having been a motorsport fan for many many years, i have forgotten just how many times i have heard the terms " military grade this, aerospace grade that", would it not be time these HUGELY funded operations paid back by giving just a little bit of sponsorship money, after all , they seem to have benefited somewhat over the years!!!
would it not be time these HUGELY funded operations paid back by giving just a little bit of sponsorship money
Sponsorship is like advertising - you spend money in the hope of getting a lot more back when your new (or existing) customers buy your product. There's no point spending money once they've bought all they can. Defence spending as a proportion of GDP is falling, and is going into far fewer, far larger projects, where advertising and sponsorship are as much use at t!ts on a fish. Hence no chance that defence-based companies will fall over themselves to throw money at TVOC.
er, tits on a fish?, f1 has been pimping off aerospace for many years now. even in the late 70s the monocques were fashioned from aerolam and now of course we have kevlar,grp,mil grade connectors etc, why not a small(ish) f1 logo or something similar to show the watching public where all this gear was first used. 10+ teams, 100 grand each(how much do they spend in hospitality alone)= 1 million. surely we get one season out of that!!
It may have escaped your notice, but F1 teams raise the majority of their income from sponsorship. Why would they then give it away in the form of sponsoring another, non-related activity?
er , yeh, since 1968-gold leaf lotus,jim clark- graham hill. look, i know this is just a personal rant but surely someone can get the jist of my angle(no?, oh fuk it then).
I'm surprised one of the major Oil Companies hasn't offered free fuel. Drop in the ocean for them.
At the Club Members Day in Lutterworth on Saturday 12th January, Dr Pleming told us that Air BP are giving the project 50% of the fuel required in 2008 gratis, and a favourable rate for the remaining 50%. Every little helps.
"We need to start the rest of the test flight programme with the return of good weather at the beginning of March, but we still have to have £150,000 in our hands before we can do that, plus confidence that we will go on raising at least £50,000 per month after that.
Dr Rob Pleming (CEO of Vulcan to the Sky) has just (0650) been on Today on Radio 4, talking to Jim Naughtie.
I haven't yet got the 'listen back' details, but I'll post them when I can, unless anyone else can do so in the meantime. Rob and I are both in Belgium at the European Air Show Council meeting, so internet access is a bit spasmodic at the mo.
They are looking for sponsorship of an immediate £150K and £50K per month until the Airshow season starts. The presumption then is that once flying and on view to the public the money will come rolling in and the CEO sited 2 cases - £6M over the life of the project all from public donation and IIRC £1.5M over a 12 or was it 18 month period. It sounded to me as if he felt the public would come to the rescue.
Mr Naughtie did not ask if there was a Plan B and one was not volunteered. Judging by what I read on this thread the future looks more ugley that rosey.
Shell recently reported a trading profit of £13.9 billion for 2007. That is £1.5 million per Hour
The Vulcan project is seeking approx £350K to get the aircraft to the first Airshow. Shell would generate that sum in 14 minutes.
The whole saga seems to be turning into a farce. I know that Pleming is a past master when it comes to issuing "scare tactics" announcements, so I hope his latest comments are little more than that. On the other hand, if TVOC really have failed to find any significant sponsorship by now, the project's clearly dead. The whole saga rested on the first flight and it was claimed that sponsors were waiting in the wings to come forward, once the aircraft flew. Well... where are they? Sounds like typical British bull**it... people full of vaguely good intentions, but they run a mile when they have to put their hands in their pockets.
There is only one sensible option. HLF threw a lot of money into the project. TVOC should go back to them and explain that if they don't give a little more (much less than the amount already given) then all the money they've given so far will be wasted. It's a perfectly logical argument. HLF will doubtless say that they cannot do more but of course they can do what they like. They can twist the rules to suit. How much money will be poured into this stupid two week sports event in London in 2012? It seems obvious to me that if TVOC's PR people did their job well, they could put HLF in a very tight spot. What they gonna do? Throw away millions (again!) just because they're too blinkered to spend a little bit more?
I fear TVOC's people won't even bother asking. They'll be too busy chasing unrealistic goals. I mean, after all that work, the first flight got no more than a ten-second snip of national coverage. Inviting the local news media was pointless. Who gives a toss what local news programmes broadcast? Much as I hate the bloke, they should have had Jeremy Clarkson there, and some other celebs. There is only one way you can get good national TV coverage and that's by having some celebs to provide some banal sound bites. You'd think TVOC would have grasped that fact, and not wasted such a unique event.
