OT: Vulcan bomber flying at last

Wicked.. I have GOT to see that fly.

There's one parked up at wellsbourne near Stratford. It trundles up and down the runway once in a while. They were going to do the same thing as these guys but one of the original members of the restoration group ripped them off and legged it with the money.

Was supposed to be flying for the Elvington air show when we went in Aug, but wasn't ready in time. Hopefully next year!

Matt

I reckon the weather would have seen it off that time, it seemed to bugger it up for the rest of them :)

On or around Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:44:39 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@lardrover.co.uk enlightened us thusly:

WTF does the second one play in? It goes on about getting a plugin, and then tries to contact mickeysnot. Which is a trifle odd, seeing as I'm using seamonkey.

idiot BBC.

oddly, it works if attacked form the news page; opens in realplayer as I'd expect.

Perhaps they can now turn their attention to the Concorde that is sitting at Heathrow near the A30 at Hatton Cross. It really should be flying again not just sitting on the tarmac looking beautiful.

While they are at it they could do the one at Manchester Airport. It is heartbreaking to see it sat at the side of the runway as one taxis in.

Lizzy

>

Indeed, fantastic to see a Vulcan take to the skies again, and I fully agree re. the Concorde - problem is, British Airways (spit!) will somehow ensure they were cut up before they would let anyone else ever fly one again! Badger.

On or around Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:05:12 +0100, "Badger" enlightened us thusly:

bunch of tossers. They should've sold some to Branson, but they were worried that he'd make a profit out of it, thereby causing them embarrassment.

There's a serious, concerted effort to get Concorde 026 ~ the last one ever to fly ~ in the air again. It's parked next to the runway at Filton and there's a queue of ex-BAe tradesmen just waiting to get their hands on her again.

I had the privilege of flying on Concorde once - back from Nice to Heathrow, just a few weeks before the crash - same captain. Absolutely fantastic plane. Take off was unbelievable.

To think that all the chattering media types did their best to destroy the plane when it first came into service.

In article , hugh writes

Um, I think it was the Yom Kippur war and the oil crisis mainly that did for it commercially, but I do remember the fuss about the noise and the smoke. Wish I'd been on it.

I did see 002's first Farnborough appearance (002?) in 1970, sort-of, when it flew low over our back garden near Farnham. Very loud indeed, but stunningly brilliant for a ten-year-old!

Regards,

Simonm.

On or around Sat, 20 Oct 2007 09:02:33 GMT, SpamTrapSeeSig enlightened us thusly:

when I lived in Putney they used to come over depending on which runway they were using. If they were a bit low the house used to vibrate. Living down here in Wales we used to hear the sonic boom sometimes as they headed off over the Atlantic. feckin' ace plane; dates, like the HST, from the days when we could do good engineering in this country...

I guess you have all read 'Vulcan 607'. About the raid on Port Stanley airport. A brilliant book and brilliant mission!

And even THEN they had to phone around, dig through personal parts bins and recycle junk to do it. What a way we treat our military people.

Steve

There's an old story about that.

It seems that at the height of the Cold War the Americans formed a special electronic warfare battalion who were set loose on a US division.

After a week of exercise in the field the US Division commander walked into his Corps headquarters and said "You have to call the electronic warfare boys off, the radios don't work, my guys haven't eaten in a week, there's no fuel and nothing works"

Next time around they tried it on a British Division...

No effect...

The US Colonel in charge of the electronic warfare unit went to see the British Divisional commander after the exercise.

"Why didn't you all stop doing stuff, your radios were all jammed?"

"Well old chap, the bloody things only work one day in three anyway, we just assumed they were worse than usual and carried on as normal".

Clever toys don't fight wars.

People fight wars...

I have a friend in the Signals, done two Afghanistans and one Iraq, reckons the yanks have ho, ours may be rubbish, but know the workarounds, the Yanks just stop and are lost without it!

-- "For those who are missing Blair - aim more carefully."

To reply direct rot13 me

bURRt the 101 Camper

200TDi Disco with no floor - its being fixed at last! 200 TDi Disco, "the offroader" 1976 S3 Lightweight

In message , Simon Isaacs writes

Many many years ago I worked on sea-air missiles and we had the US navy over to observe a flight trial. On the way back going up in the lift a junior officer was slagging off the British missile, theirs was bigger faster longer range more powerful war head etc.

The admiral just turned to him and said " Listen buddy - theirs works"

Urban legend, but don't let that stop you repeating it. No pilot would fly in an aircraft which he knew included "recycled junk" - would you?

The Vulcan fleet was in the process of being taken out of service at the time, and the aircraft were being scrapped. There were lots of them at St Athan in Wales (where I was based at the time) waiting to be cut up and recycled. They were being cannibalised for spares to keep those still flying in the air until they too were ready for scrapping. Because they had been scrapped, the documentation wasn't being maintained on the scrapped planes, and that caused a bit of a headache when the order was given to get them back into service because no documentation meant no one knew what was missing.

OTOH, I saw a Victor tanker which had been stripped for third line servicing, i.e. taken almost completely apart, rebuilt and in the air in under 18 hours. Amazing what can be done when it has to be.

Personally, as an engineer who could ask the right sort of questions to decide, yes I would, but anyway, then you say ....

Junked.

....and the junk was being, well, recycled ?

;-)

Steve