Vulcan bomber to return to skies

Didn't this happen last October?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2689710.ece

Yep, but these are the test flights. One on Monday, another, hopefully final, today and the compass swing was yesterday.
I'm keen on going to the RIAT at Fairford this year, but I'll travel a fair way to see the Vulcan if it's elsewhere. There's nothing quite like it.

Tony

Chaps

I was involved with the Vulcan in 1971 when I worked for the MOD. It was outdated rubbish then and about as much use as a chocolate teapot. Thats why it was scrapped.

Do not get sentimental over junk.

Goodness knows how much pollution it will cause and try not to be underneath its flight path for your own sake.

The bloody thing is only fit to be kept as a static item on display in a museum.

Regards

Mick

Mick,

I wrote of the team's chances of getting that thing in the air at all. Far too much work, too many regulations in their way, too expensive. BUT. They did it and suddenly I was excited.
Ok, it's a piece of ancient history and never really did anything in anger except miss targets on the Falklands.
It's a beautiful shape, it's big, and it shakes the ground. (Nigella?) I was at Marham in the mid 80s when one of the last Vulcans practiced its show pieces and the whole station would try and grab a view.
Polution? Not as much as the countless Spitfires and Mustangs will produce this year.

Tony

Tony

You said .. It's a beautiful shape, it's big, and it shakes the ground.

I cannot argue with that but the reality was that it was a bloody disaster and should never have been built.

I cannot get sentimental about junk that cost the tax payer billions. Goodness knows how mmany hospitals and schools we could have built with the money we wasted on the thing.

Regards

Mick

Mick's world: No motor-racing, especially classic; no airshows; no sports or supercars; no space travel etc etc.

Tell me, apart from a pair of comfy slippers and a nice old track on the hi-fi, what gets you excited?

Tony

PS. I don't mean the last bit in a nasty way, just wondering!

Tony

Vintage motor cycles

Regards

Mick

Mmmm, now I see the context of the above comments.

Tony

Tony

I have nothing against classic car shows or air tatoos. I live 15 miles away from Cirencester and keep meaning to go but never do.

I ran a Jaguar MK2 3.8 for 8 years and a 4.2 XJ Coupe for about 10 years. I currently run a 1959 BSA B31 350cc single.

The acidic comments were aimed at Deane.

Regards

Mick

Mick,

Perhaps being too closely involved tainted your view of the Vulcan? Though the fact that you ran 2 Jaguars counters that, from what I recall about you.

Tony

Tony

I worked for a small specialist dept within the MOD called the Directorate of Technical Costs and had access to the building and running costs of the Vulcan. It really was a total waste of money which should have been diverted into the MRCA (now called the Tornado) and the Victor.

Most people in the know just wished it had never been built.

It is a very beautiful aircraft and a joy to watch in flight but it really was a white elephant.

Regards

Mick

I've just realised a coincidence here.
I'm reading up on air legislation, quality management systems and company info in preparation for an interview with Marshall Aerospace in Cambridge tomorrow. Marshall are involved with the Vulcan project!

Tony

Tony

Good luck with the interview.

Regards

Mick

Thanks Mick. I'll see if I can nick any memorabilia for you.

Tony

I can see perfectly what Mick has to say. One has to remember the history of this or read it, in my opinion. In the early fifties Britain was very much an Ex-superpower, formerly the greatest Imperial Power the world has yet seen, rendered more or less destitute by two World Wars ...

There was a strong wish in political circles to build "at more or less any price" a Nuclear deterrent to compete with the USA and USSR, and restore our position on the top table of world power, even though with hindsight this may appear to have been a wish to preserve, or possibly attempt to regain to some extent, the grandeur of our former position in the world.

This may be gauged from Randolph Churchill's comment when the system became operational: "Now we are a World Power again."

