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The distinctive "Vulcan Howl" will be heard no more. Avro Vulcan XH558 has been doing a farewell tour of the British Isles this year. The last Vulcan bomber flying has now been grounded, as the companies that have been providing technical and material support needed to keep it in the air are calling it a day.
The final flights have drawn thousands to viewing spots along carefully planned routes - to the point where there have been concerns flights would be cancelled because traffic was putting too many people at risk. There's a broad recognition that an era is about to end forever.
And it was one that was a long shot to begin with. When a group first proposed to restore XH-558 to flight status, it had been years since the last one had flown. Steven Dowling at the BBC has an extensive report on the Herculean task the Vulcan to the Sky Trust took on. From Dowling's report:
Avro may have built the Vulcan, but it had dealt with 464 different suppliers, buying those myriad parts needed to construct each bomber. All of those making critical parts had to be contacted; if the company had been bought by someone else, they also had to be contacted to see if they could recreate any parts which might be needed, using precisely the same materials, the same manufacturing processes and the same designs. Bear in mind too that the Vulcans were built in the days of Imperial measurements, which then had to be recalculated – another layer of complexity to an already bewilderingly complex operation.
The airplane was almost entirely disassembled; every part, every system had to be checked. Extensive testing had to be done to recertify the Vulcan for flight, along with the requisite paperwork and approvals. It would probably have been impossible if the owners who bought the Vulcan hadn't also bid on a huge lot of spare parts - and gotten them.
The video below is from today, October 28, 2015, nearly an hour long. It covers the final flight of XH558 at Robin Hood Airport. It nearly didn't come off due to the weather. The plane doesn't begin to move until about 12 minutes in, when they start doing flight control checks. It taxies for the runway at 18 minutes. Take off is at 29 minutes. The last landing comes at about 36 minutes into the video. The Trust had to keep the flight secret, lest the airport be swamped by crowds. 346 hours of flying on 228 flights at a cost of 23 million Pounds have now come to a close, after return to flight in 2007.
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The saga of the Last Vulcan suggests an effort to return a Concorde to flight may simply not be feasible. While warbirds are popular at air shows, odds are modern military fighters and bombers will be seen no more in the skies once their service ends. They're just too complicated and expensive. XH558's story has been a remarkable example of dedication and perseverance against the odds.
Meanwhile, a fan has worked out a tribute by slipping XH558 into the latest Star Wars trailer. Damned if it doesn't look like it could really be there - the Vulcan always was distinctive.
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