engines up to full power.

The first and last time I saw the Vulcan was when I was about 6, standing in my back garden in Nottingham. It flew overhead a couple of times. Ever since then I have been a big fan and I'm glad it's still going to fly.

I saw it at Duxford last year.

Amazing aircraft and one that the crowds never forget. Glad they secured funding so hopefully we will have it in the circuits this year

Paul

Provisionally booked for both days at the Lowestoft airshow, so all bits crossed

Shelton.

Surviving Vulcans

There are certainly 19 complete surviving airframes all B2 models.

15 are found in the UK ( 1 in Scotland & 14 in England) XH558 is the flier and XM655 is maintained at Southend in taxi-able condition, all other survivors are static only.

There are a further 3 in U.S.A. & a further survivor in Canada.

I have seen mention of a further surviving airframe in Australia but can find no confirmation