Author: Alex Conacher
The Vulcan is one of the most iconic aircraft ever flown by the Royal Air Force. Capable of exceeding 600mph, flying above 60,000ft and with a 3,000-mile range… although it was a bomber, it could out-turn fighters at altitude, straining at the limits of their capability. The powerful yet acrobatic Vulcan was to form a critical part of Britain’s nuclear deterrent. Now grounded for perhaps the last time, the charity that originally restored the Vulcan to flight is hoping to use it to inspire the next generation.
Although not quite the household name that the Spitfire has been, the Vulcan has always been a crowd favourite at air shows. As well as the immense noise generated by its four Rolls Royce Olympus engines, which has thrilled children up and down the country, it was incredibly agile in the air for an aircraft that is 30m long, 10m high on the ground, and has a 30m wingspan. This is because its revolutionary delta wing design allowing its bat-shaped frame to bank (meaning, to turn) incredibly sharply, bringing the aircraft back round to fly back over the crowds once again.
A nuclear deterrent
The Vulcan, first imagined in the early 1950s, entered service at a time in history when humanity stood upon the brink of annihilation. Western powers and the Soviet Union were squaring off against each other in the early stages of a Cold War that was to last a further 40 years. The atom had just been split, granting each side unimaginable destructive powers and game theory dictated that the only defence was to be a credible nuclear threat yourself.
It needed to be capable of penetrating hostile defences and making its way hundreds of miles, under fire, to deliver its dreaded payload. To work as a deterrent, it needed to be credible, and so it is a stunning example of aerospace engineering.
Fortunately, the Vulcan never had to fulfil its primary role. It did see action in the Falklands War in the 1980s operating as a conventional bomber, and its usefulness 30 years later is a testament to the engineers who originally designed and built it. But then, with the Cold War over, it was retired from operational duty and moved to a flight display team, before being grounded in the early 1990s by a society rightly looking to enjoy a peace dividend following decades of runaway military spending.
But the iconic aircraft still had legions of fans who remembered going to air shows in their own youth, and a charity got together to return the Vulcan to the Sky. After an incredible journey obtaining funding, acquiring parts, and seeking permissions, they finally achieved their goal.
Returning to the skies
The last airworthy Vulcan, the XH558 was renamed ‘The Spirit of Great Britain’ and returned to the skies in 2007. It wowed crowds for a further eight years before being ordered to the ground again. It had not reached the technical limitations of its flying life, but there it has stayed. And, probably, the last of the Vulcans will never fly again… But its journey is not yet over.
Dr Robert Pleming is chief executive of the Vulcan to the Sky Trust. From an early age, flying was in his blood. His mother was in the WAAF in WW2, he joined the RAF section of the cadets, and passed his Cesna flying test before learning how to drive. He was, in his words, always ever so impressed by the Vulcan and has been working for over a decade to bring together a team of like-minded individuals on this labour of passion.
Going back to the tail-end of the Cold War, after the end of service in 1984, Vulcans flew as part of a display flight team until 1992 and then the government moved to end the programme. The public reaction was huge. “There was a massive petition to Parliament, there are over 200,000 names gathered, which you know, in the world of paper was quite an achievement, asking the government to keep the aeroplane flying,”
However that was not successful. “The aircraft was auctioned off. Bought amazingly for the princely sum of £25,000 by C Walton limited. She had her final flight in RAF service on the 23rd of March 1993,” says Robert. “I decided to take my young son out of school that day, and we perched on the hill just outside RAF Benson, which was the initial point for the Vulcans lost to the country. And yes, I saw last flight and probably myself I could see what I could do to get back flying again.”
Setting a new goal
That day Robert seta new goal in life: to save the Vulcan. The early stage of the project covers the period from 1997 to 2002, and when Robert embarked on this path, the first port of call was checking the civil aviation regulations to learn what would be required. “It was very clear from reading those that we weren’t going to go anywhere without the support of primarily British Aerospace or BAE Systems as is now, so the first couple of years of activity were good at putting together a plan that could convince British Aerospace BAE systems that it was right to support the restoration of XH558.”
The regulations actually demand that all of the companies that provide safe flight safety critical systems such as BAE systems, Rolls Royce, Dunlop Smith’s a whole lot of very familiar names, all have to sign up to what’s known as ‘ongoing airworthiness design support’.
“By May of 1999, we reached the first milestone and British Aerospace said that yes, subject to certain reasonable conditions. They would support the return of the Vulcan flight and that was probably the first major milestone in our restoration plan,” says Robert.
After this comes the question of funding the project. The new owner C Walton funded thetechnical survey of the aircraft, the stripped down of the aircraft to remove all of these system components. But it became very clear that a fairly large sum of money was required for the restoration itself. The original quotations were for around £2 million. By 2003, the estimate was £3.75 million and the trust decided to apply to the Heritage Lottery fund for a major grant – £2.7 million pounds. They were rejected. “The public reaction to that rejection was enormous. And as a result, the Lottery Fund said to us, let me let us tell you what you need to put in your application to have a much better chance of getting a grant, which is of course what we did.”
