My guess is that nothing will happen for a long time. Given the country’s dire financial state, I would imagine that the airfield will lay abandoned until finances enable development to begin. The Health & Safety zealots will doubtless demand that the factory and flight sheds be demolished (they probably don’t meet the latest batch of random European directives) and given the site’s location, it will doubtless become a prime target for housing and industrial development.

I’m guessing that the best we can hope for is a monument stuck in the middle of a shopping complex. Very sad but probably inevitable in time.

Don’t get me wrong – I think it’s a great idea. If it is impossible to get a Concorde flying again, then putting one on very public display in London is a very good idea and if business really do support it then that’s brilliant. But I just marvel at how, in comparison, the poor Vulcan (which by any standards is a much more significant aircraft in Britain’s history) has struggled to get the (relatively) small amounts of cash it needs. I guess we Brits are strange creatures. Everyone is ready to lavish attention on a Concorde even though it was ultimately little more than a very attractive (and fast) airliner which cost way more than any practical project ought to have done (and would have been abandoned if it hadn’t been for our reluctant co-operation with France!). But the Vulcan – which really did deliver in terms of maintaining a very credible nuclear capability and probably helped save us from nuclear oblivion – is still the proverbial poor relation. Such is life!

The Vulcan has had enough cash, how about 0.1% of that to help me get my Cloudster back in the air?

Presumably because only 0.1% of the aviation fraternity have even the slightest interest in a Cloudster.

I was merely highlighting the irony of such a huge amount of money suddenly appearing to support the Concorde project, when the Vulcan project was struggling to acquire less than half that figure for years. Given that both aircraft are extremely popular aircraft with the public and enthusiasts alike, it seems rather sad that business is (if the story is true) far more willing to support one the the most unsuccessful and expensive aircraft in Britain’s history, whilst ignoring one of the most important and significant. It could be argued that without Vulcan we might have been wiped-out in a nuclear war many years ago. Without Concorde we would merely have saved an awful lot of cash.

Not knocking Concorde though – it’s a great aeroplane which deserves a place on public display.

Those photos really are rather tragic. It’s like the Nimrod MRA4 never existed. Some might say this might have been a good thing though!

It is indeed apt if XM603 is the last airframe to survive at Woodford. A final reminder of Britain’s glory days when we designed and built some magnificent aircraft. All seems so very long ago now…

Er… I think you’re confusing “constant doubting” with a sensible dose of realism and cynicism, n’est-ce pas?

I’m not “relying on old information” at all – that’s the point. The Victor photo is well-known and has been the subject of comment for years. I was (am) merely trying to establish the truth behind it for once. Or maybe you’d prefer me to simply churn-out the same old comments yet again without checking them?

I am not persisting with any “dodgy Aberporth info” other than that a drop was allegedly made here (although I have yet to verify this). Whether one did take place or not, it’s clear (based on posts made here) that it was not the one which is featured in the afore-mentioned photo. As for being “improbable” I can assure you that a Vulcan certainly did perform a drop (not an “attack” as you quaintly put it) on the Aberporth range, so it’s hardly improbable that a Victor did likewise, even though I am starting to doubt it.

From the above posts it seems clear that the Victor as illustrated did perform a full-load drop but that still doesn’t entirely convince me that the photo isn’t manipulated. It sounds as if it might have been possible to capture the whole released load in one small photo frame but it does seem doubtful and many commentators have raised this point before, hence my questions. The drop was performed purely for PR/political motives (your comment that crews had to practice dropping the bomb load is a bit wide of the mark – releasing a full load such as this was a very rare event indeed) therefore it is far from unreasonable to imagine that the picture might have been modified to squeeze the entire load into one neat photo – this being the objective of the exercise. All I was trying to establish was whether this is indeed the case, rather than rely on gossip and/or uninformed opinion.

Anyway, I should mention that, contrary to your comments, I’m not “writing a Victor book” at all, it’s just a small booklet project in fact. I don’t know who will want to buy it when it’s done but your sweeping comments about the public not being interested and enthusiasts doubting the information are just plain silly and vaguely offensive. What makes you imagine that a writer who doesn’t discuss matters on a forum is somehow more capable and informed than one who does? Maybe it’s the authors that don’t discuss subjects and ask questions that you ought to be worrying about? Anyway I don’t slag-off your job on a public forum so perhaps you might extend the same courtesy to me?!

That’s good to know – it has cleared-up a tale which has been going around for years about the true identity of the aircraft involved and the range used.

The only thing that still seems a little odd is (as I mentioned before) the practicality of getting the entire load of bombs into a picture cropped that tightly. Do we really think that the entire load could be released within that small amount of time/space? I tend to go with the belief that it is a manipulated photo with 2-3 images merged together.

PS – Blue Danube did not have a flat nose. It was Yellow Sun which had the flat nose.

I was the electrician on the bombing up team that loaded those 35 1000lb bombs on to XH 648 in Jan 1964.

The plot thickens! So if you were there at the time, you can testify that an aircraft did specifically go off to do a photo shoot of a full bomb drop? This is very interesting because it flies in the face of the current story (told by Gunston et al) that the photo shoot was done in the UK (Aberporth I believe).

It also raises the question of the actual picture. Could the whole load be dropped like that? Doesn’t seem very likely…