😎 It may be of some interest that this Experimental MkVIII is at present undergoing a major servicing at a Gloucestershire airfield.

Kemble as per my post #61 and concurred in Aircraft Illustrated and Pilot magazines.

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The colour scheme is staying as it is, including the black interior.

It would be nice to see it back in anything other than RAF camouflage, either pale blue as it was in the 1960s or yellow as it was in the ’70s and originally.

Sorry, slight tweaking of thread, I thought that the FD-2 had a droop snoot, the one pictured at Cosford doesn’t appear to have one and although I’ve seen the one at Yeovilton a few times, I don’t recall that having one either, must have been a pig to land without it, why was it removed.

Pete,

Both the FD.2 at Cosford and the BAC221(formerly a FD.2) at Yeovilton,both have ‘droop snoots’ but are both displayed with them erected! Like Concorde, the nose is hinged and only lowered into the ‘drooped’ position for take-off and landing.

I think it’s tiime for a reality check …………..

Put bluntly to the vast majority of the public, who DO NOT not attend airshows, the Vulcan falls into the same category as the proverbial ‘Black, lesbian, one legged, dance troupe’ ie. a complete waste of money.

Unlike the BBMF which comemorates the fallen of a war that directly affected everyone alive in this country at the time, the Vulcan is a reminder (Falklands aside) of the Cold War – a war that never happened. Yes it dominated international politics for half a century, but the average person just got on with life, paying their mortgage, raising their kids, socialising with friends – their biggest worries were things like redundancy or sickness – not armagedon. So to most people it is an irrelevance, as it does not encapsulate their memories of the period.

For this reason it will never be attractive to sponsors. Who is going to spend £1m or so per annum to reach a small number of ‘anoraks,’ when the same money would secure several prime advertisement hoardings a key sporting events, which unlike airshows will draw television coverage?

The Vulcan will cost more to opperate than the enthusiast community can support, and the general public don’t care, so to be honest I think the best we can hope for is that it completes it test flying and manages to appear at several key airshows.

Lets hope that we all get to see her fly, but to be honest I have my doubts, Steve.

I am totally with you Steve! There was a certain train of thought that if she made it into the air for a first flight, sponsors would come flocking! This clearly has not happened and the constant hat being passed round for funds to secure another flight do not bode well. I would not be surprised if she never flies again, as the costs just cannot be met!!

Douglas Dc-6(tbc)

Colin

DC-6!!! I see that Atlantic Airlines have this date on their schedule for the DC-6, so presume it is confirmed!! Well done – now the big question – will we get a chance to see it on the ground in it’s gorgeous KLM livery?

Very nice Martin, she looks gorgeous in that sunlight:cool:

Firstly, BIG THANKS to JagRigger for posting pics of XM172 back at Colt when she came down off the pole! Id not seen those pics before (got any more??)

Anyway, XM173 will be road moving from Bentley Priory on 26th or 27th Jan!

She will go up the M1 then onto the M6 to Preston. More details when i have them.

Did XM173 move at the weekend, or what’s the latest?

I was there and I saw that Jag, but it was so cluttered up with gantries and people around it, as I recall, that it was pretty impossible to photograph.