Leslie

The Vulcan is going to become airborne again with lottery money and donations from the public. It will have a full Major rebuild being checked down to the last rivet.

My name has been forwarded as one of the pilots to fly it. I just hope I will be accepted.

Best way of being a Hooligan that I know

Les

Cider boy

Cool, that is probably the most impresive aircraft I have ever seen fly, straight after take-off went pretty much vertical and the howl it makes is just awesome - so distinctive

Is it not the one that collectors have and taxi up and down the runway every so often then, as I thought that was kept in airworty condition but the CAA wouldn't let them fly it

Matt

Edited to say can I have a flight please

Richard Askew

I put a couple of quid in the fundraising bucket at Fairford this year so I demand my moneys worth

jowl

Yeah, I've chipped in a couple of quid too. The Vulcan can have a crew of seven right?

I reckon you should take first seven people to post in this thread! I'd like to be co-pilot or in charge of the bomb bay doors!

Richard Askew

Can I be in charge of the beer fridge then?

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Since this thread is about Vulcans, and I'd like to go in it too, I'd just like to say that I've always bben a big fan of Mr Spock:


Alcazar

Jaybird-UK

which one are they going to fly?


Congrats Leslie

mart360

I,m in!!!!!


i first heard this baby at mildenhall it made all the cars shake!!!!!!!

and the banshee scream as it came over............

if i could have one for chrimbo!!!!!


Mart

bigJoe

Hope you get to have a go Leslie,

BTW do they have a simulator? (they must do surely) It must be quite a job writing the SOP's and training documentation - sounds fun though - there must be TV show in it!

Beer Good

I was priveledged to watch the last flying Vulcan come in to land at Filton, Bristol, when I worked there a 9 or so years ago. It came in low & slow over the Rolls-Royce plant, & I think the pilot thought he was going to hit the A38 rather than the airfield as the plane wobbled a bit then went to full power. Wow, what a noise. I stood in the same spot about 100 yards behind Concorde when it took off celebrating the 25 year anniversary, I think the Vulcan was slightly louder. On both occasions you could actually feel your internal organs vibrating with the noise.

Both, comfortably the loudest things I have ever heard (or want to hear!). Those Olympus engines weren't very PC!! Or stealthy!

Hope you get the priveledge of flying this beast!

Steve

unclebuck

Is it the one that bombed Argentina?

Just joshing. If you get it (and I hope you do), you will be a very lucky man.

Actually when I worked up at Filton my old boss was an ex-Vulcan guy. Dave Pollington his name was. Did you ever come across him?

UB

Iwan

Well done mate, best of luck!

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

On my elder Brothers passing out day in the RAF many years ago we had a Vulcan do a flyby, and the complete git of a pilot went to full afterburner just as he came over the stands from behind...

My God, What a NOISE!!!

Always had a soft spot for that aircraft since that day....

Beer Good

Hear you, well, sort of hear you! More a kind of ringing in the ears....

Beer Good

Don't think so! Olympus 593 fitted with afterburner to Concorde though.

http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/types/uk...can/Vulcan.htm

http://www.janes.com/transport/news/...0725_1_n.shtml

Hope this gets project gets off the ground (no pun intended), Olympus spares hugely profitable= bonus next year!

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

No they didn't, no reheat.

Beer Good

Uncle Buck,
When were you at Filton?

I worked (in the loosest sense of the word) there from 1989 to 1997, before moving to Derby.

Dave's name doesn't ring a bell. I worked for Alan Parkin / John Grimshaw/ Les Bellew/ et al.

Steve

yoza

Come on then Les, give us some Vulcan stories, or any flight stories, never get bored of them.

unclebuck

BG - I was a contractor working in the Reflectone building where they make the simulators (you know the place, at the top of Southmead Road). erm... 95 to early 98

We were regulars at the British Aerospace refectory though (forgotton what it was called now).<belch!>

UB

logiclee

Nat21 posted this video on an earlier Vulacn thread.


Vulcan Vid

Cheers
Lee

Beer Good

Nice!

No afterburners tho!

Brendan Hughes

Les - best of luck on that! If they put it to an internet poll, be sure to post up the link, won't you?

*cough* SN mailbombing *cough*

Leslie

Thanks for all the good wishes, just have to get through a stiff medical of course and hope the guy in charge will accept me.

They did not have reheat and there were two engine marks, 200 series and 300 series. The 300's were fitted for the Skybolt missiles which the USA cancelled eventually and were much more powerful. There was a wirelocked take-off/cruise switch which was supposed to stay in the cruise mode for the 300's. If you broke the wire locking accidentally during an air display, you got another 4 tons of thrust! That was when you could get it vertical off the runway up to about 3,000 feet.

XH 558 has got 200 series engines and was the last flying Vulcan. It has been kept in a hangar at Bruntingthorpe and they have got spare engines too. It is in good nick and will be like a new one after the Major service.

There are no simulators left I think, so those of us who get selected will have to do the ground school bit all over again and then just go and fly it! I just hope I get the chance, I still remember the first take-off I did at Finningley and the absolute gobsmacking performance of such a big machine.

Interesting to hear you were at Filton UB, I did fly in there once and was looking at the TSR2 engine in the test beds which was a development of the Olympus engine. I don't remember Dave Pollington, he might have been stationed at Scampton and I did most of my time at Waddington.

Yes I have got loads of stories but won't bore you with all that, I'll let you know if I make it and if I do where I will be flying it so you can take cover

Les

^Qwerty^

They just don't make em' like they used to do they.....

I can imagine kids (those with aviation interest) of today will get off on Tornado's. I'd love to see the Lancaster at East Kirkby made air worthy, such that we could have two flying in formation. After that, let's have a Lightning back in the air (in the UK) because these new fandangled things just don't cut the mustard

Living in the Vale of York AIAA all my life, we used to have lessons at school interupted every 20 minutes or so some days with low flying jets. A-10's used to fly up and down the River Ouse in a kind of zig-zag pattern. Had the Vulcan's fly over now and again. You name it, it flew over here.

Now.... it's very quiet. I can hear the Tucano's buzzing about most days, and if your luckly you can see them doing dog fights. Get the odd jet scream over low level.....but that's about it.

I suppose it's progress in that we don't need all this hardware anymore, but I do miss it.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

I was certain that the Vulcan that bombed Port Stanley was kept at Waddington? On sort of display? X558?

As far as Finningley is concerned, I went to an air display there in the late 60's and saw a "Vulcan Scramble", with 6 Vulcans going off one after another! Awesome, doesn't even START to describe it, and I could feel the ground vibrate as well as my internal organs!

Alcazar

beemerboy

You can borrow some of my films if it will help

seriously, i think the is a Vulcan bomber still present at Southend Airport here in Essex.
i'm not sure if they fly it or just blat it around the runway.

think there is a nerdy group of voluteers who tend to her.
will have to take a trip and have a close up.

[reaches for anaorak and thermos]

BB

Brendan Hughes

Les, in all seriousness, how much chance might you have? I remember you saying you have flown the Vulcan at airshows in the 80s, so that sounds good. I also remember you saying you have to walk with a crutch, so that sounds not so good. Meanwhile I have no idea of how many other people might be considered for the job - 5, 50 or 5 000.

Anyway, very best of luck!

Brendan

...just chuckling at the thought of a phone call in the future "Hello, Bruntingthorpe? We're a bunch of Subaru enthusiasts, can we hire your airfield <snicker> "