Pity, history repeats itself.

There are many Vulcans surviving but the poor old Victor which has been in service much longer fights for survival.:(

Cheers

Cees

If you wish to place it on this side of the water Cees, I’d be willing to help you move it.:D

That is what I thought, no idea who the owner is though. I did think that her days were numbered when a shiny Tornado GR1 with a thick coat of paint and a blacked out canopy appeared in our hangar at Marham a couple of years back, destined for only one place. But she has survived this far. The Fire section do give her an occasional wash, but only what can be reaches easily. I do still fear her days must be numbered though, such a shame with so few examples left of a type that was still in service less than 15 years ago!

If anyone has any photos of her being installed infront of SHQ, I’d love to see them! Must have been a logistical nightmare!

hope she’s got more fight left in her yet!!!!

p_j

It would be a shame to see 673 go. I left just before they moved her. I heard that only one tree was cut down to get her there. It is indeed gutted, it was one of a batch of five (should have been six) that were recovered for spares when 57 Sqn stood down. I’ve still got a couple of gauges from the cockpit at home. They were junked when she was stripped so I helped myself as it were.

Its a bit more complex than that !

The fate of F4’s was also decided by the original sale contract from the US Government, even if there had been no treaty with the east they would have pretty much met the same fate, I think they were not so much bought as leased, although it is nonsense, that was the rules they were acquired under.

Similarly other redundant US airframes have the same problems, eg the previously discussed airframes at Headcorn which are still US property and could potentially corrode someone to death !:mad:

Naturally the US is afraid someone may use its military material against them, as opposed to using it against themselves.

I tried to place some RAF F4’s in museums in Europe before they were all scrapped and I got nowhere. The reason being, as stated by someone from the MOD to me at the time was, that they were according to the original contract responsible for the airframes ad infinitum. Including all liabilities. So if an airframe languishes in some museum for twenty years and some kid climbs on it, falls and breaks a leg, the MOD would be liable. They were not too keen on dishing them out willy-nilly.

there is one other qualm with elvington, i have been told that since lindy has been a resident, the length of the runway has been shortened, so even if there were unlimited resources to hand, im sure someone had mantioned before that she couldn’t fly out due to there not being enough runway :confused: anyone care to correct me?

If you keep the fuel load low enough and no pods (I assume there is no HDU) it doesn’t take that much runway to coax a Victor into the air. I remember them taking off at Marham for majors (St Athan), half the runway was more than adequate.

Robert Hilton

My father told me the same story in the ’60s. The aircraft was a Shackleton and the crewman was the radio operator.

CS

Be that as it may, it was reported in the Air Clues and no, it wasn’t April 1st.

Interesting thought but the Canberra was concieved intially as a bomber, or so I thought?.

Regards,

John.

My recollection is that the Canberra was called the TSR1 around the time the TSR2 was being fleshed out.

Not as far as I know.