Vulcan XJ825

XH563 Scampton

I finally dug out the old pic of XH563 that I took in 1986.

Ah that would make sense. Still seems a shame as there was loads of bits on there that could have been traded off or sold.

I think it depends on whoever is breaking the airframe up. Judging by the way ‘825 was ‘dispatched’ here, the guy at the controls of that JCB probably wasn’t interested in selling bits off, just selling the scrap. Contrast that with the way XM569 & XH537 were broken up (I have pics of these two being scrapped), everything of use/value/interest was removed properly, including the cockpits, in the correct way, before the JCB’s were let loose on the remains.

Ah that would make sense. Still seems a shame as there was loads of bits on there that could have been traded off or sold.

Were her engines still fitted or just the pipes?

If you have a look underneath her in the second picture, all the engine access doors are open, maybe they were removed prior to being slapped everywhere by that JCB??

She may even have had them removed after retirement as a tanker for the Vulcan Display Team??

Can anyone shed any light??

See, thats what I can’t understand.. The canopy and crew door could have been recovered! Were her engines still fitted or just the pipes?

Destruction of XJ825 – January 1992

Sorry for the delay in posting these pics. They were taken by Peter Quicke in January of 1992. The scrap merchant that won the tender managed to turn her into a pile of unrecognisible scrap in a couple of hours.

This shows her in her BDRT role, just prior to her scrapping:

And these show what happened once the scrappie were let loose on her:

Here you can see the technical approach to the removal of the cockpit:

Here, you can see the remains of the cockpit section:

And there we go, another one gone. You can’t save them all…:o

sure go ahead I would like a peek… Will dig out and scan in the pic of 563 at scampton..

Got a collection of pics of ‘825 getting bulldozed that I bought from Colin Mears a few years ago. There was no ‘finesse’ to it, she was just smashed around the pan by the shovel of a large earth mover before being swept into a pile of unrecognisible pile of scrap. I can post them later if anyone really wants to see them?? 🙁

Thanks Binbrook01

Hmm, so it looks like I took the last ever pic of XH563 before she was scrapped then as we were back home in the summer of 1986.

Peter,

XJ825 was scrapped at Waddington in early March 1992, and as it was XH563 that was chopped at Scampton in 1986/87.

The airframe was a BDR trainer, it was most likely stripped for spares, as XL426 was still a flyer when the tankers were retired (ahhh those were the days:) ), long before they started using 558. although I have no idea why its cockpit wasn’t kept, remember this was the early 90s before the cockpit collecting idea took off big time. And as it was no doubt a MoD disposal tender, so either the scappie didn’t care or wasn’t interested in keeping bits.

Tim

Vulcan XJ825

Does anyone know if she was stripped for spares before it s scrapped at Scampton and also why was her cockpit not put up for sale?

Here she is just before the scrapman arrived…

Hello All

XJ825 ended its days as the Waddington BDRT airframe, until it was scrapped in either late 1991 or early 1992. I forget exactly when

Of the other K2s

XH558 and XH560 are the most well known.

as for the others:

XH561 was torched at Catterick
XL445 went to Lyneham for BDRT
XM571 went to Gib for display

Cheers

Tim