Hi all – the first chance I’ve had to give a little feedback on this.
An interesting talk in two parts, Kevin Stone first gave a brief history of XH558’s service with the RAF folllowed by description of the massive engineering task to get her airworthy, how they sourced spares, raised money etc. Both talks were illustrated with video and slides. Far too much detail to put here but a lot of information on how money was spent (engines, tyres, brakes, insurances etc). For me as an electrical engineer, it was interesting to find out that a Vulcan has 14 miles of cabling, of which 5 miles had to be replaced to get her in the air. Also, there were details of the problems with certification for the Waddington show, the efforts made to try to get it sorted right up until the last minute, which was why the public weren’t informed until the Sunday show that she would not be flying. If you get the chance to attend one of the lectures I highly reccomend you do so.
A little information on the present and the future. XH558 is curently based at RAF Lyneham and will be there throughout the winter. The winter servicing is planned start in January. They are hoping to be able to stay at Lyneham during next years airshow season but no decision has been taken on this. It will depend on costs. They will no longer be able to have cheap landing fees at RAF bases and each landing in future will cost around £1000. They are working with RAF Lyneham on allowing visitor access during the winter months. This is not possible at the moment but MAY be possible at weekends in the new year. Having the aircraft accessible to enthusiasts would obviously help to raise funds.
The cost of an airshow perfomance is staggering, roughly £29000. They charge around £8000 per display to make it affordable, so you can immediately see the urgent need for a major sponsor.
When she is finally grounded in the next 5-10 years (assuming they raise the money to keep flying) she will be kept as a live airframe doing engines and taxi runs. No decision has been made about where this will be but Duxford and Cosford have been mentioned.
I know there are mixed feeling on the forum on how XH558 is managed/run but I thought this information may be of interest whatever your opinion.