Wellsbourne Mount Vulcan on and off the runway

Posted on fb

”As many of you will have already seen, XM655 suffered a runway excursion earlier today during our trial run for the event which was planned for Sunday 18th. That event has been cancelled, all ticket holders have been informed by email and full refunds have been processed via Eventbrite. As far as we can see, the aircraft is largely undamaged, but in addition to the ongoing recovery work, we also have a lot of inspection work to carry out before we can consider any further live activity.

In an attempt to reduce uninformed speculation, we will explain what happened. After satisfactorily completing low speed steering and braking tests on runway 05/23, the aircraft was taken onto runway 18/36 for a trial high speed run. Due to a malfunction of a piece of equipment in the cockpit, the aircraft remained at full power for approximately two seconds longer than intended. This resulted in excessive speed and less distance in which to stop, and the aircraft passed beyond the end of the runway on to the agricultural area, stopping just before the airfield perimeter. The failed equipment was an air speed indicator which had been tested and found satisfactory six days ago, and which started working normally before the end of the run. The aircraft brakes worked properly but were unable to bring things to a halt within the reduced space available.

We will provide further updates when XM655 has been recovered and we have had chance to assess any damage.”

Looking forward to the video of its removal from the dirt… 36 tonnes ISTR.

A video some way down this thread shows the incident, and it is still moving pretty fast,  probably  50-60 mph at the end of the runway,  the tilled field made a huge difference in getting the speed off (like a gravel trap) , otherwise it would have been straight across that road, and beyond. The bogies dug in to form the most effective ‘brake’ possible, and by pure good fortune that 100 metres or so of soft earth so was just  enough to prevent a pretty serious event.  Without restraint the Vulcan was  about in the right place to broadside that passing car.  

Scary. That was not a piloting ‘save’,  just good fortune.

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Apparently five years since the last high speed run.   
Still, at least it did not jump into the air, like the Bruntingthorpe Victor..

I expect some very sweaty flight suits will be going in the wash, tonight. 

Good to see the Runaway Vulcan Stopping Post did its job OK.