Though this may have been appropriate at the time, I happen to find the wasting of millions on making an old, if grand, aeroplane fly agin, that if it was not when built certainly became, a White Elephant, and will be a very costly museum piece to maintain in airworthy condition, let considering the alone restoration so far, is crass to say the least.

There are far more worthy causes to spend this sort of money on, in my humble opinion.

George

I admit to feeling the same as Mick Parry about Brighton's West Pier. Many years ago I did some work on it after it was closed, and to me it is a decaying piece of junk that disgraces Brighton's coastline - but to others it is the focus of many misty-eyed memories - probably of romance and first loves and all those teenage encounters. I'm listening to The Who right now in fact.

We are all equally entitled to our personal views.

Personally I'd love to see the Vulcan fly, just once would do, just to have the feeling of having my bowels scrambled by sheer sonic attack. I imagine it must be similar to watching a rocket launch at NASA.

Just one thing;
"Do not get sentimental over junk."
Why not?
I'm sure there are many, many Linn Sondek LP12 owners here

quote:

There are far more worthy causes to spend this sort of money on, in my humble opinion.

A private project surely. It's up to them to spend their money how they want.Or are you saying they should have restored a hospital instead? Someone else's job that,I reckon.
Is spending millions of pounds on an "old and clapped out" organ or crumbling old Cathedral not also a waste of effort?
Perhaps it should go to bail out crap banking managers and money men?
I can't help feeling there is room for all sorts of projects which will move different people in different ways.

quote:

I can't help feeling there is room for all sorts of projects which will move different people in different ways.

You mean like on land and on sea.
Sorry..

Dear Howard,

If this had any public [ie. from Tax] money then I would not just deprecate the waste but be rather angry.

ATB from George

Yes I'd have to agree with that, and quite rightly it isn't public money. I similarly would apply the same to the Monachy, and unfortunately the answer is the opposite.

BTW the proving/test flight was called short due to a non retracting undercarriage door.

Dear Howard,

Just in case you think I am a cherry picker in terms of wasting money on fruitless projects here are two threads where I question wasting money on things of no economic importance in the bigger picture.

Concerts

BBC

I would say that with the current state of things many things done with Tax Payers' Money should be carefully examined and seriously questioned!

George

If all of a sudden the cost of 2012 goes from £4Bn to £9.5Bn due to "increased security". That must be some amazing guys in black suits and shades.
I think the Government is still quite capable of wasting our money.So I think a few mill here and there on "specious" projects is all well and good.

Dear Howard,

I agree that governments of all shades are capable of specious projects and waste. I personally wish Paris had got 2012!

The Millennium Dome is but one memorable complete waste from the recent past.

But even private waste is just as deplorable in my view. After all, just because the government assumed responsibility for the NHS, as it was founded in 1948, does not mean that Cancer Charities are not able to help enhance the very treatment that one might get through the NHS. Who financed the Maxillo-facial Unit that pioneered Plastic Facial Surgery? Charity. Who built the special Orthopaedic Hospital at [Gobowen] Oswestry? Private Subscription, and Charitable Donation. The list is long in this admirable area of private spending that is beyond normal criticism in my view. Unfortunately it is all too easy to say, let the Tax Payer take the strain, and we shall have our specious fun. Not without at least noted disapproval, if I spot it.

I think it is right to consider the waste on such a project as the Vulcan, just as much as you noted earlier, "rebuilding some clapped out old organ, or some crumbling Medieval Cathedral," given that the Tax System cannot continue to grow in proportion to GDP for ever and a day, whether wastesful spending be financed by misguided private people or the misguided governement in the name of the state.

I quite agree that nothing should fall out of what can be criticised as wasteful and silly spending, whether this be in the name of culture, which benefits a tiny minority of the leading elite in society quite as much as preserving such obsolete old weapons as the Vulcan. They will want the Concord flying again soon. Crazy. Just as crazy as wasting money on an old organ, but much more expensive!

ATB from George

Fredrik

I think you should stop wasting money on hifi and music.

End of storey

cheers

Don