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O/T: Vulcan ready!


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#51 marchof73

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Posted 02 July 2008 - 23:29

Thanks for confirming my memories,Tim
Ian

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#52 Andrew Stevens

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Posted 01 January 2009 - 10:39

Sorry to 'bump' this old thread, but the Vulcan guys were on the radio this morning and they need more funds to get it mobile again. Details are here:
http://www.vulcantothesky.org/

A worthy cause I feel

#53 bradbury west

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Posted 01 March 2009 - 12:27

Today's newspaper
http://www.dailymail...unded-ever.html
Roger Lund

#54 Gregor Marshall

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Posted 01 March 2009 - 22:53

I know it's not the sort of place for some posters/readers, but this thread is worth reading (as it's another Haymarket company I'm sure I'm allowed to link these!!).

http://www.pistonhea...=XH558..........

#55 Mallory Dan

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Posted 02 March 2009 - 14:06

Slightly O/T, but watching the Bond film, Thunderball, last week, some good shots of Vulcans taking off. Anyone know where these were filmed, and were they taken for the film itself, or just general RAF film? The base they use in the film, was it a real base does anyone know, or just Pinewood?

#56 Red Socks

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Posted 10 July 2009 - 18:17

Off topic again, sorry folks. However I'm sure many of us here will find interest in this. Who will forget the Vulcan's fantastic display at the British GP at Brands Hatch in the early 80s?
http://www.tvoc.co.uk/default.asp

OT again but the Vulcan has its Cof A as of today and it has just landed at Yeovilton ready for its RNAS display tomorrow.Just flew overhead prior to landing-fantastic.

#57 wdm

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Posted 10 July 2009 - 18:29

OT again but the Vulcan has its Cof A as of today and it has just landed at Yeovilton ready for its RNAS display tomorrow.Just flew overhead prior to landing-fantastic.

:clap: I'm off there myself, tomorrow... Can't wait! Should be an excellent show, all-round.

(There's a lot of rain coming in from the west, though... fingers crossed it'll hold off till at least mid-afternoon :well: )

#58 Red Socks

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Posted 10 July 2009 - 18:36

:clap: I'm off there myself, tomorrow... Can't wait! Should be an excellent show, all-round.

(There's a lot of rain coming in from the west, though... fingers crossed it'll hold off till at least mid-afternoon :well: )

Should be a great day-of course I live on the end of the runway so had the benefit of all tomorrows displays today when they practice them-without the crowd safety element thrown in. Fingers crossed for the weather

#59 PRD

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Posted 10 July 2009 - 18:42

Should be a great day-of course I live on the end of the runway so had the benefit of all tomorrows displays today when they practice them-without the crowd safety element thrown in. Fingers crossed for the weather


Just seen a brief review on BBC Spotlight South West featuring the Sea Vixen. The only RN one left flying, although I'm sure I saw a Red Bull liveried Sea Vixen a few years ago at the Goodwood Festival. Pity I can't make it tomorrow, but the weather looks awful

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#60 Gary C

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Posted 10 July 2009 - 19:11

'The only RN one left flying, although I'm sure I saw a Red Bull liveried Sea Vixen a few years ago at the Goodwood Festival.'
It's the same aircraft!!

#61 Rob29

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Posted 11 July 2009 - 06:51

OT again but the Vulcan has its Cof A as of today and it has just landed at Yeovilton ready for its RNAS display tomorrow.Just flew overhead prior to landing-fantastic.

Good news-seems a lot of people were dissapointed it failed to appear last weekend at Waddington-due to "lack of paperwork"


#62 wdm

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Posted 13 July 2009 - 09:05

[The] Vulcan has just landed at Yeovilton ready for its RNAS display tomorrow.

So, after a week of will it/won't it turn up, we finally get the news late on Friday afternoon that it'll be at Yeovilton. We then arrive on the Saturday, to see it tantalisingly off in the distance. Then... a PA announcement that owing to a technical hitch, it unfortunately won't be flying.

I'm learning how it must have felt to have been a BRM supporter in the 1950s :rolleyes: :rotfl:

#63 Red Socks

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Posted 13 July 2009 - 13:40

So, after a week of will it/won't it turn up, we finally get the news late on Friday afternoon that it'll be at Yeovilton. We then arrive on the Saturday, to see it tantalisingly off in the distance. Then... a PA announcement that owing to a technical hitch, it unfortunately won't be flying.

