avro vulcan XL426

[mikkie4]

XL426 has made her maiden unaided taxi test at southend airport,very noisy,felt the earth move,great to see this old lady on the move again.maybe we will see her fly once again

[SFCC]

Not whilst my arse points downwards

[phil9560]

Why won't she fly ?

[alisoncc]

If I recollect correctly our Vulcans at Finningley - 230 OCU '63-66, were all designated XM's. Was there any significant difference between those and the XL's? And what determined the actual rego?

[Pontius Navigator]

Alison, XL were ordered the year before the XM. The letters increment every year. The XL were standard 201 engines and refitted as Blue Steel aircraft. XM series were designed as Sky Bolt carriers and fitted with the updated 301 engines.

Essentially the 301 in cruise power could develop the same power as a 201 in take-off.

[rolling20]

Aha, that would explain the noise on saturday then. I thought it was a fleet of A319s taking off in formation. Saw XL426 last night as we drove past , still looks a mighty beast. Very sad when I think of all the ones I saw being landed at St.Athan for scrap.

[C130 Techie]

XL 426 after her final Major at St Athan. One of the lucky ones to escape the scrapyard. Hers was the final Major maintenance of the Vulcan fleet.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/lloydr/scan0004.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/lloydr/scan0001.jpg

[Alber Ratman]

She could fly if somebody has a cool 10 million + to build a hangar to maintain her, pay for the major maintenance that is an absolute minimum CAA requirement to get her airworthy, pay Marshalls to act as the OEM support and pay the other contractors required to maintain components, etc, etc, etc. You see the fight XH558 has to keep in the air..

VTTS need a million plus to keep 558 flying a few displays every year. Ex military complex aircraft on PtF tickets are not cheap..

[cornish-stormrider]

And if I ever won the EUSSR million lottery (idiot tax) guess what I'd be the sugar daddy for.

I would get as many as I could and get them into one place - I like newquay airport meself.

I would build a forkoff big hanger and get them all up to working condition.
sling in a few modern bits and have a vulcan display team ( well, thats the cover story)

I'm going to build my own private air force - who wants a job?

NO PTI's, CCS, Bull***t admin triv, SWO, or any other crap we had to do.
Just gettting big jets servicable and flying them.

maybe i will buy a ticket this week.....

[Sir George Cayley]

You also need a Chief Exec to allegedly pull thousands out of the charity in salary.:eek:

SGC

[Alber Ratman]

I would buy all the Jags that had some decent life left..:E

[BEagle]

More than just 'thousands', Sir George.......allegedly.

:uhoh:

[simflea404]

Okay, so it was many years ago and I was only just old enough to get served in a pub when I had the pleasure of working on them (mostly at night)...but this looks like a Scampton retiree ...No TFR pod but not a "shiny" from 27 Sqn....Was it only fitted to the XM aircraft?

Sorry if question seems a bit dumb...

[ZH875]

Okay, so it was many years ago and I was only just old enough to get served in a pub when I had the pleasure of working on them (mostly at night)...but this looks like a Scampton retiree ...No TFR pod but not a "shiny" from 27 Sqn....Was it only fitted to the XM aircraft?

Sorry if question seems a bit dumb...

Here is a picture of XL426 on her last unit 50(B) Sqn at Waddington, with TFR pod fitted. XL426 was the only one I flew in.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v604/ZH875/xl426.jpg

[NutLoose]

Alber Ratman
I would buy all the Jags that had some decent life left..


Is there any? I think you will find they did a wing swap about a year ago with the Omani Jags that had exhausted their wing FI, so a lot of the ones at Cosford will not fly again.

[stumpey]

Sir George, no allegedly about it. The wages and "Advisers" expenses, are a matter of public record in the printed accounts. (See threads on here). The management gets a good wedge whilst the real work is done by unpaid volunteers. (Bursts into song....."Its the same the whole world over.......").

Any Charity which fails to spend directly, a minimum of 51% of its gross annual turnover on its stated cause, should loose the right to be a charity for five years.

Stinky Phlemming. Vulcan gets no more of my money while he's still there. :mad:

[Pontius Navigator]

I believe all Mk 2 Vulcans were fitted with TFR from around 1967-68. If you look closely at the lower of the new photos you can just make out the circular blanking plate.

