Vulcan XH558

Hi Tony,  can you ask if they will do a quick deviation over to Antigua,  just a fly pass over the little bay to the east of English Harbour,   thanks.

Tony, I have the emails signed up for, but just in case I miss things if you hear something, post it here could you please?

Looks like she's done her final flight . 

Yup,  thar she goes  ..........

BBC News 1 hour ago - The UK's last flying airworthy Vulcan bomber has taken to the skies for a final flypast before retirement.

The XH588 bomber's flight over its base at Doncaster Robin Hood Airport lasted about 20 minutes.

Details of the flypast were kept secret to avoid the potential for thousands of spectators turning up at the South Yorkshire airport.

Did she land back there, or is she going to live somewhere else?

As far as I am aware she will be a permanent live exhibition at Doncaster, the set up will remain much as it has been with the excellent engineering support & training projects & will be maintained in fully functional running condition in all respects except actually flying.  

Thanks for that Mike, I guess a visit sometime is called for.

Just watched the vid - shame to see her grounded but so glad to have seen her fly many times over the last 8 years. A fantastic plane which will be greatly missed.

British Aeropace 146.

In service with various Overseas and European civil carriers, and still with the RAF with 32 Squadron.

Though you are right in that the engines are made by Avro, overseas.

Very comfortable aeroplane. Easily the best landing I have ever had was in one.  

ATB from George

The engines are not made by Avro,  its Avco,  Avco Lycoming, Stratford, Ct

The  ALF502 turbofan engine was developed by Lycoming & are manufactured by both them & also Honeywell Aerospace

Dear Mike!

Blind as a bat close to without reading glasses! Sorry for the error. 

It is a lovely aeroplane though, and very unusual for being a modest sized four engine craft.

I imagine that it would fly on one engine so better to have a safety margin of three than the modern types where there is no second chance after the one engine fails!

Only one aeroplane I can remember was as smooth in flight, and that was the old Caravelle, but that really was a long time ago now!

ATB from George

 Bring 'er back

Some time in the mid 1980s i took my dad, a spitfire vet from WW2, to an air show at Middle Wallop. Whilst spits were there, the most memorable thing for me was a Vulcan going vertical almost directly overhead - once heard, never forgotten.  Then 4 years ago this last airworthy one came and did a display wheremi I now live, and another vertical climb. maybe half a mile away this time, over the sea.

a fantastic example of British engineering, so amazingly graceful as well as supremely powerful. It's beauty belies its original purpose - and it's sad to see it go.

Jamie, VC 10?

Yep. Developed in the leafy and exotic suburbs of Surrey.

Only Concorde has crossed the Atlantic faster with passengers.

In early 1962 my first visit to Norway was on a Vickers Viscount!

Early flights to Norway were on the Caravelle, Comet Three [I think] and later the Trident!

Probably none of them as safe as the BA 146, but in those days people accepted the risks!

Sea journeys were made on the Fred Olsen Breamar and Blenheim.

ATB from George

The one next to the VC-10 is a BEA Trident...

Happy days those were!

ATB from George

Not so happy for people living under the flight path near Heathrow...  When I was a kid, when they were taking off over us we had to stop in mid conversation for 10 seconds or so every minute. It became a way of life, that only visitors really noticed - but at least I was east of the airport, so with prevailing winds the majority of the time they were landing over us which was ok. That was the days before double glazing, and times of worst engine noise, though if I recall correctly the Boeing 707s were the worst with their high pitched wine.

in contrast, when Concorde started it was loud, but not as bad - akin to the a speeding large cylinder motorbike vs the scream of a small engine going the same speed.  I didn't understand why people in Reading, 20 odd miles west of the airport, complained about Concorde until I moved there some years later: Concorde wasn't loud enough to interrupt speech, but it was clearly audible indoors, unlike other planes.

I grew up in Richmond, directly under flight path into Heathrow - Planes every two minutes at peak even back then. Concorde coming in was very distinctive and very, very loud but in kind of a controlled manner. And about 4 times a day I think. Some planes were window rattlingly noisy. An then occasionally in the early hours you'd get woken by something distinctly large and loud making its way in while no-one was looking. Never knew no different until we moved. Absolute joke living under that when I think back. I presume it's still much the same and those houses go for squillions now too.

when off school sick in about 1966 I recall plane spotting from my bedroom window, recording plane type, airline and time - and at that time they were one minute apart, though there tended to be a short break every so often (can't remember exactly - maybe every 20 min to half an hour, for about 5 or 10 min). I think they're less than a minute apart now, with no breaks.