I'm learning how it must have felt to have been a BRM supporter in the 1950s :rolleyes: :rotfl:

Then you'll just have to come back and wait at the end of the runway.It ain't left yet.

#64 elansprint72

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Posted 13 July 2009 - 20:21

I lived at Gatley. Oddly enough, some year later my sister lived at Woodford and her next door neighbour used to work at "Avros", as it was still known locally.


It still is known as Avro's! I lived at Didsbury through the 50s and 60s, even from that distance we could daily hear the engines spooling up on test, this despite the huge attenuators they used.
As kids we used to cycle over to Woodford and sit on the fence on the runway threshold; they really used to land these things "on the throttles", the noises were wonderful. One day there was one sitting ready to go and two more side-by side on the approach; loads of noise and smoke and the one on the ground took off to lead the other two in a perfect triangle near vertical climb. Apparently they were practicing for a show (Farnboro'?).

Look forward to seeing the survivor in the air. Isn't there one at Southend(?) which, if we lived in a banana republic, could fly but is limited to nose-off taxi runs?

#65 ensign14

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Posted 13 July 2009 - 20:39

Saw this thing a few weeks back. I suppose it's the Vulcan?

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#66 Tony Matthews

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Posted 13 July 2009 - 20:59

... loads of noise and smoke and the one on the ground took off to lead the other two in a perfect triangle near vertical climb. Apparently they were practicing for a show (Farnboro'?).


I assume this is the Mk 1 Vulcan with the early wing planform, and painted anti-flash white. If so I saw that demonstration at Farnborough, and a slow fly-past at very low altitude, about 30 degrees AoA, the noise so loud it seemed you could no longer hear it with your ears, just your diaphragm and the ground trembling under your feet. Bloody wonderful...

#67 beesa71

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Posted 13 July 2009 - 21:50

For information that latest as I understand it is that the Vulcan will fly next Monday (20th) to arrive at Finningley in Yorkshire at 14:00 hours. I gather that it will be hangered there as its operating base. The maintainers have a base there too.

Can anyone confirm this?

Regards to all.

Paul (aka beesa71).



#68 elansprint72

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Posted 13 July 2009 - 22:28

I assume this is the Mk 1 Vulcan with the early wing planform, and painted anti-flash white. If so I saw that demonstration at Farnborough, and a slow fly-past at very low altitude, about 30 degrees AoA, the noise so loud it seemed you could no longer hear it with your ears, just your diaphragm and the ground trembling under your feet. Bloody wonderful...


No, they had changed the wing profile by then to the double kink; the perfect triangle I referred to was the formation, apologies for being imprecise. Getting a stationary aircraft up into lead position in formation must have been quite a task! I have a photo somewhere with a fourth Vulcan in the group; presumably this was a development which started with three already airbourne?
As for low altitude, there was a place not far from Woodford where we could look down on the Vulcans as they passed below us along the valley! We once saw one barrel roll over the airfield and there were a couple of breakings of the sound barrier by enthusiastic divers, accompanied by much breaking of glass and complaints from J. Public. Happy days!

#69 elansprint72

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Posted 13 July 2009 - 22:32

Here is a shot from a Woodford show.

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#70 Tony Matthews

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Posted 13 July 2009 - 22:59

No, they had changed the wing profile by then to the double kink; the perfect triangle I referred to was the formation, apologies for being imprecise. Getting a stationary aircraft up into lead position in formation must have been quite a task! I have a photo somewhere with a fourth Vulcan in the group; presumably this was a development which started with three already airbourne?
As for low altitude, there was a place not far from Woodford where we could look down on the Vulcans as they passed below us along the valley! We once saw one barrel roll over the airfield and there were a couple of breakings of the sound barrier by enthusiastic divers, accompanied by much breaking of glass and complaints from J. Public. Happy days!


It was me being imprecise, es, I realised you were talking about the formation, I was just trying to establish the period, as I can't remember the year/s that the wing shape changed!

#71 sandy

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Posted 14 July 2009 - 05:00

Just curiosity, what now wuld a flght of, or even a singleton, Vulcans be doing in Thailand in 1967?