[Alber Ratman]

Some of the airfield GIAs had 1500 odd hours left from the old golden fleet, 6 took to Conz.. XX112 being one I believe. Enough for some years flying.

[Liffy 1M]

XL426 at Mildenhall in May 1983:
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3522/3254328956_2c2d3854bc_z.jpg?zz=1 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24101413@N03/3254328956/)
RAF Vulcan B.2 XL426 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24101413@N03/3254328956/) by Irish251 (http://www.flickr.com/people/24101413@N03/), on Flickr

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3438/3254582832_95bc669082_z.jpg?zz=1 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24101413@N03/3254582832/)
RAF Avro Vulcan B.2 XL426 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24101413@N03/3254582832/) by Irish251 (http://www.flickr.com/people/24101413@N03/), on Flickr

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3607/3558088508_5594777e53_z.jpg?zz=1 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24101413@N03/3558088508/)
Mildenhall RAF Vulcan display (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24101413@N03/3558088508/) by Irish251 (http://www.flickr.com/people/24101413@N03/), on Flickr

And in the sunshine at Valley in August of the same year:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7179/6824724348_a1c91426e9_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24101413@N03/6824724348/)
XL426 Vulcan B.2 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24101413@N03/6824724348/) by Irish251 (http://www.flickr.com/people/24101413@N03/), on Flickr

[options770]

I flew 426 when she was on 27 Sqn, not all of the aircraft were shiny. That was mainly for the 'sniffers', it made it easier to keep them clean when needed

[PFR]

Now wouldn't a "Private" Jag look nice :ok:………..this should be on it’s own thread really – shall I start one? Any takers..:8

[hurn]

XL426 has made her maiden unaided taxi test at southend airport,very noisy,felt the earth move,great to see this old lady on the move again.maybe we will see her fly once again Only if they decide to do a 'Brunty Victor'. ;)

Why won't she fly ?Lack of money, lack of spares, lack of zero timed engines.

Of course if you've got enough of the first bit then anything is possible, but the reality is it'll never (legally) fly again. Glad to hear it's back taxiing though. :ok:

[vulcanxl426]

Hi Guys

I have the honour of being a engineer on XL426 for the last 2 years and this is the report taken from our website. Welcome to the Vulcan Restoration Trust Web Pages (http://www.avrovulcan.com)

Sadly 426 will never fly again even if we did have the money as the trust who own her feelsthat it doesn’t fit in our ethos as we want to preserve 426 as a taxi conditiononly .

VRT ChiefEngineer Matt Lawrence said he was "fully satisfied" with how XL426performed and was pleased everything went as expected. The engine run wascarried out as part of our planned maintenance programme for XL426 and saw ourVulcan's four Olympus engines tested at various power settings for just under30 minutes.

One part ofthe day which was far from satisfactory, however, was the weather. In commonwith much of the south of England that day, London Southend Airport was coveredin cold rain and drizzle from early morning to early eveing. Our EngineeringTeam was already soaked through as they made XL426 ready to be towed off herparking pan just before 12 noon. With the towing arm fitted, our air tug pulledXL426 off the pan and onto Southend Airport's newly extended runway, making itswas down towards the airport engine running area to the north of Foxtrot hold.

At XL426's controls for the engine run was our Chief Pilot, Group Captain Bill Burnett RAFRet'd. Bill flew Vulcans with Nos. 27, 50 and 617 Squadrons and wasinstrumental in forming the Vulcan Display Flight at RAF Waddington in 1984.XL426 was the Flight's first aircraft and as OC VDF, Bill flew more than 50displays in XL426 during the 1984 air show season.

Engine start was at 1.00 p.m. with all four engines being run at a variety of different settings before Bill took XL426 for a slow speed taxy back up to the Foxtrot hold point. Interested specatators were the crew of an RAF Sea King Search& Rescue helicopter which flew across the airport (the crew may have beenworried that our engineers were drowning in the rain). XL426's engines wereshut down just before 1.45 p.m. All four engines performed well although No.3will not accelerate to full power. This problem was first seen at our previousengine run in December 2011 and is on the Engineering Team's 'to do' list forthe summer of 2012.