The Avro Vulcan is a delta wing subsonic jet bomber that was operated by the Royal Air Force from 1953 until 1984.
It is almost as iconic, and almost as beautiful, as another great RAF icon - the Spitfire.
The Vulcan initially carried Britain's first nuclear weapon, the Blue Danube gravity bomb. Blue Danube was a low-kiloton yield fission bomb designed before the United States detonated the first hydrogen bomb. The British then embarked on their own hydrogen bomb programme and to bridge the gap until these were ready the V-bombers were equipped with an Interim Megaton Weapon based on the Blue Danube casing and Green Grass, a large pure-fission warhead of 400 kt (1.7 PJ) yield. This bomb was known as Violet Club. Only five were deployed before a better weapon was introduced as Yellow Sun Mk.1.
The Vulcans - the world's first delta-wing bombers - carried Britain's nukes until the Polaris submarines entered service in 1969.
The Vulcans also took part in the 1982 Falklands War against Argentina.
They carried out a series of raids on the Argentine-held Port Stanley airfield. At the time, the 8,000-mile round trips were the longest-range combat missions ever undertaken by any nation.
Today, the world's last flying Vulcan will take to the skies.
It has successfully carried out flight tests and can now make its star appearance at the RAF Cosford air show in Shropshire.
A Mail on Sunday campaign helped save it from being grounded for ever, and it is the world's only Vulcan that is still able to fly.
In total, the RAF operated 134 Vulcans, and they went out of service in 1984.
The last Vulcan is flying again! Legendary aircraft saved by MoS readers will make its comeback today at air show
By Jonathan Petre
14th June 2009
Daily Mail
The world’s last flying Vulcan will take to the skies today for its first public display since a Mail on Sunday campaign helped save it from being grounded for ever.
The Cold War icon, once Britain’s most potent nuclear deterrent, has successfully carried out flight tests and can now make its star appearance at the RAF Cosford air show in Shropshire.
The flight will be a major triumph for the Vulcan To The Sky Trust, which launched an 11th-hour appeal for funds in March to ensure that the iconic aircraft was not mothballed.
The Vulcan XH558 takes to the skies
An astonishing £500,000 was raised in five days after this newspaper highlighted its plight, leading the trust’s chairman Robert Pleming to comment: ‘Never has one aircraft owed so much to so many.’
A crowd of up to 50,000 is expected to watch the classic delta-wing bomber sweep over the airfield in a spectacular eight-minute, 200mph flight.
During the display, at just 300ft, the Vulcan will show off its ‘speed, manoeuvrability and grace’, including banking while climbing steeply.
Staff and their families at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire were given a sneak preview of Vulcan XH558 in flight as it underwent trials on Friday.
Reaching for the sky: Vulcan XH558 on its test flight on Friday
Over recent weeks, the aircraft has undergone a full service to prepare it for air shows, and minor technical problems, mostly electrical faults, were ironed out. During its test flight, it was checked by Civil Aviation Authority pilots for airworthiness before being cleared for public displays.
Trust spokesman Richard Clarke said: ‘She is very popular as a display aircraft and her design, with the delta wing, is a real show-stopper.’
The aircraft, which is based at Bruntingthorpe airport in Leicestershire, flew for the first time in 15 years in 2007 following a £7million restoration. But money to maintain it was running out, and the project was in danger of going into administration.
Celebrities including Bee Gee Robin Gibb, Sir Richard Branson and writer Frederick Forsyth backed a campaign to raise £1million to secure the Vulcan’s future.
We did it: The Vulcan To The Sky Trust team celebrate earlier this year after hitting their fundraising target
Another admirer, Lady Thatcher, wrote to the trust saying: ‘Having seen the Vulcan fly myself, I can understand the enormous pleasure it has given to the millions of other people at air shows.’
But a week before the fundraising deadline, only half the cash had been raised. It was then that The Mail on Sunday publicised the campaign.
There are now ambitious plans to feature the Vulcan in the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, although security fears may prevent this.
More than 130 Avro Vulcans were built in the Fifties and Sixties and they constituted the bulk of Britain’s nuclear deterrent until the introduction of Polaris submarines in 1969. In the 1982 Falklands War, five of the ageing aircraft carried out a series of raids on the Argentine-held Port Stanley airfield. At the time, the 8,000-mile round trips were the longest-range combat missions ever undertaken.
There are 19 Vulcans on display in museums around the world, but XH558 is the only one that can still fly. The trust is hoping it will appear at about 30 events this year. Its next outing is in the Netherlands on June 19, and then at Biggin Hill, Kent, on June 27 and 28.
READERS' COMMENTS
In 1968/69 at Goose Bay, Canada, the Yanks used to think it was a fighter. The refueling probe was a cannon.
Because of the way it could manoeuvre and climb verticle, the Americans had nothing that could out perform the VULCAN size for size.
- brian freeth, mielan
**********************************
Stunning Aircraft that Britain can be proud of. I, when young, read a story about the Vulcan when it was first introduced.
America had in the cold war just brought in a completely new advanced state of the art radar defence network system that no other country had. That year also held the New York Aircraft show like our Farnbourgh show and the Vulcan was invited to it being a new cutting edge design that would impress.