A sergeant in the Australian Army who served in Borneo during the Confrontation affair between Indonesia and British Commonwealth forces once remarked that when he was on the border, at all times a lone V bomber would be circling overhead - when one left another would take its place. How many tons of conventional bombs could they carry?

#72 Lifew12

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Posted 14 July 2009 - 06:27

It still is known as Avro's! I lived at Didsbury through the 50s and 60s, even from that distance we could daily hear the engines spooling up on test, this despite the huge attenuators they used.
As kids we used to cycle over to Woodford and sit on the fence on the runway threshold; .....


What memories! I lived in Bramhall as a kid and would do exactly the same thing, albeit probably sometime later! Interesting that, on the vulcan to the sky website, there is a listing for XH558 to display at Woodford in September this year; the Woodford airshow, sadly, is no more, so does anyone have any idea what she will be doing there? I will be watching her at Sunderland in a couple of weeks, fingers crossed....


#73 David Lawson

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Posted 14 July 2009 - 06:40

Look forward to seeing the survivor in the air. Isn't there one at Southend(?) which, if we lived in a banana republic, could fly but is limited to nose-off taxi runs?


There is a Vulcan on the apron at Southend airport, it has been there for ten years or more, I drive past it every day on my way to and from work.

There was/is a campaign to raise money for its upkeep and an attempt to get it flying again but as elan says it has only done some taxi displays and I'm not sure they have even managed that in the last year or two.

My favourite memory of a Vulcan flying is from the Southend Air Display in the early 1990s, the noise was unbelievable and the ground literally shook as the 'plane went through its programme, at the end of its display as it receded into the distance all you could hear was all the car alarms that had been triggered off by the vibrations.

David


#74 elansprint72

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Posted 17 July 2009 - 14:37

Attention UK TV viewers with access to the channel "More4" - (Freeview)

Wednesday 22nd July 22:00, there is a documentary about the V bombers and the race by the three manufacturers to get theirs into the air first. It gets a good write-up.

Edited by elansprint72, 17 July 2009 - 14:37.


#75 RS2000

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Posted 18 July 2009 - 20:37

No longer O/T.
The Vulcan passed just west of Shelsley Walsh during today's meeting, heading north then a short while later heading south. A bit too far away for photos from an ordinary camera.
(The BBMF Dakota actually appeared at the meeting, making 3 low level passes).

#76 CoulthardD

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Posted 19 July 2009 - 09:01

Yes, I was in the top holding paddock at the time. Almost took my head off!

DC

#77 elansprint72

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Posted 22 July 2009 - 16:16

Attention UK TV viewers with access to the channel "More4" - (Freeview)

Wednesday 22nd July 22:00, there is a documentary about the V bombers and the race by the three manufacturers to get theirs into the air first. It gets a good write-up.


Reminder! :wave:


#78 Mallory Dan

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Posted 23 July 2009 - 09:39

Reminder! :wave:


Any good, I quite forgot it was on! Will it be repeated soon does anyone know?

#79 Tony Matthews

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Posted 23 July 2009 - 10:01

Any good, I quite forgot it was on! Will it be repeated soon does anyone know?

Yes, it was good, but not particularly technical, in the anoraky way that I would have liked! Don't know about repeats, but next week is about the nuclear weapons themselves, so probably more shots of the bombers in action.

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#80 kayemod

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Posted 24 August 2009 - 19:51

This seems like the most appropriate place to post, but I had a memorable experience yesterday, I saw what I believe is the sole remaining airworthy Vulcan in the air, what a sight! It appeared as the star performer at the Bournemouth Air Show, a free event that I imagine must be funded by the local tourist board. That plane is truly awesome, you feel the noise rather than hear it, much the same as the late lamented Concorde, with which the Vulcan shared its four Olympus engines. The plane appeared from the east, flying parallel to the coastline, and then did a series of swoops and fly-pasts that must have lasted five minutes or so, the impression of sheer power that thing provided will remain fresh in my mind for a long time, a truly remarkable experience. I think that funding for the Vulcan project is probably pretty tight, but they are one of the most worthwhile causes of this type that I've come across in recent years, this is the kind of enterprise that ought to be supported by Lottery funding, though whether it is or not, I have no idea. If any of you get a chance to see this aircraft, grab it with both hands, I guarantee that you won't be disappointed, and as is the case with almost everything we discuss here on TNF, they certainly don't make them like that anymore!

