Current State Of The Surviving Vulcan Bombers

XM612 looks in really great condition considering she has been parked on a grassy area? Not the best for long term preservation but she’s in good hands!

I was having a look at XL319 at NEAM today. The outside is none too pretty, but the cockpit is superb.

Boosted by the huge amount of comments within this thread about XM612 at CoNAM, I had reason to go there this morning, whilst there I collected a few photos of said Vulcan, still looking very good, in my humble opinion, and the ongoing paint job has progressed since my last visit, seems at the moment to be to the outboard point of the intakes below the wings, with very difficult lighting conditions it is a challenge to get decent photos here after 09.00 (far too early on a Sunday !) 🙂

Keith.

Re: XM597 at East Fortune.

Don’t know anything about the internals, they don’t allow cockpit access any more. But these were taken earlier this month.

XL426 Under restoration at Southend Airport to return to fast taxi status

Probably the most extensive restoration on a large jet aircraft this side of XH558’s return to flight, and which really could do with more financial support from the public. We’d welcome visitors to our ‘Visit the Vulcan’ days through 2010 to view the work being carried out, and hopefully put pennies in the tins. Thank you. 🙂

XM575 has suffered some corrosion to the skin under the wings near the control surfaces but other than that she is still in pretty good shape. Electrical systems are still powered up regularly and every now and then a few other things are aswell.

Thanks for the updates guys, its great to hear that things are going well for the Norwich Vulcan now, its a great museum.

MH

re;

When I was at Horsham St Faith (Norwich) last year they were tinkering with the exhausts of the vulcan, and were well into painting her.

XM612 at Norwich

I visited the City of Norwich Aviation Museum at Norwich Airport last summer and they were part way through a full repaint of XM612.

Nearly all the top surfaces had been painted and they were then working on the undersides.

Looked a very long way from being a H&S hazard to me and they can obviously afford a restoration programme.

I’ve visited CNAM several times over the past few years and it always seems a well run ‘tight ship’ type of operation. They are keen and helpful and seem to be quite succesful. They always strike me as being people not to upset, certainly ‘firm but fair’

Obviously the best kept examples are in the national collections the one’s at Cosford and Duxford are obviously in excellant shape but the one at Hendon seems to be accumulating lots of dust!! but at least she is inside and out of the elements which is a good thing.

The One at Coventry to what i have seen is also in good condition as i have been in her cockpit numerous times and she is very complete and last time i was there they said she was due for a repaint soon.

curlyboy

RE: XM612 at City of Norwich Aviation Museum

When I was last at Norwich (about a year ago) the guys there gave me an excellent tour around the Vulcan, inside and out and to my untrained eye it seemed in good condition. They did admit however that they didnt really have the funds to perform any restoration and that time and weather conditions may eventually turn her into a H+S hazard.

Things may have changed, maybe someone has been more recently?

The will is definitely there to keep her up but its always going to be tricky for a small museum. If anyone hasnt been they should definitely make a visit, the guys there are very keen and helpful.

MH

RE: XM573 Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha Nebraska..

As others will no doubt say, the plane is now a few miles away at the Strategic Aerospace Museum (new name for the SAC museum) and it’s indoors
and appearently in fine shape.

😮 Four inside!! 😀

RE: XM573 Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha Nebraska..

As others will no doubt say, the plane is now a few miles away at the Strategic Aerospace Museum (new name for the SAC museum) and it’s indoors
and appearently in fine shape.

XM606, the one at Barksdale (HQ of the 8th AF) is out in the open, last I heard they were looking for money to maintain it. If it’s like most planes on display at USAF bases, I’m sure it’s in fair condition. I’m sure some of that aircraft quality anti-corrosion spray on whatever internal parts that can be accessed wouldn’t hurt.
At least Barksdale in a fair distance inland, so I don’t think corrosion would be quite the factor there that it would be in other areas of the state.

This made me laugh,

bribery apparently works well.

about 319’s cockpit being opened, well to quote a large supermarket “every little helps”:diablo:

http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/vulcan/survivorspics1.html

Found this of interest.

XM594 – Newark Air Museum

I’ll kick you off Peter.

As a quick update I’ll add something that was posted somewhere around here earlier in the year.

XM594 will be the centrepiece of Newark’s Tribute to the V-Force event on April 24 & 25, 2010, which looks set to attract a diverse array of V-Force displays and veterans.

This event may slightly delay the much discussed repaint of XM594, which is still at the planning stage. I does however seem likely that some sort of scaffolding platforms will be utilised for the repaint. Ground running of the Rover still does occasionally take place and the aircraft is on loan from the Lincolnshire’s Lancaster Association.

Since that post work has been started on cleaning the airframe in preparation for the April event.

The previously talked about plans for a third hangar at Newark to house XM594 and two other heavies have been delayed due to the need to address other issues to help with the long-term development of the museum’s Southfield Site.