Vulcan set to fly at Waddington!

Gary Parsons reports on the news every aviation enthusiast has been waiting for

It's been a long wait, but at Waddington's International Airshow this weekend (5/6 July) Vulcan B2 XH558 is finally set to make its first official public flying display since it bowed out at Finningley in 1992.

It was a tense afternoon of waiting - as seems the way with the Delta Lady, she kept us waiting. First the CAA Permit to Fly had to be obtained - the final checks were being made by the authority at Bruntingthorpe as the media gathered at Waddington, expectant of its historic return to its spiritual home. It was where it had spent most of its service life, being the first B2 introduced into the air force, and the last to leave. Andrew Edmondson, Chief Engineer, paced about the airfield awaiting the call that all was in order, every ring of his mobile raising expectation to near fever pitch in the media pack. Talk about the eleventh hour - this was the fifty-ninth second of the fifty-ninth minute of those eleven hours.

Mid-afternoon came the news - the Permit to Fly had been released! All that was necessary now was a successful Display Authorisation practice on arrival, otherwise XH558 may be confined to the static. It arrived at about five-thirty, Chief Pilot David Thomas putting her through two successive display practices before touching down on runway 20 at four minutes past six o'clock. XH558 was back home after fifteen years!

"I'm over the moon" said Andrew. "I feel a bit teary - it's been a long, long road. Robert Pleming should be here - he kept us together, believing in it" (Pleming is currently recovering from a major spinal operation). "When I sat at my desk twelve years ago, I can only think of the analogy of throwing a pebble in a pond and counting the ripples and then trying to work out what I needed to do to fly a Vulcan. Two years of research, thousands of hours of cataloguing spares - now the dream has come true!"

Although he wasn't there, Robert Pleming sent this message: “Words cannot fully express what it means to me and all of the team at Vulcan to the Sky to finally see XH558 appear on the airshow circuit once again. It is the culmination of eleven years of effort and is a huge testament to the determination and commitment, not only of our immediate team, but also all of those who have helped along the way. It’s so appropriate, and a real bonus, that XH558’s first public appearance will be at RAF Waddington. I think everyone will find it a very emotional occasion indeed when the Vulcan appears in the skies again above Waddington, and makes her first landing at her home base in some 15 years. All of the hard work that has been put into this unique project is now being rewarded and all of those who have contributed can rightly feel very proud of this achievement."

"I want to thank everyone for the tremendous support that we have received since the inception of the project. It mustn’t be forgotten that we would never have been able to reach this point in the rollercoaster history of this unique project without the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, a number of extremely generous individuals, including most recently Eddie Forrester, Managing Director of Aerobytes, whose latest donation has funded our appearance here at Waddington and which will also ensure our appearances at RIAT at Fairford and Farnborough later this month."

"It’s extremely important that I also thank all those many many people who have donated so very generously to enable to us to return this, the ‘People’s Aircraft’, to the public at airshows around the country. Equally importantly, I would also like to acknowledge the huge technical and financial support that has been provided by Marshall of Cambridge Aerospace Ltd, without whose expertise, generosity and commitment we would not be seeing the Vulcan flying."

"The Vulcan to the Sky Trust still faces significant challenges in obtaining the ongoing funding required to keep XH558 in the air, and to deliver on our commitments to Educate and Inspire the Young. Our search for commercial sponsorship has yet to bear fruit and this has been a tremendous disappointment to us – the economic climate for sponsorship could not be worse.”

Shortly after seven o'clock came the news of a successful Display Authorisation, and that XH558 will take her place in the flying programme this weekend - weather and serviceability permitting, three o'clock in the afternoon will see the 'big tin triangle' over Lincoln skies once more.

Home | Airshows | The Hangar | Nostalgia | Links