#81 Mal9444

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Posted 24 August 2009 - 21:07

Flew over my garden on its way to Bournemouth -what a fantastic noise and sight: I last saw one years ago at Farnborough and could not believe it could stay in the air. My 19-year-old daughter, by now schooled in warbird recognition from annual trips to Goodwood since the age of 11, came in later from an afternoon on Milford Beach.

'Hey, Daddy - we saw a Spitfire today - and this amazing Flying Triangle...'

Of course, being 19 and the daughter of a sometime yachting journalist, the girl thinks that a Delta is the time difference between two yachts at a windward mark.

Edited by Mal9444, 24 August 2009 - 21:08.


#82 wdm

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Posted 25 August 2009 - 07:52

what a fantastic noise and sight

Indeed!

Having missed out on seeing XH558 at Yeovilton earlier this year, I was delighted to see her - practically on my doorstep - at Dawlish last week. In formation with the Red Arrows, no less, before she did her own routine.

A fantastic sight :p

#83 elansprint72

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Posted 25 August 2009 - 19:24

............ That plane is truly awesome, you feel the noise rather than hear it, much the same as the late lamented Concorde, with which the Vulcan shared its four Olympus engines. ............


At Woodford I recall seeing 3 Vulcans climbing together and another running on the ground, that was quite a noise but nothing compared to the SIXTEEN Lightnings which used to display together!!! 32 engines on full afterburners- eat your hearts out Red Arrows, with your eight toy aircraft. :stoned:

#84 Tony Matthews

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Posted 25 August 2009 - 19:55

At Woodford I recall seeing 3 Vulcans climbing together and another running on the ground, that was quite a noise but nothing compared to the SIXTEEN Lightnings which used to display together!!! 32 engines on full afterburners- eat your hearts out Red Arrows, with your eight toy aircraft. :stoned:

How I miss Farnborough in the Fifties, about the only time I look back with regret is the thought of those aircraft. And the occasional car too, of course, he added hastily...

#85 MCS

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Posted 25 August 2009 - 20:24

Is there still one in the RAF Museum at Hendon?

I remember walking under the wings some years ago and being delighted to be up so close - awesome.

#86 FrankB

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Posted 25 August 2009 - 20:28

Is there still one in the RAF Museum at Hendon?

I remember walking under the wings some years ago and being delighted to be up so close - awesome.

It's still there! I was walking under its wings just two days ago.

#87 Tony Matthews

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Posted 25 August 2009 - 20:33

It's still there! I was walking under its wings just two days ago.

This came up in another thread - I remember it being white, about 12-14 years ago, but someone posted a photo of it in camouflage quite recently. Whatever, I must revisit soon - a terrific museum.

#88 retriever

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Posted 25 August 2009 - 21:05

back in the mid to late 1970s a single Vulcan would regularly fly over our village - Nynehead, Somerset - at a low height - normally in the late afternoon heading for Exmoor and the Bristol Channel. I can remember the occasions especially during those balmy late summer afternoons that we once had. A truly awesome but funnily reassuring aircraft given its former role (by then it had a non nuclear task)

Although some 40 miles from the nearest military airfield - Yeovilton - we used to get a real array of military aircraft flying over. Seems we are on a regular training and exercise west to east flight path - still get low flying Hercules and also Chinooks flying in and out of the commando base at Norton Fitwarren. In the 70s and 80s used to get F111s - really noisy and quite a lot of other types. Most memorable was a Buccaneer flying low and fast - awesome, what an aircraft.

The most vivid memory I have though is back in the early 1980s, a chilly but bright April morning I think early in the morning, thousands of feet high above were the contrails of C141s bringing in the first delivery of cruise missiles for Greenham Common. It was the first day that the actual missiles were brought in as opposed to the launchers and equipment and it was all over the news that tmorning. I stood outside and watched those aircraft for ages until they must have been over the Yeovilton area before they turned east for the final descent to the Berkshire base. Not pleasant times - Reagan and pre Gorbachev. One final memory of the times, a quarter of a mile behind us on a hill was a Royal Observer Corp bunker and every week their were people up there training - not reassuring.

Edited by retriever, 25 August 2009 - 21:42.


