And there I think you sum it up. Regardless of what you feel about the whole 558 thing when you see her in the air there is just something that lifts you.
That was certainly the case for the several thousand people who turned out at Staverton yesterday. The roads locally ground to a halt and every vantage point was taken. The Jet Age Museum did a roaring trade on cockpit tours of XM597 and there was a generally great atmosphere and a ‘buzz’ around the place. Whatever the naysayers in here think – and I, too, have my reservations about aspects of the way the project has run over the years – the feat of engineering and tenacity in dealing with the mountain of bureaucracy and truly admirable. If yesterday proves to be her last flight, it will be a loss to the historic aviation scene.
Us enthusiasts have our own, specialist and sometimes forthright opinions on the rights and wrongs of the VTTS project, but if we can capture 1% of the public enthusiasm for aeroplanes and the same amount of donations when she finally does get grounded, the future’s a little brighter for places like the Jet Age Museum an the myriad of other volunteer groups and individuals preserving less glamorous machines than the Vulcan.
Unfortunately, I had to miss the shenanigans on the ground at Gloucester, I ‘had’ to co-pilot the Cessna Caravan used for the air-to-air photoshoot. It was a tough job, but someone had to do it. (Having surgery to remove the grin later)
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