The Vulcan, one of Britain”s most illustrious ”cold war warriors” and famous for its attack on Stanley during the Falklands campaign of 1982, could take part in a memorial flight over London in June next year.
The RAF”s Vulcan V bomber fleet was scrapped in the 1980s. However, one Avro Vulcan B Mk 2 (registration XH558) was acquired by what is now the Vulcan In the Sky Club and retired to the former RAF base at Bruntingthorpe Airfield near Lutterworth in South Leicestershire, with a view to returning it to the air every summer at the air show circus.
A tremendous effort has been made by enthusiasts, plus former and current RAF personnel, in their appeals for donations. This has been very successful, and the final target of ”500,000 has been secured by a donation from former RAF officer pilot Sir Jack Hayward, life president of Wolverhampton Wanderers. Sir Jack, now well into his eighties, and resident in the Bahamas since 1956, recently visited Bruntingthorpe to see progress on the project.
Chairman of the Trust Sir Michael Knight is grateful to all supporters: ”The Vulcan to the Sky Trust would like to thank anyone who helped ensure that the Vulcan will fly again, with hundreds of thousands of pounds being donated or pledged. That these pledges and donations are for the most part made up of thousands of individual amounts in the ”10 ($19) to ”100 ($188) range is testament to the strength of the public's desire to see the Vulcan fly again."
All engineering work on the aircraft is being carried out, or monitored, by Marshall”s of Cambridge, under the auspices of the Civil Aviation Authority.