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MG MGA - Avro Vulcan final flying season

This year sees the retirement of the last flying Vulcan, worth a look if you get the chance.

http://www.vulcantothesky.org/appearances.html
John Bray

I remember the FlyPast and Aeroplane articals from several years ago.Amazing that they were even able to get it flight worthy,I cannot even imagine the work and expence of keeping it going. I would imagine you'll never see one in the air again unless it was done by someone like the BBMF.
gary starr

Then of course there is the new Vulcan!

Just seen for the first time in public at the Goodwood festival of speed I believe!
Neil MG

I used to live near Cranfield when the Vintage Aircraft Team was there with all sorts of 50s jets, and I got to spend some time in the workshop getting stuff done on my MGA which I was restoring at the time. It was fascinating as they had a Venom, Lightening, a Meteor and a Vampire, plus a Provost or two kicking around. While I was in the workshop, they would thrash my car (a Renault 5 GT Turbo) up and down the (closed) runway for kicks.

I also sat in a Vulcan cockpit once (a pretty derelict beast on the airport using airport transfers sevenoaks at Blackpool) it had pretty much been gutted by souvenir hunters.... but it seemed enormous outside but VERY cramped inside. And even then all the technology looked ancient and I am also amazed that they can still be flying one. I think the description must be something along the lines of "100'000 rivets flying in loose formation!"
dominic clancy

My father worked for AVRO in Malton,Ontario CANADA! I remember watching the Avro Arrow fly over our hoose! Before it became Toronto Int. airport.
John Gordon

I used to shoot them down in my Lighning, then Phantom! - simulated though.

Mind you, the Vulcan could turn on a sixpence above 40,000ft. I remember doing a supersonic (me, not the Vulcan) head on attack. I was at about 40,000ft and he was higher. He came marching down my B-scope at a great rate of knots, then the closure rate suddenly slowed down to a mere couple of hundred knots as I realised he had turned about onto my heading without any discernible divergence in azimuth. Most impressed. The Lightning at that height and supersonic needed a 6 mile radius turn in comparison.

Steve
Steve Gyles

If you want to see the Vulcan in a lovely rural setting, art deco airport, Shoreham (West Sussex) airshow late August is the place to be. Bit biased as I live close by the airport but it's a great show. Loads of Spitfires. Hurricanes, ME109's, Dad's Army shooting them down, classic cars, etc, etc. Recommend it.
Bruce.
Bruce Mayo

By sheer coincidence, I was lucky enough to visit the Vulcan last wednesday, my wife had arranged it for me as a surprise birthday present.
I had forgotten just how big the aircraft is.
It was a fantastic tour, two and a half hours, one to one with the most clued-up guide I have ever known. He pretty much spoke non-stop for all that time about the Vulcan with some fascinating insights about the Falklands Conflict.

He did say that above 40000 ft a Vulcan could actually out turn and out-manoeuvre an F15 but unfortunately it didn't have any weapons on board to defend itself!

This time I wasn't allowed inside the cockpit of the Vulcan (for the usual Health & Safety reasons) but fortunately I had already sat in a Vulcan cockpit back in 1964 as a young boy when I visited RAF Finningley as a member of the Air Training Corps.

I recall it being incredibly cramped even for a 14 year old boy,I also remember seeing the anti flash blinds and wondering which button on the instrument panel would launch the Blue Steel nuclear missile! (no I wasn't tempted!)

I still hope to be able to see the Vulcan fly before it is retired later this year.

Cheers

Colyn




c firth

This thread was discussed between 28/06/2015 and 30/06/2015

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