Was that the one with the DeLorean parked ouside it?

…there straight in front of us was 904, rain beating down on her and the runway, heat rising from her, chute blowing about in the exhaust and to top it a dark menacing sky behind her, she looked perfect a true cold war warrior, shivers down the spine stuff and Im not usually affected by things like that, wonderfull 🙂

I can imagine this image right now, wish i’d been in that van with you guys to have seen this…

My word, she looks fantastic!!! Excellent work chaps!! How long until she can run?? Is there any set timescale?

Without trolling back through the thread I do have a question?

Peter,

Drop Smiler a PM and i’m sure he’ll answer it for you as soon as he gets a minute. You’ll get it straight from the horses mouth and avoid a lot of speculation. 🙂

See here. Tell them what it’s for and, you never know, you might get it for nowt…:diablo:

I don’t think there are any in imminent danger at this time. The only danger on the horizon for the survivors would be if any of the museums/organisations that care for them went belly up.

Burocracy could play a part in certain aircrafts fate such as the ones currently on site at airports like XM575, XJ823 and XL426, although I’m led to believe that certainly XL426’s future has been assured by the airport’s new owner(s). The ones at bases would probably be under similar threat, XL361 at Goose Bay, even the most historically significant airframe XM607 (how she escaped a national museum is beyond me…). Arguably, the safest airframes are the ones in the National museums, XL318 at Hendon, XM598 at Cosford and XM597 at East Fortune.

The other big issue is the general condition, how safe they are. Because of when they were built and what they were built of, if left alone they will dissolve at an alarming rate, especially the mag-alloys found within the airframe. I know that, for example, XL319 was having wing spar checks done but I’m unaware of the results. Lindy’s Lad, can you inform us if you haven’t already done so?. XM575 at East Midlands is one of the better looking Vulcans and on my visit a few years ago, the guy on the gate house said the level of corrosion that they were currently treating internally is startling. He did point out however that structurally, she is in extremely sound condition.

I think all in all that if the survivors continue to receive the superb level of care that they have been for the past few years then they will be around for quite a while yet.:)

I’ve heard August/September somewhere…

what tests? shame really….

From what was said at the AGM, 603 will be used for tests on the spars to determine XH558’s flying life and also to see what effect living outside for 26 years has done to the airframe.
Unfortunately, this will result in the airframe being destroyed in the process sadly, because of the location of these areas within the airframe. 🙁 Before these tests occur however, she is to be fully spares recovered, including her undercarrige legs.
I know this is a sad end for her, I’m gutted personally, but at the end of the day, at least her destruction is to have some engineering value to 558’s flying programme as opposed to her just being smashed to bits by a JCB which, let’s face it, was absolutely 100% certain to happen in the next few years what with the volunteers being banned from working on her since 2003/2004 and the subsequent slide in her condition and, not forgetting, Woodford is rumoured to be up for the chop at the end of the Nimrod programme…
No doubt other airframes will benefit from the non airworthy spare parts like XL426 & XM655. Hopefully, XM655 will have benefit from her demise by getting at least two spare Olympus 301’s. At least her sound condition means that she will live on in the three other active airframes as opposed to being reduced to ally pulp, unlike her neighbour at a certain seaside resort who really was too far gone to be of any use, even to the static survivors… 🙁