...towards the end of the Vulcan's display career, one show organizer simply stated that they would pay whatever the necessary asking price was, because they just had to have the Vulcan at their show.
That may be true, but XH558 retired when the airshow business was at a zenith. Unfortunately, half the airshows that were in existence at that time have since gone to the wall and attendances at fee paying airshows are well down. Admittedly 800,000 people have just turned up for the Bournemouth freebie but that doesn't generate much in the way of direct revenue.
They're budgetted for 1.2 million a year don't forget, and given their history of budgetting shortfalls, we can't be sure they've got those sums right. Readers of "Aeroplane" will be aware of how tight the airshow business is getting - even across the Atlantic in the home of the CAF and Oshkosh.
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