I admire Paul for being brave enough to voice those views! For me, once grounded ‘558 will be just A.N.OTHER Vulcan, of little historical interest in it’s own right; I’ve already found it to be a pale shadow of it’s former self in the air. Such a shame that the only truly important Vulcan survivor sits outdoors, while the fate of ‘558 is poured over as if it’s of any true importance.

Not much detail, but something of an update from the BBMF-

On 31st May this year Avro Lancaster B1 PA474 is 70 years old. It was built at the Vickers-Armstrong Broughton ‘shadow’ factory on Hawarden airfield and, according to the data plate mounted inside the aircraft near the rest bunk area, was completed on 31st May 1945, just too late to see service in the Second World War. PA474 therefore never had to fly wartime missions, but it is representative of the many Lancaster bombers that did, and of the 3,345 that were lost on operations.

On 22nd April this year PA474 took to the skies again, slightly later than planned, after some extensive work had been carried out on the aircraft in the BBMF hangar over the winter servicing period. The Lancaster was able to take part in the Operation MANNA 70th anniversary commemorations over Holland on 2nd May – see the separate news item ‘Operation MANNA revisited’.

Many readers will have heard that during a practice display over RAF Coningsby on 7th May in preparation for the planned Lancaster Public Display Approval the following day, the Lancaster suffered a fire in the No 4 (starboard outer) engine. The BBMF crew did a superb job, declaring a ‘Mayday’, feathering and shutting down the affected engine and landing quickly and safely on the remaining three engines with the fire still burning in the No 4. The fire was finally extinguished by the RAF Coningsby Fire Section only after the Lancaster had stopped and shut down on the runway.

At the time of closing for press for this newsletter the exact cause of the engine fire was still under investigation, but it is clear that it was most fortunate that the incident occurred over the aircraft’s home airfield, enabling the crew to land the aircraft so quickly. Both the crew and the aircraft are safe, but in other circumstances the outcome could have been different.

Sadly, it seems that the damage caused to the Lancaster’s No 4 engine nacelle and engine bearer is likely to mean that it will take more than a simple engine change to return PA474 to the air. The rectification work is likely to take some time and we will update Club members on the situation with the Lancaster in future newsletters as more information becomes available.

Unfortunately, in the light of the recent incident and the damage the Lancaster suffered, she will not be out and about on her 70th birthday on 31st May and the BBMF does not currently feel in a very celebratory mood over this remarkable milestone.

Yes as Bill said, today was the day and being there first, I got the unit opened up ready for the haulier to arrive. Of course, apparently we were only ever building a tail section to prove out techniques as a test piece for the FAAM to then continue the work, so heaven knows why we had the recently delivered fuselage sections of LS931, DP872 and DR306 (and who knows what else) in the unit as well-

[ATTACH=CONFIG]235187[/ATTACH]

-you’d almost think that, maybe, the FAAM had told an untruth in their public statements, wouldn’t you? Anyway, then the nice men arrived with a whopping big wagon and started taking it all away…

[ATTACH=CONFIG]235188[/ATTACH]

…and that’s that.

Balls to them.

Really looking forward to it also. Any ideas on running time yet? I’d have thought this would warrant a 90 min DVD at least?

This is something I’d be very interested in too if anyone can help…