You'll never see this again!

[cropbiker]

Well here is a sight you will never see again... the last flight of the final airworthy Vulcan with the Red Arrows!

Possibly one of the most beautiful aircraft that has ever flown is in its last few days of flight.

Enjoy!

[cropbiker]

And a couple more!

A lovely day at the Southport Airshow and all in with a lovely ride there and back in the late summer sun.

[johnbut]

Great photos of a really great aircraft. Brings back memories of the day out at Doncaster last year.

[trophied]

A wonder to see beautiful aircraft above.  I live near a USAF flight training base and we see a lot of different aircraft very low at times since we are in the landing pattern and they do a lot of touch n go's.  Coming home from work one day before a holiday weekend airshow I saw the Blue Angels make a very low, slow pass over me in formation, banking left, with all the pilots looking down at the traffic passing underneath.  Breathtaking!  Will the Vulcan be kept in condition to do air shows only, or will it be retired to a museum?

[john348]

I heard retired as the engines are the same as on the Concorde and they could not justify keeping the engines airworthy.  I am sure some people on here know the real reason.

[cropbiker]

No, this s the Vulcans final flying season.

There are just 3 or 4 more air shows it is doing plus a round Britain flight over the weekend of the 10th and 11th October.

The major engineering  backers for keeping the air worthiness certificate have called it a day.

The aircraft will be kept serviceable for fast taxi runs and will be the central exhibit in a museum/engineering academy

[Gordon3xBBB]

A Vulcan was used as the "Test Bed" for the Concorde engines and they both used Rolls Royce Olympus engines.. however the Vulcan used 200 and 300 Series, whereas the Concorde used the 593 Series engine (Turbo Jet) with full Afterburners or Reheat. The Vulcan didn't have any "go faster " goodies..

There are various reasons why XH558 will never fly again...Engines are very costly to maintain but the Airframe itself is almost Maxed-Out and there is only so much money available - mainly public subscription so far, with some Commercial sponsorship.

It's been great to see her flying again over the last few years but I for one would rather she bowed out gracefully, rather than go out in a ball of flames. The recent Hawker Hunter incident comes to mind....

[cropbiker]

Yes... The airframe is 10%or more past any fatigue data and life that was forecast for the Vulcan so they really are in uncharted territory.

I agree Gordon... She has had a great swan song and will continue to be "The Spirit Of Great Britain" just on the ground.

I was lucky enough that this very aircraft was the fly past aircraft at my graduation from RAF Cranwell in 1986 while she was The Last Vulcan in the RAF... I have seen her return to flight and have seen her fly at least once a year since then. My name is proudly displayed on one of the supporters plaques on the inside of the bomb bay doors and I must confess to having a lump in the throat as I watched her in the air for possibly the last time I will get to see her where she belongs.