#89 Tony Matthews

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Posted 25 August 2009 - 21:24

The sky used to be full of interesting aircraft, and in those early days the biggest bulge in my pocket was The Observers Book of Aircraft. Even outside the designated flight training zones there would be something rattling the widows and making your neck-hairs stand up!

Latterly Norfolk and Suffolk were interesting places to holiday, I used to go to Walberswick every year, and although it was mostly Tornado's and Warthogs flying over, either very slowly or very fast, there were some interesting sights - the occasional F104 and once a Voodoo! F109? It flew straight out to sea until invisible, but this strange deep organ-note continued for minutes. Now it's just 73blody7's, usually orange, and the local police chopper, complete with trillion-candle-power searchlight. Not caught me yet though...

#90 Beech_boy

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Posted 25 August 2009 - 21:26

This came up in another thread - I remember it being white, about 12-14 years ago, but someone posted a photo of it in camouflage quite recently. Whatever, I must revisit soon - a terrific museum.


Could have been the Vickers Valiant which is in white - but now moved to Cosford

#91 Tony Matthews

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Posted 25 August 2009 - 22:14

Could have been the Vickers Valiant which is in white - but now moved to Cosford

Definitely a Vulcan! I stood under the open bomb bay, looking at the offending main spar, resigned to the fact that I'd never see one flying again... However, knowing my memory, perhaps it wasn't white, but that is how I remember it.

#92 beighes

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Posted 25 August 2009 - 22:45

Tony, your memory may be correct. A quick look at Wikipedia offers lots of information regarding the Vulcan & it's "anti flash white" finish......Cheers!

#93 elansprint72

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Posted 25 August 2009 - 22:48

back in the mid to late 1970s a single Vulcan would regularly fly over our village - Nynehead, Somerset - at a low height - normally in the late afternoon heading for Exmoor and the Bristol Channel. I can remember the occasions especially during those balmy late summer afternoons that we once had. A truly awesome but funnily reassuring aircraft given its former role (by then it had a non nuclear task)

Almost certainly this would have been the Vulcan with Concorde engine(s) strapped underneath, on its way to/from Filton. According to my (late) neighbour who signed this aircraft out, it would come back to Woodford regularly to for the airframe techies to crawl over it after over-spec high-speed flights from Filton. I do recall seeing the spectacle of this Vulcan doing a "wet take-off" at night and can understand the problems associated with keeping the engine in its allotted space within the airframe. :rotfl:

#94 kayemod

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Posted 26 August 2009 - 07:55

The sky used to be full of interesting aircraft, and in those early days the biggest bulge in my pocket was The Observers Book of Aircraft. Even outside the designated flight training zones there would be something rattling the widows and making your neck-hairs stand up!

Latterly Norfolk and Suffolk were interesting places to holiday, I used to go to Walberswick every year, and although it was mostly Tornado's and Warthogs flying over, either very slowly or very fast, there were some interesting sights - the occasional F104 and once a Voodoo! F109? It flew straight out to sea until invisible, but this strange deep organ-note continued for minutes. Now it's just 73blody7's, usually orange, and the local police chopper, complete with trillion-candle-power searchlight. Not caught me yet though...


That's enough about bulges in your teenage trousers thank you...

I lived in Huntingdon, and just three or four miles up the road was RAF Alconbury which was leased to the Americans. If you drove out of town towards Abbots Ripton, then doubled back along Clay Lane, an old tarmac road that had been cut off by the airbase, you had a wonderful vantage point around the back of the airfield halfway along the main runway, guaranteed to have a few plane spotters there at almost any time of day, possibly Russian spies as well of course, but USAF security never bothered us. You could see almost anything there on a regular basis, F111s, F102s & F106s, F105 Thunderchiefs, F100 Super Sabres, Voodoos, U2s, an occasional SR71 Blackbird spy plane, and many more, Boeing tankers, and even the Air Force One 707 once or twice. Almost as close was RAF Wyton, mostly PR Canberras and Valiant tankers, the air was almost black with interesting military planes over the town much of the time, wasn't everywhere in East Anglia like that? Where I live now, quite close to Hurn airport, it's mostly 737s, usually with a harp painted on the tail. A friend's young son points upwards whenever he hears any plane, and shrieks "Wianair!", we also have the local police helicopter much of the time, usually hovering noisily overhead in the early hours, blast them!

Edited by kayemod, 28 August 2009 - 08:42.


