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15
Vulcan
Winter
2013
or men of a certain age, the Avro
Vulcan is instantly recognisable, not
least because of the innumerable Airfix
Vulcan models constructed by them.
For others, familiarity with the Vulcan
has come more recently through her
appearances at airshows. The Vulcan
is a large aircraft – about the same size
as a Boeing 737 or an Airbus A320
– but surprisingly manoeuvrable and
incredibly noisy. A sight once seen,
never forgotten.
The Vulcan saw service in the RAF from
1956 to 1984. The RAF kept one example,
Vulcan XH558 flying up until 1993 – and
I was one of the hundreds of thousands
of people at air displays in the 1980s who
stood in awe whenever she appeared.
I was also one of the 200,000 people
who signed a petition to keep the Vulcan
flying, after the MoD decided that the
expense of keeping XH558 airworthy was
not affordable following the end of the
Cold War. Having followed XH558 during
her final flying years, I looked more
deeply into the history of the Vulcan,
and the engineer in me was amazed by
the leap in aviation technology in the
immediate post-WW2 years that the
aircraft represents.
Believing that British heritage needs
to have a flying Vulcan, conscious of
the public support for XH558 and aware
that the aircraft was retired early, in 1997
I resolved to explore the feasibility of
returning Vulcan XH558 to flight. Besides,
a good friend told me I’d never make it
happen – I can’t resist a challenge!
F
