The Vulcan XH558 & General Aviation Thread

[Renegadenemo]

They should hop in it early one morning and fly it to Conningsby and give it to the BBMF. That'd be fun on a quiet news day then the RAF would have to decide what to do with it.

[rob565uk]

They should hop in it early one morning and fly it to Conningsby and give it to the BBMF. That'd be fun on a quiet news day then the RAF would have to decide what to do with it.

I am with you on that ...

[jonwrightk7]

Really sad that it should end up like that...

[Renegadenemo]

Really sad that it should end up like that...

It's terribly sad but they'll just sit there and do nothing. Just imagine the uproar if they actually did choose a quiet news day to sneak in there, fire up the old girl and blast her to Conninsby to formally donate her to the BBMF. The story would run and run and folk could be inspired to get all indignant and behind the effort to preserve her once more.
Wish it was my project right now - I do enjoy a healthy shitstorm. But, sadly, the herd mentality will likely prevail as their once loved and cossetted machine gets damp and slowly falls victim to electrolysis.

[mtskull]

Really sad that it should end up like that...

It's terribly sad but they'll just sit there and do nothing. Just imagine the uproar if they actually did choose a quiet news day to sneak in there, fire up the old girl and blast her to Conninsby to formally donate her to the BBMF. The story would run and run and folk could be inspired to get all indignant and behind the effort to preserve her once more.
Wish it was my project right now - I do enjoy a healthy shitstorm. But, sadly, the herd mentality will likely prevail as their once loved and cossetted machine gets damp and slowly falls victim to electrolysis.

Just imagine the uproar if a jet bomber that is supposed to be grounded were to take off without authority from an airport close to several large centres of population before heading towards an active RAF base.
Maybe better to fall victim to electrolysis than to take a missile up a jetpipe and end up as a pile of scrap in a smouldering crater.
Herd mentality? Nah, more likely just the desire to carry on being alive and at liberty.

[Richie]

if they choose the latter, I know a group of people who specialise in rebuilding twisted and otherwise destroyed lumps of aluminium.

[kneeslider]

After 588 finished her flying career, it was always going to be a bit dodgy to keep her at Doncaster in the longer term. The airport would be understandably twitchy about having a non-flight certified aircraft running up and down their runway that was in use for Airbuses full of paying punters. The VTTS trust should have used the last flight to run her back to Bruntingthorpe to be kept there for all time, but I guess that they had burned their bridges there too.

[Renegadenemo]

Just imagine the uproar if a jet bomber that is supposed to be grounded were to take off without authority from an airport close to several large centres of population before heading towards an active RAF base.
Maybe better to fall victim to electrolysis than to take a missile up a jetpipe and end up as a pile of scrap in a smouldering crater.
Herd mentality? Nah, more likely just the desire to carry on being alive and at liberty.

Not at all... they'd just have to pop the details on Twittergeram / Facebollocks at the crucial moment (a good use for the herd mentality in this instance) and within seconds the world would know that they'd grown a pair and were doing something positive. No missile - only a right royal bollocking at the other end, and think of the speaking gigs on offer after that! If I thought I could fly a Vulcan I'd do it for them.

[mtskull]

No missile - only a right royal bollocking at the other end

Don't forget the inevitable arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators and their aiders and abetters; also the fact that it would be hard to carry out speaking engagements from a prison cell.
Then there's the prospect of a further crackdown on any other would-be operators of historic jets, the argument that civilian operators of military hardware are a professional and responsible bunch having been comprehensively blown out of the water.
That's before you consider what the response of the MOD would be to the problem of having an unwelcome Vulcan cluttering up one of their airfields -a response that would probably involve a bulldozer and a gas axe.

Yes, it's a shame and I can't help wondering why a little more consideration wasn't given to the question of the long term future of the aircraft once its flying career was over.

[midlife]

To be honest, I’m with Bill on this.
I think it’s criminal that it’s being left to rot, it breaks my heart.
Perhaps inviting the press to take pics on the runway with the nose up a little and the title “The Great Escape” may generate some interest?
In these days of facebollocks etc some British pride should be easy to generate, alas unless it’s got pictures of Kim Kardashian’s arse involved no bugger appears to be interested.
Cheers
Wayne


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