In December 2003 they were approved. The £2.7M from the lottery was secured, an additional £1M from the public was raised, and in 2005 the charity purchased the aircraft. Then it was time for a major service. This is a comprehensive check: strip down, inspect, rectify, rebuild. “The inspection actually generated a list of about three and a half thousand individual faults on the machine that needs to be rectified. All sorts of different items; missing rivets, corrosion, slight dents, insulation that had gone, a whole range of different things all individually identified and all fixed. We were very lucky in that at the time C Wilson Limited purchased the aircraft they also purchased the remaining RAF Vulcan spares, about 800 tonnes of spares,” says Robert.
Without some very specific components in this set of spares the Vulcan would have ended its flight life in 1993. “And this was the eight zero-time Rolls Royce Olympus 202 engines that were part of that 800 tonnes,” says Robert. “Eventually, we discovered that Rolls Royce said they would not have allowed the aircraft to flight without zero-time engine so that was actually a critical factor.”
The Vulcan flies again
In 2006 disaster nearly struck as the Trust almost ran out of money, but another swell of public support again brought the funding needed, and, finally, in 2007 the Vulcan flew again. A sight that Robert describes as inspiring. “Not only is she very nimble, the beautiful shape, but spectacularly loud. And of course we have the famous Vulcan howl the resonance from the air intakes, which is very well known.”
Then followed eight unforgettable years. The Vulcan flew 320 hours, exceeding a 250-hour promise made to the Lottery. But nothing lasts forever as the plane reached the end of its structural life.Calculations showed that there were just two years of safe life remaining.
The final year was a major send-off. “2015 itself was extraordinary year,” says Robert. “We agreed with the engineering authority Marshall Aerospace that we’ve actually increased the number of flying hours that year from normal 50 flying hours up to 75 so we could do some important things,” says Robert explaining that the XH558 toured the north and south of the country with maps available to the public to track its flight. “We know because of hits on our website that there were well over a million people who accessed the maps for her final two tours,” he says.
But its popularity meant that for the very last flight of the Vulcan secrecy was essential. The plan was to have the Vulcan take off from Doncaster Airport, but there was a problem. The police had spoken to their counterparts in the north, and in the south of the country, who had experience of the past tours and were told they could expect upwards of 100,000 people to descend on Doncaster. This was completely unacceptable for the local authority and to the police, and indeed to the airport because it would stop normal aircraft operations there. “That was why we were forced to keep the date of the final flight really, quite confidential. We did manage to get a few of our volunteers and the press there. But it was very limited. And certainly, the airport was desperately worried that the news would leak. Because an awful lot of people were watching what was what was happening,” says Robert.
They actually kept the aircraft in the hanger until the moments before take-off, so even watchers on the airport perimeter would not know what was to happen. Many were forced to miss the flight and sadly Robert was among them. “I was being prepared myself for a major heart operation down in London. So I missed the final flight myself. So, in some senses I’m with all the other people who wish that they’d seen the final flight but couldn’t. So a rather memorable, memorable day from all points of view.”
Future legacy
In the eight years of flight, the Vulcan had cost £2.5M per year and was seen by 2.5M people per year. Robert says that £1 per smile isn’t bad. It had also spent 7,000t of CO2 in that time and this brings us to what might be the final phase of the Vulcan’s life. “We were seriously considering what would happen after we cease to fly. And there was absolute agreement that they needed to be some form of legacy to recognise the importance of the Vulcan. All the work has gone into her, and indeed, the amount of money that has been spent, over 30 million pounds, which is an enormous sum of money. So there’s a very strong view that there needs to be some form of legacy.”
What emerged was a set of ideas based around telling the history of the Cold War, the Vulcan, and the people who supported it. The idea for ‘The Vulcan Experience’ was born.”The experience we had with audiences at air shows gave us a surprising conclusion. And it really was quite an amazing reaction what we saw and we coupled that to the important need to get youngsters involved with science, technology, engineering and maths, the so called STEM subjects.”
So they went forward with a plan to set up both informal and more formal activities to inspire young people into STEM, but based around the aircraft and aviation, and in 2016, that’s exactly what they did in hangar three at Doncaster airport. Now Robert and the Trust want to set up a more permanent Vulcan Experience, possibly opening as early as 2022. “We’ve got a design for a new hangar, which will contain the Vulcan experience up at Doncaster Sheffield airport. Land has been acquired by the airport for the hangar. We’ve got a good idea about what we were doing it and we know how much it will cost. The current estimates including fit-out around £4 million pounds. What we’ve been doing in recent months is focused on how we would get the funding in place.”
Over the years of the Trust’s activities, the challenges facing the climate became ever more apparent and this is another area that the Trust wants to explore in its Vulcan Experience.“Aerospace companies are looking at all sorts of ways to reduce the contribution aircraft are making to climate change. And once we looked into this, we realised that there was a really important job of education here telling the public about what is being done by engineers and designers to make flying look cleaner from a green point of view. The idea of electric powered aircraft and indeed hydrogen powered aircraft. There is a real desire to remove hydrocarbons from flying aircraft,” says Robert.
For further details on how to support this enterprise and inspire young people into STEM, please see our podcast show notes. But the plans do not stop with the Vulcan Experience. The Trust are now looking at something they call the Green Technology Hub.
