The British Vulcan bomber plane - news and discussion

[dessiato]

I once had the pleasure (?) of being at the side of the runway at Waddington when they scrambled three Vulcans, it remains one of the most amazing noises I've ever heard. It ranks alongside being on the runway at Binbrook when the Lightnings were scrambled.

'Jet noise, the sound of Freedom!'

 

[selamlar]

@ my momentary confusion over C.D due to the threads age.

@ the funny old bugger anyway

Aye.

 

[mattie]

My mate's dad used to fly those. He's now mad as a fruitcake.

 

[starfish2000]

A lad I went to school withs father designed some of the internal systems, something to do with bomb bay doors I think???

 

[pogofish]

Excellent news!

 

[boskysquelch]

Virtually the same engines as Concorde at just above treetop height.

my dad was a test pilot for the Concorde engines in Vulcans while he was in 617 Squadron @RAF Scampton....

after we 'left camp' we used to live on the flight path for RAF Scampton & RAF Waddington...one going either way every 10mins..almost 24hrs a day...I knew them all...I <3'd Vulcans...and still miss'em

 

[Asriel]

There's one near my parents place in Stratford Upon Avon, it was brought by a local business man and we went down to watch it come-in, 1984 I think, that, and watching 3 Harrier Jump Jets hover, then dip their noses at us while we were standing on the deck of HMS Illustrious was

Ahh found the site, just Google "Wellesbourne Vulcan"

 

[pogofish]

Just saw the photo of XH558 in the air in today's Scotsman.

 

[G. Fieendish]

Seeing as Britains so called nuclear deterent, trident, delivers dirty little fission bombs, and is under UN control anyway, and costs tens of billions, a refurbed Vulcan fleet laden with 10 meg hydrogen bombs would have the 'gunboat diplomacy' effect.

I mean one of those coming over, and the fuzzy-wuzzies would get in a flap.

I remember the shadow as they went over Watergate Bay (Nr RAF St. Morgan) when I was a sprog.

Asked his maj. what was it?

"Death. For everyone" was his cheerful reply as my 99 flake dripped onto the sand.

I loved the '60's. (Except for The Beatles, natch) they were so apocalyptic.

Ah, tell the kids that today and they'd shoot you.

The RAF seriously considered fitting a Polaris A3 missile underneath a upgraded Vulcan B.2 bomber, for airlaunch at altitude, after the U.S cancelled the Skybolt air launched missile programme, in the early 60's....
Fortunately, that idea got killed off fairly quickly...

 

[dylanredefined]

And all we got to worry about is the odd sucide bomber .Back then Its was end of the world stuff,but, with really cool hardware

 

[bigbry]

I remember driving a Fiat 500 down the A68 from Edinburgh to Scotch Corner in early 1966. Down Lauderdale I'm driving along minding my own business when I am aware of this deep noise rapidly getting louder and I panic thinking the cars going to break down miles from my home in Leicestershire.

Then as the noise is deafening something catches my attention to my left and there about 100 yards to the side and at what seemed just a hundred or so feet higher is a Vulcan on a low level run down the valley.

Watching it disappear down the valley banking left and right trailing thin trails of smoke as it followed the contours of the valley was absolutely awesome. This post brought it all back to me.

 

[pogofish]

Yup, upland Scotland was the Vulcan's low-flying playground. Esp amazing as it was originally designed for high altitude work & the rest of the V-bombers did not prove themselves so effective .

 

[pk]

All this chitter-chatter and no bugger's posted a link to the darn thing actually taking orf... so here you are chaps.


Chocks away, what?

 

[pogofish]

Thanks!

 

[Poi E]

Vulcan crashes right at the end of a round-the-world journey showing off the kit.

Like the Comet, it took the American's to get the quality control up to par.

ETA: bloody hell, a pilot here was involved in two Vulcan crashes

http://www.neam.co.uk/wingate.html

 

[boskysquelch]

 

[happie chappie]

I live down the road from RAF Cottesmore and heard the Vulcan was coming into land last week, so I zipped over on the motorbike to see it. There was a thunder storm, and the pilot decided to take it over the North Sea for a couple of hours and I thought I'd missed my chance as I had to get home.

Then, just as I was about to head off, someone with a radio said that there was a fire alert on board, and the pilot had decided to head back to RAF Cottesmore. Ten minutes later, it appeared over the tree-line, flew low over our heads, and landed.

Despite what it represents (death and distruction) it was an amazing sight. I hope to see it again next week as it completes its flight tests.

Happie Chappie

 

[dylanredefined]

Like the Comet, it took the American's to get the quality control up to par.

justify that statemeant .Think in the early days of jets quite a few American planes fell out of the sky regularly as well.

 

[Poi E]

Like the Comet, it took the American's to get the quality control up to par.

justify that statemeant .Think in the early days of jets quite a few American planes fell out of the sky regularly as well.

I probably can't. I guess you'd have to compare it to the B52 accidents that resulted from design/manufacture problems. Anyone?

And I have to admit that Boeing benefited greatly from the (unfortunate) experience of de Havilland with the Comet.

 

[selamlar]

'don't make square windows' being one major lesson. Although wasn't it DC10's that had a nasty habit of explosively decompressing due to (effectively) square cargo bay doors. If so, it took them a while to learn.

 

[boskysquelch]

Think in the early days of jets quite a few American planes fell out of the sky regularly as well.

my daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad... was a Star Fighter RAF Test Pilot in Germany...he thumped my mum's then bf(USAF) to the ground over some bitching comment about British women being slutty...less than twelve hours later the guy was obliterated as was his jet...I was born 12 months later...4 months after they were married.

*flown in quite a few Comets in my time...the bledddhi wings would bend like nobody's business...and the engines...yuuuuch.

 

[pogofish]

Just noticed this has crept on to the website for the Leuchars Airshow:

Subject to the aicraft being ready, we are delighted to announce that The Vulcan will fly at Leuchars.

http://www.airshow.co.uk/public/flying

 

[Poi E]

Cool. I miss those RR Olympus flying overhead.

 

[yardbird]

A wonderful plane and once again it's on the verge of being grounded.
The guys trying to keep it airborne need some money to help and are appealing for £250K to sort out their current problems.

If Rooney would just give up two weeks pay, that would sort it!

 

[editor]

Vulcan bombers are lovely looking planes.

There was a thread on the last one here: http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/threads/226018-Vulcan-to-fly-again.?highlight=vulcan

 

[Crispy]

Lovely plane, yes, but part of a nuclear bomb strategy. Not cool.

 

[Lemon Eddy]

Lovely plane, yes, but part of a nuclear bomb strategy. Not cool.

Aye. Certainly dodgy enough to make me think there's better uses for a quarter of a million.

 

[pogofish]

Some of my recent photos of it in action:

 

[yardbird]

I do agree with the ifyness of it, but maybe as a reminder to us all.
Of course there are better uses for that kind of money, but my Rooney remark is valid.

 

[stupid dogbot]

I think it flew out of Filton a couple of weeks ago. At least, something that looked very much like it was doing some low-level sweeps over North Bristol, anyway.