The first the Americans knew that it arrived was when it was circling the airport with the pilot asking permission to land. It completely blew the Americans away as it secretly flew UNDER their radar at high speed! They had to go back to the drawing board. Remember this was designed only 10 years after the Lancaster.
That's when we was a Design Development and Manufacturing country as oppose to a Burger,DIY, Call center, & warehouse dump.
We do have the Dark Lord Meddlesome though who is at the moment saving our industry. (LDV? Vauxhall? Trains?)
R.I.P
- Willie English, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, West Midlands, ENGLAND
**************************************************
You Brits really designed a beauty with the Vulcan. Really puts our B-52 to shame. The B-52 is nicknamed the BUFF for Big Ulgy Fat (Use you imagination for the last letter.)
- Michael K., Virginia, USA
************************************************
lives in Lincolnshire in the 50`s,our house was right over the flight path (Caythorpe) fantastic sight to see on there finals.needless to say the Vulcan is on my top 10 of great RAF planes.
- john, luton,england
*************************************************
I saw the Vulcan fly at RAF Brize Norton yesterday. Good to have the noisy old devil back in the sky!
- Isabel Gray, Staffs
******************************
Wish I could be there to see this magnificent aircraft. Bet there will be a few tears amongst the crowds. Long may she fly
- sally, Teesside
**********************************
What a fantastic achievement - a sight to make the heart skip. I well remember, as a boy, the flight testing from Woodford around 1960. It was testing the RR Olympus engine, later destined for Concord, and made a thunderous roar as it passed over me in Lyme Park - it was well named after the Roman god of fire and metalworking.
How ironic for me that its first public display will be at RAF Cosford where I was a RAF Boy Entrant, 47th Entry, in the early 1960s.
- Clive Graham Smale, Laoag City, Philippines
*************************************
On my way to school over fifty years ago, I glanced up hearing the noise of a jet engine getting louder.
It was the Avro Vulcan - flying extremely low and slow. I would guess about 500ft. The aircraft was a white/ivory colour in the brilliant morning sunshine against a vivid blue winter sky with vapour trails pouring off the wings.
It was absolutely breathtaking. Everything came to a halt as she made a number of passes in the crisp morning air.
She must have been on flight trials in Africa - or maybe just showing the flag.
Often wondered who was flying her, where they went, what their speed was and altitude.
Hearing that the Vulcan is flying again is really wonderful news.
It started a love of aviation that has been with me all my life - would love to see her in the air once more.
- David, Johannesburg, South Africa
dailymail.co.uk
It is almost as iconic, and almost as beautiful, as another great RAF icon - the Spitfire.
The Vulcan initially carried Britain's first nuclear weapon, the Blue Danube gravity bomb. Blue Danube was a low-kiloton yield fission bomb designed before the United States detonated the first hydrogen bomb. The British then embarked on their own hydrogen bomb programme and to bridge the gap until these were ready the V-bombers were equipped with an Interim Megaton Weapon based on the Blue Danube casing and Green Grass, a large pure-fission warhead of 400 kt (1.7 PJ) yield. This bomb was known as Violet Club. Only five were deployed before a better weapon was introduced as Yellow Sun Mk.1.
The Vulcans - the world's first delta-wing bombers - carried Britain's nukes until the Polaris submarines entered service in 1969.
The Vulcans also took part in the 1982 Falklands War against Argentina.
They carried out a series of raids on the Argentine-held Port Stanley airfield. At the time, the 8,000-mile round trips were the longest-range combat missions ever undertaken by any nation.
Today, the world's last flying Vulcan will take to the skies.
It has successfully carried out flight tests and can now make its star appearance at the RAF Cosford air show in Shropshire.
A Mail on Sunday campaign helped save it from being grounded for ever, and it is the world's only Vulcan that is still able to fly.
In total, the RAF operated 134 Vulcans, and they went out of service in 1984.
The last Vulcan is flying again! Legendary aircraft saved by MoS readers will make its comeback today at air show
By Jonathan Petre
14th June 2009
Daily Mail
The world’s last flying Vulcan will take to the skies today for its first public display since a Mail on Sunday campaign helped save it from being grounded for ever.
The Cold War icon, once Britain’s most potent nuclear deterrent, has successfully carried out flight tests and can now make its star appearance at the RAF Cosford air show in Shropshire.
The flight will be a major triumph for the Vulcan To The Sky Trust, which launched an 11th-hour appeal for funds in March to ensure that the iconic aircraft was not mothballed.
The Vulcan XH558 takes to the skies
An astonishing £500,000 was raised in five days after this newspaper highlighted its plight, leading the trust’s chairman Robert Pleming to comment: ‘Never has one aircraft owed so much to so many.’
A crowd of up to 50,000 is expected to watch the classic delta-wing bomber sweep over the airfield in a spectacular eight-minute, 200mph flight.
During the display, at just 300ft, the Vulcan will show off its ‘speed, manoeuvrability and grace’, including banking while climbing steeply.
