Not something you see everyday...

[Jezz]

My Mrs is a massive fan of old planes, and there she was hanging out the washing at midday and heard an old familiar sound she'd not heard for a while. Looked up, and there in all its glory......
The VULCAN!!!!!! Flying right over my house, around 500 feet up. She just missed getting the camera in time, but I told her if its gear was still down, its only on its short maiden return to service test flight, and will be flying back over around 10 mins later. Sure enough........

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p7/jezzybabes/STA70804.jpg

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p7/jezzybabes/STA70803.jpg

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p7/jezzybabes/STA70802.jpg

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p7/jezzybabes/STA70801.jpg

Sorry about the quality. She couldnt figure out the zoom. :rolleyes: :D

[bammbamm]

is that the guys from bruntingthorpe?

[Jezz]

is that the guys from bruntingthorpe?

Yep. Fair play to them. Ok, so most of us could build an airfix kit, but a real 650mph jet? :blink:

[Guigsy]

they have one of those parked up at that airfield in stratford upon avon. first time i saw it almost crashed my car into the hedge going "ooooooh"

[bammbamm]

yeah fair play to them they did it, now the locals will probably stop moanin about the noise of my car when i go round the track

[colsoop]

Yep they have finally got it air ready. It should be at the major air shows this year :d

If you haven't experienced the vulcan on a low flyby it is certainly worth it :eyebrows:

[Danny Guy]

seen one of these take off from bruntingthorpe in the 90's, it shook the ground and set off car alarms... pretty impressive.

[craig-mkiv]

that was just on central new's !!

[RobSheffield]

Nice one, i remember them from the airshows years ago :)

[SupraStar 3000]

FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC!!!!!!

Im over the moon!!
Cheers to another British icon.

thanks Jez

[Tom]

"not something you see every day"

for the people that take a train to southend it is something they see everyday! lol, one at the airport there, but nice to see one up in the sky :)

[Max Headroom]

Some of us have been lucky enough to be strapped into one, I was PA to the Chief Flying Instructor at RAF Cranwell. One of the perks was I got to fly with him :). Not bad for a Panda

[Jezz]

"not something you see every day"

for the people that take a train to southend it is something they see everyday! lol, one at the airport there, but nice to see one up in the sky :)

:D I've seen that one, with its arse hanging over the train track. It was just nice to see that shape in flight again. ;)

[neil tt]

Nice to see one in the air, Its along time since I have seen one:cool:

[R3DG3CKO ROB]

That's awesome :) we were only talking about this today at lunch :) awesome news...

[Gaz Walker]

Wow. Looking forward to seeing her fly.

[Guigsy]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=488349&in_page_id=1770

more pics there

[Pot]

Read about this today, awesome news, and great to see it in the air again :)

[supra steveo]

someone on here has pics of there car next to one of those cant remember who though

[dangerous brain]

I Had one as my fly past on my passing out parade from basic training back in the ole days. Awesome pieces of kit I have to say. The noise is incredible when they pull as hard up as they can on max power straight over you :) They are even more awesome in the flesh as well. Duxford air museum has one (or they did years ago) and when you stand under it you feel sooooo small. Just stand next to the blue steel missile knock up that the Vulcan used to carry and that dwarfs the modern tornado which is no small bit of kit itself. Actually thinking about it Duxford is a good day out even if you aren't a total aircraft nerd. The original wooden tailed concorde is there as is one of Britains finest abandoned projects the TSR2. A true testament to British aviation engineering that spawned Britain's current engineering excellence in the current world.

[supradibbs]

Great to see!!!!


Drove passed the British Airways hangar the other day so sad to see concorde just sat there doing nothing really wish we could see that fly again but comercially like it supposed to

[mkirby]

Brings back so many memories, i used to like near newark, notts and they were based near there at the raf air base and used to use the local powerstation as target practice so every week they used to fly over my house pretty low for dummy bomb runs :) and when i mean low i'm talking you could see the pilots who used to wave at you when they banked round and used to shake the chimny pots off the houses :d

Great to see such a great plane back in the skys :)

Mike

[edd_t]

now that is cool :thumbs:

[Adzn2k]

A couple of months back i was in the falklands during the falklands 25. they had loads of pictures of these flying over getting ready to bomb stanley They are quite impressive.

