Vulcan to the Sky?

So it appears that the day is nearing when one of Britain’s greatest engineering achievements will once again grace the skies of the UK. In a remarakable effort, The Vulcan to the Sky campaign seems to be close to getting XH558 back into the air. News has come from the project (via their pages here, and via The BBC and The Register) that the Civil Aviation Authority has granted the project permission for the Vulcan to fly from Bruntingthorpe airfield, weather permitting. This is a massive step for the project, and indeed is the beginning of the phase of the project that was the ultimate goal in the first place. A series of flight tests will now take place to ensure that the rebuild of the Vulcan has been a success and that all systems are working, and then hopefully the Display Authority will be given to allow the aircraft to appear at airhsows, starting next year.

It’s been a long road for all on the project, and the support has been incredible. Over £6.5M has been raised to get the project to where it is now, and a lot of this has come from aviation enthusiasts who want to see the delta back in the sky. I personally can’t wait to see her flying again. I’ve only ever seen a Vulcan flying once, at an airshow at Teesside Airport (now Durham Tees Valley Airport) many years ago. I’ll never forget the feeling of the ground shaking and watching this glorious machine fly past. I even remember the guy stood next to me saying to his son, “Look, it’s Concorde” and thinking how wrong he was. Even at my young age I knew what I was looking at. Of course at the time you think these things are invincible and that you’ll see them forever. How wrong I was…

The Vulcan was one of the main reasosn that we won the Falklands War in the early 1980s. Flying missions well beyond the approved operating range of the aircraft, from the Ascension Islands to Port Stanley and back, the Vulcan dropped 21 1,000 lb bombs on Port Stanley airfield and cut the runway in half, as part of Operation Black Buck. This prevented the Argentinians from having an air defence capability based on the island. Without this strike, who knows which way the war would have gone. After having read the fantastic Vulcan 607, by Rowland White, I appreciate even more the effort that was put into getting these aircraft there. It’s also good to see that names that will be familiar to readers of the book, such as Martin Withers and Barry Masefield, are involved with the flying side of an aircraft with which they created history. Of course it may be a bit of a culture shock to these guys as the cockpit has been drastically overhauled (a friend has described it as being like “a brand new Boeing 747 in there”). The original clock instruments have been replaced with state of the art technology, but I’m not so much of a purist that I’m offended by this!

So what more is there to say? The Vulcan is one step away from returning to where it should be, in the sky. If you hear the sound of thunder and there isn’t a cloud in sight then look for the giant delta wing shape, and take a moment to appreciate what you’re looking at, what it did for the history of the UK, and enjoy the sight of one of the greatest British bombers back where it belongs…