Vulcan Bomber to fly for final time in 2013

The group that flies the world's only airworthy Vulcan jet bomber has announced that 2013 will be the final air show year for the unique aircraft.

http://www.vulcantothesky.org/news/409/ ... lease.html

I would love to be able to see it fly for one last time. I have not seen one in the air since "Transpo 72" at Washington Dulles Airport in Northern Virginia in May 1972.

[Iclo]

Sad to see the end of this flying bird. I only saw her on time in Belgium in one of the few outside GB show in 2010.

No offense: I have the ultimate respet for the charity and the crew who operate this unique bird in a so difficult economic context, but it's not the first time that announcement was made "If we didn't raise ££££££ for the end of the month the Vulcan will be definitely grounded"
So...

[Firebird]

No offense: I have the ultimate respet for the charity and the crew who operate this unique bird in a so difficult economic context, but it's not the first time that announcement was made "If we didn't raise ££££££ for the end of the month the Vulcan will be definitely grounded"
So...

This isn't about money, this is about an airframe that is running out of FI, and coupled with the fact that since carelessly wrecking two priceless engines earlier this year, they now have no spare engines left, and so potentially, you have the situation whereby every flight could be her last anyway.

If they hadn't trashed two engines this year, I'm sure they would be planning to do the fund raising to do the mod to the airframe to extend her flying time for a few more years, but with no spare engines, they are taking the sensible decision to call it a day next year. (assuming they have no further engine issues)

[aerovet]

The Vulcan to the Sky Trust’s aspiration is that when XH558’s flying life is over, she will become the centrepiece of a new project that will inspire and train young people, helping to solve the UK’s significant shortfall in the number of talented new candidates entering technical careers.

from the Vulcan to the Sky Trust website

What do you mean shortfall?:
our youngest son, is a licenced helicopter and fixed wing engineer, who is can not find a job in aviation: he is currently employed in tramway maintenance

And he is really into warbirds, so if anyone of you knows of a job????

Aerovet

[Jim W]

I hope that they have a final season with no incidents but there are many in the UK aviation community that are looking forward to the time when some of the funds that have gone in her direction might be diverted to other, some may say more worthy, causes. (This does include me)

[Wildchild]

You know, even though its the Vulcan's last flying season, that doesn't mean that it is its last time flying for good

[Firebird]

You know, even though its the Vulcan's last flying season, that doesn't mean that it is its last time flying for good

Err...yes it will.

[Lightjug]

They Posted an interesting pamphlet - Click Here

[bdk]

This isn't about money, this is about an airframe that is running out of FI, and coupled with the fact that since carelessly wrecking two priceless engines earlier this year, they now have no spare engines left, and so potentially, you have the situation whereby every flight could be her last anyway.

Can it be disclosed precisely what happened to the engines?

[RAMC181]

From the horses mouth:
http://www.vulcantothesky.org/news/354/ ... pdate.html

All the best,
PB

[Iclo]

I could only imagine the feeling of the engineer who did the mistake...
Errors happen, no one was injured and it's the far most important, but sad to see results.

[bdk]

From the horses mouth:
http://www.vulcantothesky.org/news/354/ ... pdate.html

All the best,
PB

Thanks Paul. Sad situation. Were these new or canned engines that hadn't had dessican bags removed? How did debris get into the second engine from the first? Was there an uncontained failure of the first?

Did all this damage occur during a ground run?

TIA!

[sandiego89]

From the horses mouth:
http://www.vulcantothesky.org/news/354/ ... pdate.html

All the best,
PB

Thanks Paul. Sad situation. Were these new or canned engines that hadn't had dessican bags removed? How did debris get into the second engine from the first? Was there an uncontained failure of the first?

Did all this damage occur during a ground run?

TIA!

bdk, the number 1 and 2 engines were destroyed in the incident due to FOD. The association started with 8 "good" engines, 4 installed and 4 in cans. Both 1&2 had been installed for some time, apparantly since the airframe was retired from RAF service. 3 and 4 had been replaced in subsequent years, leaving 2 spares. With this 2012 incident, the final 2 spares had to be tapped into.

The incident was at Robin Hood Doncaster/Sheffield airport and was early in the take off roll. Large bags of dessican were left in the intakes and not removed before flight. On application of take off power the bags were likely sucked into engine 1 causing failure of the compressor blades which were likely then expelled into engine 2- resulting in the constructive loss of 1 &2. The key aviation site has a good thread on it.

[bdk]

Thanks for that sandiego. Just idle curiosity on my part to see if there were any new lessons to be learned from it.

[RickH]

Just idle curiosity on my part to see if there were any new lessons to be learned from it.

Be sure to dive the intakes on the preflight ?