[AlanM]

I have actually flown one (way back many years ago) out of RAF Waddington, amazing aircraft

[SupraStar 3000]

Having sat in the cockpit the one thing that struck me was how disorienting it seemed.
Dark, cramped and very poor views outside with the crew positions at various heights. Its incredible the brave crews could fly for hours at a time in side.

[Snooze]

Hehe - nice.

A few years back my family lived in a village in Befordshire. As there was quite a few guys with air force ties in the village, they always managed to arrange a mini-airshow for the village fete (ie just a couple of thousand people).

I'll never forget the year that a Vulcan turned up and did a low-level flypast (no more than a few hundred feet) right over our house! :D :D :D

[JonW]

I saw one fly at RAF Fairford many years ago, it was very impressive. The only thing that topped it for me was the SR-71 which was always my boyhood favourite. Apparently it flew past at mach 0.95 (the SR-71 that is) that was something to see.

[ivan]

I remember trekking in the Brecon Beacons when I was a lad and seeing a Vulcan flying past in the valley below me.
Dead impressive and one hell of a noise. :D

[SMiFFAD]

Interesting bit of blurb from wikipedia:
Restoration to flight of Vulcan XH558

The engineering staff of professional company the "Vulcan Operating Company" worked to return Vulcan XH558 to flight; initially they hoped to have the plane ready for a test flight in early 2007. In this, they were supported by the "Vulcan to the Sky" club (or VTSClub), a supporters and fund raising organisation. Though the website carried an announcement on 1 August 2006 that the project was in imminent danger of being abandoned due to lack of finance,[12] the target of raising the remaining £1.2m was achieved on 31 August, thanks to a high-profile publicity campaign orchestrated by the supporters club, Vulcan to the Sky Club (formerly Club Vulcan 558 Club). Time had almost run out for XH558 when Sir Jack Hayward, a British philanthropist, donated £500,000, which topped off the £860,000 already raised by VTSClub and the VTST Friends. Although the aircraft restoration was nearly complete, the aircraft was not ready for the flypast down the Mall in London for the 25th Anniversary of the Falklands conflict on 17 June 2007 or the RAF Waddington Airshow and the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT). [13]

The delay in returning the aircraft to flight was mainly down to delays in the return of refurbished flight-critical components, not as previously feared due to corrosion issues.

In August 2007 the VTS Team announced that they expected the Vulcan to fly at at least one UK airshow during the 2007 season.[14]On 14 August 2007 a NOTAM was issued by the CAA, to notify interested aviation concerns that: "Vulcan Test Flight will be undertaken at Bruntingthorpe airfield on AUG 20-24, 28-31, SEP 03-07 0900-1500 E)RESTRICTED AREA(TEMPORARY) FOR VULCAN TEST FLYING AT BRUNTINGTHORPE. RESTRICTION OF FLYING REGULATIONS MADE UNDER ARTICLE 96 OF THE ANO 2005.". However, these dates passed without the flight taking place.

On 16 August 2007 the aircraft commenced engine testing on the airfield at Bruntingthorpe. On 17 August 2007, XH558's No.3 Rolls-Royce Olympus 202 jet engine was successfully run for the first time in over 20 years. This is a different engine to that used by XH558 during her final seasons with the RAF's Vulcan Display Flight in 1992. All four of the Vulcan's old Olympus engines have been replaced with unused variants which had been stored since 1982, thereby getting the maximum future life span possible from each engine. The VTS Team also has another four of the type as backups.

Another significant milestone in the restoration project was achieved on 22 August 2007, when all four of XH558's Olympus engines were run flawlessly at nearly full power settings, for short intervals. So far, all engine testing has been fault-free. A short video clip of this event is available on YouTube. [15]

The first post-restoration flight took place on Thursday 18 October 2007. [16]. The flight last about 25 minutes. This the first of the planned three test flights from Bruntingthorpe aerodrome to be made to prove that the aircraft has been restored to airworthy condition.[17]

Appears you whitnessed her first flight in many years :)