The Vulcan flew north along the M.6 next to Otherton Airfield (Penkridge, Staffs) and then seemed to circle Stafford in a leisurely manner. Anyone know what it was doing there, and where it had come from south of there ? Had it been to Cosford I am wondering ?

Probably holding while waiting for it’s slot at the Falklands Memorial Flypast. It had previously flown over Cosford.

I think it was scheduled to do a flypast at the National Service Veterans March Past at Cosford today. I think the Lancaster was supposed to be there too?

Regards,

kev35

Yes, the Vulcan turned up for the flypast but I believe the Lancaster was grounded due to crosswinds at Coningsby.

They just did a flypast over the Falklands War memorial.

It was covered on the BBC News channel.

I would absolutely love to see a Tempest flying with a Napier Sabre engine.
That big intake ‘chin’ they had really makes them look the business.

Hope it happens one day.

Some pictures of the finished paint job here:

http://www.vulcantothesky.org/news/347/82/XH558-s-new-shiny-coat.html

Looks nicely done. 🙂

Thanks for the post Nick. Good to see someone here from the project who can answer questions going forward.

Glad you haven’t been put off completely by a certain other ‘gutter’ website who’ve been throwing their toys out the pram lately. 😀

All the best.

They’ve used the airspace over Yeovilton in the past for test flights and display practices, so perhaps this was just another quick hop between there and Hurn for a brief shakedown flight.

Please tell me if I have missed something here, but how does just swapping engines for two in storage “increase available engine hours”?
What exactly is the context of the statement?
I understood that the Olympus was lifed by the number of engine ‘power cycles’ they are put through, not the number of hours and that RR told TVOC that although they gave them all a clean bill of health at the start, they would not overhaul any in the future?
I was under the impression that of the eight olympuses they had, two were ‘pulled’ for some kind of failure leaving them with six serviceable?
Once any three of these, (no further failures occurring) reach past their ‘service life’, that’s the end of flying for the vulcan anyway?

As I understand it, the two that were taken out were as a precaution and RR may allow them to be used again which would bring them back to eight.
Whether or not they have made a decision yet I don’t know, but I would presume tvoc consider that they may still have the possibility of being allowed back into the airframe at some point.

Logically I would think that the two coming out are the ones that have been in the airframe since first flight in 2007 and have the most cycles used currently. Replacing them with two zero timed ones would help keep some sort of balance, but you’re right in saying that once the engines are done then that’s it as far as flying goes.
Personally I think the Vulcan will be grounded long before engine cycles become a problem though.

I think this is the first reference I have personally seen, relating to the days once the vulcan stops flying and as the title post seems to question, with the money shortfalls that there seem to be, it maybe sooner rather than later.

What ye all think?

In one of the recent newsletter emails from TVOC, they actually said that they were considering this might be the last season and going out on a high. They realise that getting money is always a problem and without there being any high profile event in 2013 to tag onto, it might be best to quit. We shall see.