First, to the guys and gals at Bruntingthorpe, I hope you don’t mind a third party discussion on the engineering plans for your Baby. Apologies ahead, if so…….
Thanks FJJP, but my post was intended to be simplistic; it ended by asking if there was anyone there with a thumb nail sketch of what the master plan (in redundant systems removal) might be?
I’m pretty much aware of what minimum kit is needed to put air under the wheels, but I think you’re missing a fundamental point between a front line Vulcan and XH558.
Take the electrics. A front line Vulcan needed an enormous amount of electrical power with every piece of generation running close to 100%. As a result, reliability wasn’t good. Now remove the Nav Bombing System, Electronic Counter Measures etc, from the equation, already done, and the generation systems will operate at no more than gentle idle. Reliability will rocket – but to where, we don’t know. (It would be interesting to know the electrical serviceability record of 558 during its display days versus front line. I’ll bet there was a huge improvement even over that short period.)
As to your point that you can't just buy a hand-held GPS and fly the Atlantic, there are people doing just that as I write, not in a four jet perhaps, but happily getting from A to B. In any case, I can’t see 558 going to the US. It’s being paid for with ‘non private’ funds and to send it westbound would be like sending the Tate to Times Square.
You say there’s not enough automation and switchery at the front to make a pilot-only operation safe, modern airliners are specifically designed for such ops.
Now we’re getting somewhere near the point I was trying to suggest. There’s already automatic load shedding in the electrics and, given the highly simplified electrical management of a display aircraft over a front line job, I still say there’s (probably) no need for an AEO, and certainly not a Nav Radar or Nav Plotter. Move the minimum number of switches now required to the co-pilots position, together with a modern digital status panel, replacing half a dozen steam driven dials.
You say you’re sure the Vulcan team will work out what not to service to keep costs/workload to a minimum.
I suspect this is the very point which started my train of thought. The difference between military and civil aviation thinking (and systems) is huge. Trust me, I’ve been in both camps. In one scary leap I went from servicing Vulcans with, at that time, a ten channel plug in crystal controlled Glide Slope receiver, to Triplex Autoland Tridents. The difference astonished me. There was me thinking I was moving from the sharp end of the latest technology into the backward civvy world. Wrong! Mind you, horses for courses, the Vulcan made a much better bomber than the Trident.
One (simplified) suggestion I’d make to Bruntingthorpe is this. Take on board a couple of volunteer electricians licensed on 737/757 etc. Their task, to look into low reliability Vulcan electrical parts, everything from contactors to TRU’s, and determine which of these could be replaced by current Boeing Part Number equivalents. Replacement being mainly through adapter cables/connectors, not necessarily a rewire. This would eliminate, for these parts, reliance on old steam driven dusty spares and, instead, move 558 into the huge civil parts pool. ( Comments Blacksheep?)
As to the luxury of air conditioning. When I were a lad (as were Vulcan aircrew) in Bahrein, Singapore, Darwin………….
Must go, it’s Sunday and the Memsahib’s cranky.