(the press are).....Much better kept away from 1st flights, I don't doubt nowadays some idiot would get past the barriers & on or near the runway for a scoop...
Couldn't disagree more, Double Zero. On a couple of grounds.
First of all, XH-558 is as near as you can get to public property, and the public deserves to know all about the important stages in her new life. And what could be more important than her ‘maiden’ flight. I agree that it will be very difficult to make this into a satisfactory public occasion - probably impossible, for all the reasons already discussed. But I believe the media in all its grubby glory should be there, particularly the broadcast media. Their presence can be satisfactorily controlled.
That leads me onto my second ground. I was extremely privileged to be present at the maiden flight of the Airbus A-380 at Toulouse - and it was an absolute (and well deserved)
PR triumph for Airbus. There were about 1500 of us reptiles from all over the world there - but Airbus had laid on absolutely everything we could need, and the overall feeling, even amogst the most hard-bitten cynics (what, cynics amongst HM meeja, I hear you cry - shurely not) - the overall feeling was one of friendly disposition towards Airbus on what was perhaps their biggest day ever. The massive coverage reflected that. And I have to tell you that when those 22 wheels lifted off the Toulouse runway right in front of us, the applause (from journos, remember) drowned out the engine noise. It was a genuinely teary moment, and I was immensely glad to be there.
It will be similar when XH-558’s eighteen wheels lift off - though I doubt if any amount of applause will drown out the Olympuses. And the impact on us, the Vulcan-owning public, through tv coverage, will be immense.
Of course, there is a problem, because it’s almost impossible to give any reasonable notice of when it will actually happen. But the way Airbus got round that was to give about a month’s notice of a 4 or 5 day period when it was most likely, then, if I remember rightly, about 48 hrs’ notice of a much firmer date, which turned out to be right.
Fingers remain crossed....
airsound
Edited to correct airsound's lack of progress in wheel-counting