Petition to keep XH558 Vulcan flying.

[bingoking]

At the end of the 2015 display season, Avro Vulcan Bomber B2 XH558 will be grounded permanently after just 8 years in flight since a £6.5 million pound restoration which saw the aircraft return to flight after 14 years of retirement. A recent Q&A release on the Vulcan to the skies trust website has shown that despite the main belief that XH558 is to be grounded due to running out of airframe and engine life, the main reason is due to the three companies which form the "Technical Authorities" required by the CAA's permit to fly ending their support for the project based on financial reasons. The same Q&A release states that the trust and several other companies believe they could keep the aircraft in flight but are unable to even try because the current "Technical Authorities" have made it clear that they will not release vital information and documentation to any other companies and that any such working agreement will never happen.
Sign the petition and let's try and keep this beautiful iconic aircraft in the air.

https://www.change.org/p/rolls-royce-ba ... m=copylink

[duggiesmith]

Signed
I've seen (and heard) her a couple of times. Sheer madness not to do everything possible to keep this plane in the skies.

[Kelvin]

Saw her the other week at Old Warden. One of my best memories is watching them take off at Lossie from the window of the Silver Sands Hotel. I must have been about 6 or 7 I think. They rattled the windows in their frames. However, about time they retired her before she falls out of the sky.

[2F45T4U]

We must have upset the Americans again.

[Shug]

I love the Vulcan - lucky enough to see her at the Prestwick Airshow last year airborne and also on the apron at PIK.

The story of keeping her airworthy has been one of incredible effort, passion and support. However, I do think we're getting to a stage where perhaps the best channel for those energies is going to be finding a proper way and place to exhibit her once the flying stops - with the best will in the world, it's not going to fly for ever, the sheer financial black hole that it represents ensures that. It was designed to be run by a government with cold war military budgets, not a charity.

So the question is, do we struggle on for a few more years until the next crisis, or take the view that we look to the next chapter. The vast majority of this generation who wished to see her fly have had the opportunity, there's no way she'll keep flying, no matter how optimistic you are, for another generation to see her, so IMO, time to move to that next chapter...

[woody]

Not my area of business, but can imagine the conversations that have taken place & the cost to the Tech Authorities. The petition seems, I think, naive and is very unlikely to be successful.

Above is personal opinion & of course I'd love to have the Vulcan remaining airworthy.

[BigD]

I love the Vulcan - lucky enough to see her at the Prestwick Airshow last year airborne and also on the apron at PIK.

The story of keeping her airworthy has been one of incredible effort, passion and support. However, I do think we're getting to a stage where perhaps the best channel for those energies is going to be finding a proper way and place to exhibit her once the flying stops - with the best will in the world, it's not going to fly for ever, the sheer financial black hole that it represents ensures that. It was designed to be run by a government with cold war military budgets, not a charity.

So the question is, do we struggle on for a few more years until the next crisis, or take the view that we look to the next chapter. The vast majority of this generation who wished to see her fly have had the opportunity, there's no way she'll keep flying, no matter how optimistic you are, for another generation to see her, so IMO, time to move to that next chapter...

Lucky enough to see it at Leuchars but money could be better spent imo.

[Daveb]

Its done well and better to stop before a possible accident.

[avdb]

Last chance to see it fly in Scotland is 5/6 September...

http://www.scottishairshow.com/

[thinfourth]

I love the Vulcan - lucky enough to see her at the Prestwick Airshow last year airborne and also on the apron at PIK.

The story of keeping her airworthy has been one of incredible effort, passion and support. However, I do think we're getting to a stage where perhaps the best channel for those energies is going to be finding a proper way and place to exhibit her once the flying stops - with the best will in the world, it's not going to fly for ever, the sheer financial black hole that it represents ensures that. It was designed to be run by a government with cold war military budgets, not a charity.

So the question is, do we struggle on for a few more years until the next crisis, or take the view that we look to the next chapter. The vast majority of this generation who wished to see her fly have had the opportunity, there's no way she'll keep flying, no matter how optimistic you are, for another generation to see her, so IMO, time to move to that next chapter...

Quite a few years ago a bunch of us had a look around the tornadoes at leuchers

And they were dirty old things dripping oil and general looking a bit tatty and lived in.

But you knew they were working machinery with a story behind them and some sort of life behind them


Some time later i saw another tornado sitting in a museum

It had been polished within an inch of its life and it looked perfect.

but it was dead


While your view point is perfectly sensible it doesn't consider the plane to be alive

While my view is patently wrong as machinery can't be alive


I don't think many will disagree with me

[duggiesmith]

Whilst I agree with what's been said by many - it's only a matter of time until the last flying Vulcan is grounded, I can't help but think every effort should be made to postpone that date for as long as possible. Once it finally reaches the end of it's flying life that will be it, for good. Nobody will ever see or hear it fly again.

From what I understand, it's not a question of a safety, but one lot of individuals being unwilling to support another flying season and also being unwilling to allow anyone else to take over the responsibility.

Watch on YouTube

[woody]

They're not individuals, they're massive aerospace comanies with all that entails in terms of regulations and businesses pressures. RR have been paying off thousands and not making quite what they should. Should they keep a team employed for the Vulcan?

I can imagine it's not a simple case of being unwilling either. Tech authority type stuff has tightened up massively over the past decade.

Insert usual own opinion disclaimer here.

[pete]

They should definitely keep it in the air (and I'm largely against aviation, indeed I was once employed - indirectly - by the Campaign Against Aviation).

[Shug]

It's tough not to get caught up in the romance of it all when you see and hear her running and flying. They are still talking about keeping her airworthy, technically, and doing taxi runs with her, so it certainly won't be a dead hulk once the flying stops. There's so many options as well to have her as the centrepiece for an engineering learning facility - but that's not as romantic as a flying plane.

It all just smacks of desperation to keep plugging on for, what, another couple of years when the money and effort could be put into a proper legacy of the incredible effort that's been gone to to get here.

I'm also with Woody in that I think it's a bit more complex than just some big company saying "no" - who'd be the ones to step into the breach left by the major aerospace companies and what level of expertise would they have? What's the actual plan? Is there an actual plan or is this someone who can't grasp reality just clutching at straws to keep their beloved bird in the air a bit longer?

I'd love to sit here and stamp my feet and say "we must keep it flying no matter what" but I can't. It's an opinion borne from not wanting to see the efforts gone in so far go to waste in the long term and it sit in a hanger doing nothing and inspiring nothing once it inevitably does get grounded. It's certainly not about wanting to give up on anything.

[Shug]

To expand as well - in an ideal world, I'd love to see the government take on responsibility for her in the same way the BBMF is organised - run it by the RAF. Budgets being what they are, I understand why they can't take on a Cold War jet bomber though - different league of expense and complexity than old piston engined stuff.