Its hardly a huge commitment to sign up. But i’ve told you before john you’ll have to go through the committee i think its a good idea but i cant sanction it

I suppose that would be an idea but i dont think it crossed any of our minds that the old girl would tip. In my opinion, with probably over a months snow and ice on the wing (about 8″ deep on the starbooard elevon alone) that a tow bar wouldn’t carry enough weight to hold her down. As far as i’m concerned if the overall weight of the a/c which still has all 4 RR Olympus 201 engines in and so must about the 24 ton mark can’t hold her on all 3 gears then only a superhuman effort by volunteers would have stopped her going over. And to be quite honest we just dont have the manpower. With any luck the publicity will change that but it’ll still be my vulcan lol 😉

Well, its your team. Its not my responsibility to ask if I can supply the Vulcan with suitable skins. The offer is still on the table for now. I’ve said before that I have the metal to re-skin the worst parts of the fin. If you don’t take it up soon, I’ll find another use for our resources. I’ve waited almost 12 months now….

John it isn’t my team. I’ve told various comittee members and both O/C Team Vulcan and NEAM Project Manager, I have previously stated all these points in our PM convo of a few months ago. Those people I informed of your offer said they’d have to have an offer put through the commitee. I’ll repeat your offer to them and then i’ll leave it to them.

thanks dave, thats an impressive figure. i may only be 16 but i need things in ft inches etc. i mean come on no one says they’re 185cms no your 6′ 1″

rant over:rolleyes:

Just a little note on ‘319. The reason she has never had her engines run up is because the RAF did what is commonly know as a “proper job” on her. She was the first Vulcan to be released to a museum (excluding the one or two delivered to IWM and RAF Museums). This proper job consisted of removing the titanium casing from the enginess surrounds and that prevented us from running them up safely (it was before my time mind so i’m just going on what i’ve been told).

As for the gears being able to take the weight, I wish I shared your confidence. When the aircraft was in service, regulary maintained I have no doubt that it was able to take the weight. the problem is that ‘319 has been sitting outside for nearly 3 decades now and has had very few repairs done to her concerning undercarriage.

N.B. I know Lindy’s Lad and his NAA lads put a fair amount of work into that area but on the whole they can only be considered minor repairs in the grand scheme of things.

Now being loaded up with up to 20,000lbs of snow in the space of a few days will undeniably have an effect on the undercarriage.

John, thank god they did pivot or we could have ahd one Vulcan and one hellva mess. I can’t bear to think about the consequences of the bogies not pivoting with the damage that may have occured to the legs.

Well with any luck this colourful incident in ‘319’s history will really get NEAM’s profile up and get up some major backing from the commercial industry and the general public

is it just me or the Neam forum is running VERY slow tonight?