How absolutely correct you are, it is an utter farce. I can't see the lottery people giving any more money for one simple reason - the management of this project have been shown to be seriously lacking, and whilst they are in place, at the helm of a rudderless ship, no one in their right mind would give any more cash.
I have waiting for a responce from Airsound, but I note that he is at an airshow with his good friend Dr Pleming! (no wonder he supports him so much) May I suggest that Pleming would do better if he got his backside back here and started answering some questions about what is happening?
Here is the post I put on the other forum:
So,
Surprise surprise, the Vulcan is in trouble yet again. When will they ever learn down at Brunters? How can so few people, make so many errors in their calculations and get it so wrong, so often??
In a statement, Keith Mans states:
Under their Companies Act obligations, the Board of Trustees must have sufficient confidence that the levels of funding required will be forthcoming at the right time. The Trustees have decided, with the deepest regret, that unless such confidence is gained by the end of March, further activity by the Vulcan to the Sky Trust will for the time being be suspended. So once again, we are dependent on the goodwill of others to ensure that XH558, the people’s aircraft, continues to fly. In August 2006, the public responded magnificently to our plea for support, and as the result, XH558 took to the air last October. Would you please join the Club and/or make a donation now to ensure that we are able to keep our promise to give XH558 back to you this summer?
Tell us Keith, will they be the same people who you wouldn't let come to see 'their aircraft' take to the skies last year?? And I notice you to have reverted to the old 'pay up or it fails' thread again eh?
And the good Dr Pleming writes:
The next phase in the new life of XH558 takes the aircraft from today up to its first public display. In funding terms, we estimate that it will cost about £575,000 to meet our target of returning her to public display on 1st June, an amount which is consistent with our estimated gross annual running costs of about £1.6million. Following on from the enormous financial goodwill shown by many companies, and by Marshall Aerospace in particular, in enabling us to achieve the first test flight on 18th October, we have chosen to avoid the risk of future fiscal embarrassment by electing to pay for any major work before it starts. Whilst the largest proportion of the £575,000 pays for the monthly £70,000 baseline costs of salaries and other vital items, the steepest part of the new challenge is the upfront outlay of £85,000 required now to restart the test flight programme. The costs of the display work-up flights and aviation insurance are the other major elements making up the total.
Tell me Robert, did no one advise you about the Insurance costs? Did you not even have an inkling yourself? And what about these salaries? have they just been introduced or what? Why were neither of these costs factored into your budget plans? Just who is running this show?
Just as a matter of interest to all those thousands of people who, like myself, have given over their hard-earned cash to you for the past few years, who is in charge of finances at TVOC? Do you have a treasurer?
No doubt Dr Plemings friends will soon kick off here, telling us what a fine chap he is, and we are wrong to bad mouth the project, but the fact remains that, IMHO, and i suspect in the minds of many others, this project is rapidly turning into a joke. The sad thing is that the joke is on the thousands of people who have thrown good money at it.
OK, standing by for a barrage of abuse from you-know-who!
Location: Quite near 'An aerodrome somewhere in England'
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In early January, many concerned questions were being asked quite reasonably on the Vulcan to the Sky forum. Not once was a reply offered by the Trust - in fact the entire thread later disappeared.
Why?
No answers = no more donations. Well, that's what many people said.
The second flight was due to happen shortly after the first, but due to a cock-up, there wasn't sufficient fire cover. Or so I'm told.
Then they all went on holiday - and there was almost a total news blackout for the rest of the year. NOT a good way to win support and/or sponsorship!
Incidentally, Tombstone never did send me the DVD of his performance.....
It is good to see that the likes of BEagle, for whom I have the utmost respect, seems to be agreeing with some of the more sceptical posters on this forum. It is indeed, and sad refelction on TVOC that even the hardest of the die-hards are getting a little fed up with the lack of responce and progress being made. The sheer arrogance of Pleming and the rest of the top brass at bruningthorpe not to reply or respond is shameful I feel, and saysd much about the people who are (supposedly) running this project.
For fear of being haranged by some, I fully agree with the previous posters regarding bad management and would suggest a little bit of incompetance even.
We have been assured on countless occasions that there were plenty of sponsors ready to come on board, and I remember hearing DT state publicly that 'money (sponsorship money) is not a problem' Well David, it certainly appears to be a problem now old man, dosn't it?
No doubt the next copy of Flypast or Air forces Monthly will have yet another interview with Pleming, threatening the projects end unless more money can be found.
Maybe it's time to let the old lady retire gracefully?
. look, i know this is just a personal rant but surely someone can get the jist of my angle(no?, oh fu
k it then).
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