Letter to the Daily Telegraph today - Sir, keep the Vulcan flying
 

It is not only the bankers who need to apologise for the state of the economy - Telegraph

Now that's a good effort and just what the delta lady needed BUT

FOUR people who wrote that are Multi-Millionaires and One a Multi-Billionaire........wtf don't they all give a couple of hundred of grand each to the campaign??? It's a drop in a very big ocean for them. Dickinson owns and maintains a Boeing 707 ffs. If they meant it they would dip their own hands in their pockets, no? Branson has a history of doing this...like when he said the same about Concorde and that he would buy them for a quid each and run them....when in fact he never EVER made BA or AF an offer of any sort.

Whilst I agree they could probably fund it themselves, this is just one of many many projects these people are probably involved in.

The wealthy get many requests for funding for many projects - they can't fund them all, or they'd be broke in no time.

Good point;

It smells like Bob Geldof constantly telling us all to give him all our f***in' money.

Personally, I think the national lottery should be funding it. I mean, they have wasted plenty of money on artsy farty white elephants in the past, maybe time to put it to something that is truly worth more than the sum of its parts (unlike the Olympics - which is probably sucking up all the lottery funds atm).

The lottery has already given £3.5Million, they won't get any more from them without a major new funding strategy and plan - which they won't have because the people running the Vulcan have not got a clue how to do so.

I pledged a rather large amount to them a month or so ago and have not even heard back from them!

The whole project has been beset by bad management, bad strategy, bad fund raising and bad timing also.

Even so, the fact that they have got this far despite all that shows just how much the public want this aircraft to fly.

It would cost itro £1 Million p/a to run the Vulcan in the BBMF i believe...

I think you might find that they will have already donated a fair bit of cash. I also think that the lefty PC scrotes believe that supporting the Vulcan would be construed as "glorifying war" We shall just have to hope that they can make an impression and let the Vulcan join the Lancaster and the Spitfire and Hurricane.

ACM Michael Knight was a very highly respected senior officer during the time of the Cold War. He came flying with me once just to keep his hand in. I got him to do the take off and as we were climbing out he turned to me and said"That was better than sex Les!" Quite a character. :D

Les :)

I know that Branson has up until now refused to give them anything. The Chairman of Wolves saved them with £500,000 last year and he's a poorper compared to Dickinson, Branson, Gibb, Mason. Just the interest on their fortunes for One MONTH would keep 558 flying for YEAR...

Wouldn't it be wonderful to see the Vulcan at home in part of an extended BBMF? I saw it fly last year for the first time and it was truly an awesome sight :cool:

They have

Branson £2.7 Billion

Gibb £120 Million

Mason £55 Million - he owns dozens of cars that are worth about the same as well.

Dickinson - £50 Million

They need to put their money where their mouths are!

Current Petition to PM

Petition to: ensure the Vulcan XH558 project receives sufficient funding to enable it to continue "Honouring the past and inspiring the future". | Number10.gov.uk

There's no way this government will commit funding to keeping an obsolete museum piece flying :(

They won't even put proper funding forward to keep current equipment working properly :mad:

Me too: It was great to see it in a public flying display; Its certanly worth keeping in the air and not just as a static display.

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k3...n/42489a08.jpg

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k3...n/ce78db77.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k3...n/c88c92f1.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k3...n/f877c18d.jpg
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:cool:

Wallets out then folks :)

If just 1000 people give them £100 a month then they will meet all their funding needs!

There must be 1000 people in the UK who are Vulcan fans and could afford that, surely?

Millions of people spend more than that per month on their bloody phone bills :mad:

I think a lot of people are not giving because they think it will be a fruitless cause. They need to get the message out there that it really isn't that hard to achieve...

Unfortunately for the likes of Nat and Leslie 99.99% of the people can think of 100 things they would rather spend 100 quid on, let alone 100 quid a month

It's a fantastic achievement to get it back in the air (it flew over our house too last year), but I can't see it staying up there on public donations alone. Pretty much all of those enthusiastic individuals who have wanted to help out financially, will have done so by now and I cannot see that number getting much larger in today's economic climate. Many will be somewhat disillusioned by the never-ending calls for donations to keep the project's head just above water and have unforeseen money worries of their own right now.

I am sure everyone involved thought that as long as it was back in the sky, then some corporate benefactor(s) would come along and bank-roll the next 10 years.

I think that the Lottery Fund people are probably rather embarassed by the whole affair: there was a lot of opposition to the grant at the time as the Vulcan to the Sky project was borderline to say the least in respect of the criteria needed for a grant. I am sure they expected more than a handful of brief displays during the wet summer of 2008 for their money.

As for the MoD/RAF, I believe that they have already helped out enormously in terms of helping with flight testing etc., and already have many other non-combat expenses of their own to justify (BBMF, Red Arrows etc) but it may well be the only option left to keep the big Delta in the sky.

We wish them all well.

It is so expensive to keep it going that it was not surprising that they were unable to more displays last year.

Les

what exactly is the point in keeping it running? From someone like me who knows very little about the Vulcan etc it justs seems like a complete waste of money to ask for funding from something like the gov. or even the lottery when it could go to much more needed projects.

because its british and its about being british,

Because it's one of the sole remaining illustrations of what the British engineering industry was capable of before successive Labour governments sold us down the river to keep the Americans happy :mad:

should also keep the Austin Allegro going then

Mock if you like, but it in its day, it was a pinnical of design, we should at least keep one running (in s**ty metallic brown, of course :) ).

Of course its primary purpose should be in the display of the British automotive FAIL museum at Gaydon :D

Points to note: First BL car to have hydragas (of which continued until being used right into the 2000's with the MG-F). Also, like the Maxi, it had a traverse engine, FWD, 5 foward gears whilst Fords and Vauxhalls of the era still had 4 forward gears and RWD driving a live axle suspended on leaf springs. Don't forget the square steering wheel! And its fair to say, it looked like no other car on the road at the time! (I'm not say it looks good, just pointing it out ;) ). Oh and the daft oversight not to make it a hatchback like the Maxi was.....

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k3...b/b3537a43.jpg

:D