Vulcan tried to escape from Wellesbourne, 16th Sept 2022
 

Judging from the images, the Wellesbourne Vulcan tried to get away but was reined in before it jumped the boundary fence. I hope everyone is safe and sound. I'm sure the airframe will find its way back onto terra firma soon.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....7aa0c47444.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....dd5bbdfd01.jpg
Images courtesy of cg_341 at this UKAR thread.

Bet there is a good selection of skid marks... in several very different places!

I only thought that…
There is a video here....
Please go to the UKAR thread using the link at the end of my previous post to see the video.

Wot no drag chute?

One of those "Oh sh*t" moments. Not giving up without a fight, is it ?

Another excuse to close such "a dangerous airfield" ...........

Sometimes the SEN Vulcan does a run down the runway without a drag chute but never up to that sort of speed. Their higher speed Open Day runs require the drag chute to be serviceable and it's always deployed.

No allowance is made for the Brake Parachute in the Stop element of the takeoff calculation. The chute only figured in the brake energy calculation where you could find the Normal and Emergency Maximum Brake speeds (NMBS/EMBS) with and without the ‘chute. In any event, the brake parachute is more effective at high speed, When you realise you’re going to overrun it’s probably not going to make any difference.

It’s important to bear in mind that takeoff performance calculations only assume a failure of the most adverse power unit. No other failure is allowed for. This is why when carrying out a deliberate accelerate/stop manoeuvre you have plan it very carefully as there are additional factors in play. It pays to be very conservative in your approach and execution.

It is many years since I did any Vulcan takeoff performance planning.and IIRC the philosophy was a “high” V1, called Decision Speed in those days. Lower figures would be Vmcg limited. This of course would not apply in a pre-planned accelerate/stop where it might be prudent to restrict the speed below what would theoretically be possible.

It will be interesting to learn what actually occurred but I fear it might be a “Shoreham” moment for accelerate/stop demonstrations.

YS

Out of interest which authority would regulate that. If it’s an aircraft which is no longer allowed to fly by the CAA for whatever reason how can they claim to control it. It’s no longer an aircraft, it’s a funny shaped ground vehicle being driven at high speed on private land, like a farmer driving above the speed limit in a private field. Totally different, I would have thought, to Shoreham, which was an airworthy aircraft overseen by the authority.

Close one. Glad everyone is okay and the bird suffered minor if any damage.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the CAA have no jurisdiction or interest and the AAIB would probably decline to offer any input, even on a consultancy basis. Whether any investigation could lead to a prosecution is anyone's guess, it gets a bit complicated when both volunteers and employees are involved.

YS

Yellow Sun

Thanks for the explanation. It makes sense to me now that the chute would 'soak up' lots of the initial inertia and leave the brakes less to do. I fear that others who have posted responses are correct and this event will curtail further fast taxi demonstrations. Another little chip away from our aviation heritage.

Didn't get airborne, that's that 😝

Yonks ago our squadron rules ( unofficial of crse) were if you deployed the chute on the Hunter you got to repack it with the SE guys. Until we had a couple of close calls (St Athan and Brawdy in the wet rings a bell) then that got binned. Sharpish.

It didn't do a Victor.... but it was still a pretty decent attempt at leaving the reservation.

Lucky they didn’t leave the ground. Can’t imagine the condition the PFCU’s would be much cop after 38 yrs of no maintenance.

would need to be deployed before it set off as not a very long runway and wouldn't have enough time to deploy and inflate to be of any use.

On Victors, if you diverted, you had to pack it yourselves ....and it was an absolute barsteward to do. No SE guys to help, you needed one of those giraffe thingies and three of you carried it up and then placed it in the form of a 'Z' and trampled on it in the hopper (having tripped the circuit breakers in the cabin first).

That's an interesting use of the word Carnage.

From the website;

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....41040295b5.jpg

No Vulcan expert but don’t the spoilers get extended on landing (or RTOs) for additional weight on wheels (and increased braking efficiency)?