Well yes, you can basically gradually rebuild broken parts until it's an entirely new plane but what is it then? All you have is essentially a replica with an original name. I agree it's an important part of British military history, and as far as engineering goes it was impressive for the time. However I'm not arguing it should be destroyed, I suppose I just don't understand the mass appeal of seeing the thing flying around an airfield a few times a year. Then again I don't really appreciate air-shows either, so perhaps it's just not my thing.
Your body replaces it's cells all the time... technically you're not the same person you were a few months ago... but you are. It will still be XH558.
there are many examples that we didn't appreciate the value of something until it was gone. Typically, projects like these are a direct result of such cases. There is a great organization called the confederate air force that restores examples of aeronautical engineering because of the demand for such things, the last I checked on them, all of their work was privately funded and their work was meticulous - there is a big difference between viewing a stagnant example of the past and a living/breathing one. I've seen a P-51 in the Smithsonian and one fly over a tarmac at 100 ft at top speed and there is no comparison.
Signed and sent round to everyone I know. Saw her flying this summer looked absolutely stunning and I hope will be flying for many more years.
Signed! And this gives me the perfect excuse to buy my new headset from Amazon Although there's no percentage given for Amazon...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Vulcan http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/vulcan/ http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1958/1958-1- - 0301.html http://www.captain-vulcan.freeuk.com/ http://studysupport.info/vulcanbomber/ http://studysupport.info/vulcanbomber/vulcanhistory.htm Each Vulcan contains 430,000 bolts, nuts and rivets. Each Vulcan was constructed from over 100,000 different components. The Vulcan was a fully electric aircraft. A fore-runner of the modern fly-by-wire jets used by the RAF today. The Vulcan can weigh up to 100 tonnes fully loaded. Each Vulcan consists of 2.5 miles of rolled sections. It has 9,500 feet of tubing. 14 miles of electrical cable. Contains enough sheet metal to cover 1.5 football pitches. The Vulcan gulped 25 tonnes of air per minute through her intakes. Each Vulcan has up to sixteen fuel tanks A Vulcan could carry enough fuel to power a Ford Escort motor car for 35 years at 10,000 miles a year. The 4 Olympus jets produce as much power as 18 railway engines. They were capable of delivering 80,000lbs of thrust. Vulcans could outmanoeuvre F-15s in high altitude mock dogfights. If necessary the Vulcan could be started in 27 seconds, and be airborne within 2 minutes of a squadron scramble. The record altitude flown by a Vulcan was 64,000ft. I still find it incredible that this plane started life in 1947, designed by men in tweed jackets, smoking pipes. And completely hand built in same way they did Spitfires, Hurricanes and Lancasters. Brilliant.
I absolutely love this plane. I've seen a huge number of military aircraft in action but nothing, ever came close to the Vulcan. Signed. Will buy stuff as soon as I get my new credit card
Another reason it's gob-smackingly amazing. We went from designing planes like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Lancaster to this: In 6 Years! Oh - and the chap who designed the Vulcan (Roy Chadwick) also designed - the Lancaster!
The Vulcan is my favourite aircraft. I saw it twice last year (at Fairford and Bournemouth)... it's so impressive that it almost brings me to tears to see it in the air. It's the same size of an Airbus A340 and, as GOO says, it was as agile as an F15. Let's keep this beast in the air! Signed and pledged!
She is a fantastic and beautiful beast of a machine. Brings tears to my eyes whenever I watch this video posted earlier with her taking off. An extremely impressive roar and she needs to keep flying so everybody can have the chance to see her fly. She doesn't deserve to sit in a museum.. no plane does. Avro Vulcan & Concorde are my favourite aircrafts of all time and I don't think anything will replace them.
Just listen to that howl... EDIT: there's a great video of her flying at RIAT 2009 last year (in HD): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxM9r_gzTGk
Fantastic video! I just love the sound of the Vulcan. I really want to see her for real.. I must try next time. BTW everyone try and donate some cash to save her. Deadline is 22 days away. http://www.vulcantothesky.org/
Thank you Tim. I'm glad I'm not the only one. I find it strange that I can get moved to tears by magnificent feats of engineering. I remember going to the Saturn 5 centre at the Cape one holiday, only to get all misty eyed and emo when I came face to face with 5 F1 engines pointing directly at me. MrsGOO thought there was something wrong. I had to explain to her that no, everything was just right.