The Blackpool Beast XL391

a sad, prolonged and completely undignified end to an aircraft that deserved a much better fate

From what I recall once she was in the charge of the scrap dealer it was very swift.

They did however hold onto the cockpit section for a while but they hammered it off with a JCB and it rolled around the floor further damaging panels and flattening the bomb aimers blister.

The engines too were recovered in the same unsympathetic way making t difficult to bring them up to display standard.

IIRC the scrap dealer wanted in the reagion of 5K for the cockpit section, considering the damage, missing panels and instruments the nevitable happened.

John.

Yup, I remember something similar – I also remember the initial asking price for the cockpit being 2K, later to go up to 4.5K once they realised there might be a little interest in it…. I’ve just spent 6 weeks offshore, and too much to do to be trawling through the zombie threads.

Perhaps it is better to let the poorer of a breed die, in order to let the best live, we can’t preserve them all, but 391 shouldn’t have been left to get to the state she was in…

From what I recall once she was in the charge of the scrap dealer it was very swift.

They did however hold onto the cockpit section for a while but they hammered it off with a JCB and it rolled around the floor further damaging panels and flattening the bomb aimers blister.

The engines too were recovered in the same unsympathetic way making t difficult to bring them up to display standard.

IIRC the scrap dealer wanted in the reagion of 5K for the cockpit section, considering the damage, missing panels and instruments the nevitable happened.

John.

From the photo’s though, she could have been more spares recovered before being bashed to bits.

The was never an intention to preserve the Vulcan at Blackpool. It was intially flown in for the ‘Manchester Vulcan Bomber Society’ with the ambitious view of flying her . Clearly this didn’t happen and she was an attraction for Mr Bateson’s business . Any aircraft placed that close to the sea was going too suffer and she did. He didn’t stop ‘preserving’ her – she had a purpose and when she started to deteriorate badly her time was up.

XL391

I have a small snippet of metal from XL391 here on my desk, not in anyway recognisable. I picked it up a few weeks after from the site where 391 hasd been scrapped. The “Srappy” had done a remarkably efficient job of “cleaning” the site, the amount of debris left would not have filled a carrier bag.

Planemike…………

to avoid instances like XL319s demise which once again shows its sometimes better to allow an aircraft to be disposed of quickly by scrapping than to allow it to suffer a lingering and undignified death in the name of preservation and without thinking through just what such a commitment involves .

Perhaps a little off the mark, but if we scrapped rapidly, we would be left with nothing whatsoever to preserve, and those we did save may not have the same amount of resources from derelict donor aircraft. Think of how many parts have been used off of high ground wrecks to preserve airframes.

Although I can get an idea where you might have been heading with that thought, the ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ approach to scrapping just because somebody may not preserve it would lead to innappropriate culling of airframes. By the end XL391 was a mess, but I doubt it would have been that far back before she was scrapped that things were salvagable from her, like the cockpit, or components to complete other airframes/cockpits.

Unfortunately for XL391, interest ran out, and then the clock ran out for her, and it was too late to do anything – research the forum of the debacle of her scrapping and the subsquent attempted sale of the cockpit by the scrappy.

Regards,
Scotty

It was February 1983 when the Vulcan arrived at Blackpool. At least one year
before the YAM was established. I am not sure if YAM ever applied for a Vulcan – certainly hardly any were flying by the time they were properly established. Whilst he might have deprived ‘ presevation’ of a Vulcan – it could be argued that others met the same fate and without his intervention
it probably would have been scrapped years earlier.

you may well be correct as regards Yams possible aquisition of said aircraft,however my primary enquiry was what actually occured once the aircraft was established at blackpool to allow the deterioration of the airframe by its owner/owners, agreed that most vulcans were disposed of without ceremony and to avoid instances like XL319s demise which once again shows its sometimes better to allow an aircraft to be disposed of quickly by scrapping than to allow it to suffer a lingering and undignified death in the name of preservation and without thinking through just what such a commitment involves , i ask again what happened up there which left the aircraft in its sorry state ,cleary someone lost the commitment to preserve the aircraft.

It was February 1983 when the Vulcan arrived at Blackpool. At least one year
before the YAM was established. I am not sure if YAM ever applied for a Vulcan – certainly hardly any were flying by the time they were properly established. Whilst he might have deprived ‘ presevation’ of a Vulcan – it could be argued that others met the same fate and without his intervention
it probably would have been scrapped years earlier.

xl319

terribly sad but interesting shots of this once fine aircraft,a pity she ended up there depriving a more deserving group/museum aquiring her,i think YAM applied for one but were just too late putting in their tender otherwise perhaps 319 would have found a more fitting home,what actually happened at squires gate? did her owner/owners just lose interest or was it another “reflectair “scenario?