Staff and their families at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire were given a sneak preview of Vulcan XH558 in flight as it underwent trials on Friday.
Reaching for the sky: Vulcan XH558 on its test flight on Friday
Over recent weeks, the aircraft has undergone a full service to prepare it for air shows, and minor technical problems, mostly electrical faults, were ironed out. During its test flight, it was checked by Civil Aviation Authority pilots for airworthiness before being cleared for public displays.
Trust spokesman Richard Clarke said: ‘She is very popular as a display aircraft and her design, with the delta wing, is a real show-stopper.’
The aircraft, which is based at Bruntingthorpe airport in Leicestershire, flew for the first time in 15 years in 2007 following a £7million restoration. But money to maintain it was running out, and the project was in danger of going into administration.
Celebrities including Bee Gee Robin Gibb, Sir Richard Branson and writer Frederick Forsyth backed a campaign to raise £1million to secure the Vulcan’s future.
We did it: The Vulcan To The Sky Trust team celebrate earlier this year after hitting their fundraising target
Another admirer, Lady Thatcher, wrote to the trust saying: ‘Having seen the Vulcan fly myself, I can understand the enormous pleasure it has given to the millions of other people at air shows.’
But a week before the fundraising deadline, only half the cash had been raised. It was then that The Mail on Sunday publicised the campaign.
There are now ambitious plans to feature the Vulcan in the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, although security fears may prevent this.
More than 130 Avro Vulcans were built in the Fifties and Sixties and they constituted the bulk of Britain’s nuclear deterrent until the introduction of Polaris submarines in 1969. In the 1982 Falklands War, five of the ageing aircraft carried out a series of raids on the Argentine-held Port Stanley airfield. At the time, the 8,000-mile round trips were the longest-range combat missions ever undertaken.
There are 19 Vulcans on display in museums around the world, but XH558 is the only one that can still fly. The trust is hoping it will appear at about 30 events this year. Its next outing is in the Netherlands on June 19, and then at Biggin Hill, Kent, on June 27 and 28.
READERS' COMMENTS
In 1968/69 at Goose Bay, Canada, the Yanks used to think it was a fighter. The refueling probe was a cannon.
Because of the way it could manoeuvre and climb verticle, the Americans had nothing that could out perform the VULCAN size for size.
- brian freeth, mielan
**********************************
Stunning Aircraft that Britain can be proud of. I, when young, read a story about the Vulcan when it was first introduced.
America had in the cold war just brought in a completely new advanced state of the art radar defence network system that no other country had. That year also held the New York Aircraft show like our Farnbourgh show and the Vulcan was invited to it being a new cutting edge design that would impress.
The first the Americans knew that it arrived was when it was circling the airport with the pilot asking permission to land. It completely blew the Americans away as it secretly flew UNDER their radar at high speed! They had to go back to the drawing board. Remember this was designed only 10 years after the Lancaster.
That's when we was a Design Development and Manufacturing country as oppose to a Burger,DIY, Call center, & warehouse dump.
We do have the Dark Lord Meddlesome though who is at the moment saving our industry. (LDV? Vauxhall? Trains?)
R.I.P
- Willie English, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, West Midlands, ENGLAND
**************************************************
You Brits really designed a beauty with the Vulcan. Really puts our B-52 to shame. The B-52 is nicknamed the BUFF for Big Ulgy Fat (Use you imagination for the last letter.)
- Michael K., Virginia, USA
************************************************
lives in Lincolnshire in the 50`s,our house was right over the flight path (Caythorpe) fantastic sight to see on there finals.needless to say the Vulcan is on my top 10 of great RAF planes.
- john, luton,england
*************************************************
I saw the Vulcan fly at RAF Brize Norton yesterday. Good to have the noisy old devil back in the sky!
- Isabel Gray, Staffs
******************************
Wish I could be there to see this magnificent aircraft. Bet there will be a few tears amongst the crowds. Long may she fly
- sally, Teesside
**********************************
What a fantastic achievement - a sight to make the heart skip. I well remember, as a boy, the flight testing from Woodford around 1960. It was testing the RR Olympus engine, later destined for Concord, and made a thunderous roar as it passed over me in Lyme Park - it was well named after the Roman god of fire and metalworking.
How ironic for me that its first public display will be at RAF Cosford where I was a RAF Boy Entrant, 47th Entry, in the early 1960s.
- Clive Graham Smale, Laoag City, Philippines
*************************************
On my way to school over fifty years ago, I glanced up hearing the noise of a jet engine getting louder.
It was the Avro Vulcan - flying extremely low and slow. I would guess about 500ft. The aircraft was a white/ivory colour in the brilliant morning sunshine against a vivid blue winter sky with vapour trails pouring off the wings.
It was absolutely breathtaking. Everything came to a halt as she made a number of passes in the crisp morning air.
She must have been on flight trials in Africa - or maybe just showing the flag.
Often wondered who was flying her, where they went, what their speed was and altitude.
Hearing that the Vulcan is flying again is really wonderful news.
It started a love of aviation that has been with me all my life - would love to see her in the air once more.
- David, Johannesburg, South Africa
dailymail.co.uk
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