#95 FrankB

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Posted 26 August 2009 - 08:15

kayemod, I have spent many hours gazing across Alconbury's expanse, it's not quite so interesting now is it?

I lived a bit further north, enjoying Cottesmore's Vulcans and Wittering's Victors (later followed by Harriers).

Wittering was used as the rehearsal area for one of the big Buckingham Palace flypasts (Silver Jubilee perhaps), so for several days we had many aircraft of hugely varying maximum and minimum flying speeds forming up so as to pass across a given point at fixed intervals. As the sequence followed the history of the RAF the older, and hence slower, aircraft were leading with the rest of the formation closing behind them! Wonderful stuff!

#96 bradbury west

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Posted 26 August 2009 - 10:37

Looking for a link for Lasham airfield, which is the home to this;
http://f4phantom.co....ham/swwaps.html
I came across this.
http://www.flightglo...an/default.aspx
Roger Lund

Edited by bradbury west, 26 August 2009 - 10:52.


#97 kayemod

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Posted 26 August 2009 - 11:21

Just thought I should mention that the skies over Huntingdon were also occasionally filled by Victors, Hunter jets probably from a PR unit, and my own favourite the Gloster Javelin, a kind of mini-Vulcan, all operating out of RAF Wyton, pronounced "Witton", but invariably mis-pronounced by non-locals and the BBC as "Wie-ton". Returning to topic, one of the control tower guys at Wyton told me that one interesting feature of the Vulcan was its remarkably small radar signature, it seems that more or less by accident, Avro's designers had managed to produce one of the very first 'stealth' warplanes.

#98 Hamish Robson

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Posted 26 August 2009 - 11:26

Currently reading "Vulcan 607" by Rowland White - the story of the air raid on the Falklands in '82.

Facinating: If you haven't read it and love the Vulcan then buy it NOW!

#99 Lifew12

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Posted 26 August 2009 - 11:49

This seems like the most appropriate place to post, but I had a memorable experience yesterday, I saw what I believe is the sole remaining airworthy Vulcan in the air, what a sight! It appeared as the star performer at the Bournemouth Air Show, a free event that I imagine must be funded by the local tourist board. That plane is truly awesome, you feel the noise rather than hear it, much the same as the late lamented Concorde, with which the Vulcan shared its four Olympus engines. The plane appeared from the east, flying parallel to the coastline, and then did a series of swoops and fly-pasts that must have lasted five minutes or so, the impression of sheer power that thing provided will remain fresh in my mind for a long time, a truly remarkable experience. I think that funding for the Vulcan project is probably pretty tight, but they are one of the most worthwhile causes of this type that I've come across in recent years, this is the kind of enterprise that ought to be supported by Lottery funding, though whether it is or not, I have no idea. If any of you get a chance to see this aircraft, grab it with both hands, I guarantee that you won't be disappointed, and as is the case with almost everything we discuss here on TNF, they certainly don't make them like that anymore!


She is awesome, Kayemod, and I had the pleasure of watching her at Sunderland last month. For the record, the engines are not the same as those used by Concorde, and she is supported to a point by the Heritage Lottery fund. She flies, however, thanks to the hard work of the Vulcan To The Sky Trust (see www.vulcantothesky.org) and i would recommend a visit to the website as most of the runnig costs are by public subscription through membership of the associated club.

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#100 Mal9444

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Posted 26 August 2009 - 13:40

The most vivid memory I have though is back in the early 1980s, a chilly but bright April morning I think early in the morning, thousands of feet high above were the contrails of C141s bringing in the first delivery of cruise missiles for Greenham Common.


Given that this delightful thread wanders all over the place and proves that TNFers have interests beyond motor cars (or as my wife would phrase it 'can bore in more than one language...'):

I was at a yachting event off Honolulu (as one does) in early August 1990. The day-long stream of Lockheed Galaxies, not to mention a plethora of other breeds of warplane, taking off from Hickham air base and heading east overhead is a sight and sound I shall never forget. Being afloat and concentrating on the yacht racing we had no idea what on earth was going on but it was pretty obvious that whatever it was, it was (or was about to become) huge. We reckoned that by afternoon there could be no more military aircraft left in Hawaii. It was only when we got back ashore that we learned that Saddam had invaded Kuwait.

Edited by Mal9444, 26 August 2009 - 13:41.