Vulcan farewell tour

[Newboy]

Is anybody is planning to watch XH558 on one of her final tours?

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zJoGZd3-Qg5U.k3u8IUZTll6M

 

[jockscott]

Saw it yesterday on the Northern tour. Magnificent sight.

 

[JBR]

I had intended to drive over to Wharton to see it yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, I was seconded into accompanying my wife on our weekly shop at the supermarket.

The last time (the only time) I saw a Vulcan in flight was many years ago at RAF Finningley. I still remember it vividly and my reaction was 'how on earth can something so big look as if it's effortlessly floating in mid air?'

A wonderful aircraft that regularly outperformed America's B-52 when invited over to compete (or, of course, it could have been superior air crew)! In some ways, the Victor was superior in range and payload (and possibly electronics), but the Vulcan was the one that was retained as a bomber when the strategy shifted to low-level penetration as it was stronger than the Victor in that flight regime, probably because of its much larger wing area. The Victors, of course, moved on to flight refuelling.

 

[pred]

The things I remember most having worked on them was a rotation take off on exercise from the end of the runway, 4 Olympus engines all starting and cross feeding to start the other 12 engines on the 4 aircraft and then taking off one after the other, I swear the concrete was vibrating and then we squatted behind the generators as they left the apron onto the main runway, the worst thing was the intake checks on a winters morning with the wind howling across the airfield, there were 4 pans in an H section and we had to pull the giraffe from one kite to the next, fueling was easy, we connected a bowser up then went and sat in the cockpit opening the front tanks first and working back so the kite didn't sit on its ass, there were 7 tanks on either side and meanwhile outside another 5 bowsers would turn up replenishing the first one, some 40 tons of fuel taking the total weight of the aircraft to 120 tons on take-off..

 

[JBR]

The things I remember most having worked on them was a rotation take off on exercise from the end of the runway, 4 Olympus engines all starting and cross feeding to start the other 12 engines on the 4 aircraft and then taking off one after the other, I swear the concrete was vibrating and then we squatted behind the generators as they left the apron onto the main runway, the worst thing was the intake checks on a winters morning with the wind howling across the airfield, there were 4 pans in an H section and we had to pull the giraffe from one kite to the next, fueling was easy, we connected a bowser up then went and sat in the cockpit opening the front tanks first and working back so the kite didn't sit on its ass, there were 7 tanks on either side and meanwhile outside another 5 bowsers would turn up replenishing the first one, some 40 tons of fuel taking the total weight of the aircraft to 120 tons on take-off..

You had donkeys on your airfield? Mascots, I presume.

 

[pred]

LOL actually we did call engines donkeys, the first engine started off a slave engine and then compressed air was bled off to start the next and the next and the next.
It has just flown over Filton a couple of miles away, I dashed out and saw it disappearing into the cloud ☁

 

[JBR]

Just my sarcastic method of pointing out the correct spelling: ARSE.

 

[pred]

I was on 617 at RAF Scampton and there was a mascot, a dog, he was buried over by the hangar, I can't say his name for obvious reasons..

 

[WalksWithTurkeys]

I saw if last year I think, when it flew over. Magnifiicent beast and huge. I assume it was attending an air display somewhere in the south.

I also saw the Lancasters, Spitfire and Hurricane when they flew over. The sound of the merlins was amazing. I Also heard the recent formations of spitfires and hurricanes, but didn't see them.

 

[WalksWithTurkeys]

I was on 617 at RAF Scampton and there was a mascot, a dog, he was buried over by the hangar, I can't say his name for obvious reasons..

The dambusters film is not very PC, I can't say why. I wonder if it is the same animal?

 

[gregers]

I saw if last year I think, when it flew over. Magnifiicent beast and huge. I assume it was attending an air display somewhere in the south.

I also saw the Lancasters, Spitfire and Hurricane when they flew over. The sound of the merlins was amazing. I Also heard the recent formations of spitfires and hurricanes, but didn't see them.

might of been comming to eastbourne? bloody ell its loud.

 

[Newboy]

Magnificent sight this afternoon as she passed overhead at low level. Very British reaction - a ripple of applause as she disappeared into the distance.

Quite a mix of people - several hundred people standing on a hill waiting for her arrival of pretty much any age you could imagine, some aviation enthusiasts with encyclopedic knowledge (and remarkable amounts of kit!) but conversations about the cold war, the Falkland Islands etc etc

Amazing that the aircraft first flew 55 years ago

 

[Dextraneous]

We are a very strange monkey indeed. Lauding over a machine that has been designed and built with one purpose in mind...to destroy other tribes

 

[Newboy]

The same thought occurred - a graceful, elegant machine designed to carry a payload capable of wiping out entire cities.

 

[Dextraneous]

Totally agree. We (friends and I) were discussing the use of machine guns that fire several hundred rounds per second. Scary