Vulcan to the Sky, The End? (Merged)

[Tim McLelland]

Here we go again... we've done all this over and over again.
Next year is next year. We're slightly more concerned about the next two weeks right now!

You can argue the figures until the proverbial cows come home. Dr. Pleming says they will wind-up the project unless they get the 250K. That's straight from him so that's the way it is. Everything else, all the different quoted figures, who said what, who did what, blah blah blah... these are not facts, just contradictory information from various sources. I'm sure we will get the truth sooner or later but is this the time to be arguing about the project? As far as I can determine, 250K is the amount of cash which TVOC regards as a "shortfall" without which they cannot continue. It would appear that any additional money over this figure is cash that they already expect to raise through their usual activities. But whatever the reality, the clear message is that the project ends this month without that cash.

Clearly, whatever figures turn-out to be the truthful ones, the aircraft is going to eat-up more cash as time goes on. But there are just two options; one is to continue putting cash into the project so that it can finally fly. There is then the possibility of getting proper sponsorship, setting-up a new engineering and support team, and hopefully a new operating base that doesn't eat-up £15,000 per week! It's a long shot but unless XH558 flies, how will we ever know?

The alternative is to say that enough is enough and that nearly three million pounds should be effectively thrown away on an aircraft which will be permanently grounded at Bruntingthorpe. I doubt (and so does TVOC) if donations are going to help one way or the other at this late stage - I think the only possible practical solution is for the HLF to step-in and increase their input. They have to live with the decision as to whether they should risk any more cash, or accept yet more public criticism for throwing away even more millions on a project that was never finished.