XM607, Waddington's Warbird
Something which surprised me on a recent visit to Waddington, was the almost total lack of Vulcan memorabilia to be seen.
An ex-Black Buck captain has recently told me why. It seems that, much as 61bit tried to hide their Vulcan heritage when they received their short-range low-payload 2-person bombers in the early '80s, some tit at Waddington announced that "This is now an Air Defence NimWACS base - all V-force items will be disposed of!". So countless years of Vulcan stuff were simply thrown out - my colleague managed to save some, but the rest was destroyed.
Appalling. During our visit we were supposed to have a group photo by an ex-23 Sqn Phantom. Which has absolutely no relevance to Waddo; 'twould have been doubly insulting for an ex-Firebird to be seen by one of the 'Crows' aircraft. Fortunately, the photo didn't happen - our I would have asked the hosts why it wasn't being taken in front of XM607!
The fast-jet centric RAF has yet to realise that it is the RAF's large ac and RW fleets which have primarily been on Ops continually for the last few decades at least. What do they ask for whenever Bliar has another little 'come as you are' war? Hercs, tankers, Nimrods, recce and helicopters. Do they ask for poseur fag-chariots? Err, no. Harriers, yes - because only they can operate from the RN's ships or tatty forward airstrips. Then a few pointy-heads in the MoD start wanting to play, so a handful of other things are sent along, together with a RAF News photographer.....
So bŁoody well stump up and look after XM607, a famous aeroplane which played a hugely significant part in winning the South Atlantic conflict!!
An ex-Black Buck captain has recently told me why. It seems that, much as 61bit tried to hide their Vulcan heritage when they received their short-range low-payload 2-person bombers in the early '80s, some tit at Waddington announced that "This is now an Air Defence NimWACS base - all V-force items will be disposed of!". So countless years of Vulcan stuff were simply thrown out - my colleague managed to save some, but the rest was destroyed.
Appalling. During our visit we were supposed to have a group photo by an ex-23 Sqn Phantom. Which has absolutely no relevance to Waddo; 'twould have been doubly insulting for an ex-Firebird to be seen by one of the 'Crows' aircraft. Fortunately, the photo didn't happen - our I would have asked the hosts why it wasn't being taken in front of XM607!
The fast-jet centric RAF has yet to realise that it is the RAF's large ac and RW fleets which have primarily been on Ops continually for the last few decades at least. What do they ask for whenever Bliar has another little 'come as you are' war? Hercs, tankers, Nimrods, recce and helicopters. Do they ask for poseur fag-chariots? Err, no. Harriers, yes - because only they can operate from the RN's ships or tatty forward airstrips. Then a few pointy-heads in the MoD start wanting to play, so a handful of other things are sent along, together with a RAF News photographer.....
So bŁoody well stump up and look after XM607, a famous aeroplane which played a hugely significant part in winning the South Atlantic conflict!!
It seems that the project to get '558 in the air is consuming too big a chunk of the cash available for aircraft preservation. Even if we see a flying Vulcan again it will not last forever, meanwhile we are losing many historic large aircraft that should have been put inside - eg the BA Cosford tragedy.
put her under cover
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Originally Posted by Lancasterman
So there is a chance she could go under cover at Waddington then?
y mind blowing sight! Much as it pains me to say, I think it's going to take a lot of very keen people a lot of time to get anything happening, by which time it may be too late.
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Tonka
Just a small point and off-subject but it still irritates... A hangar is what you hang clothes on and a Hangar is where you store Aircraft...
Biggest spelling mistake in Britain is on the Hangar Doors at South Cerney - Hangers 1,2 & 3 in 10 ft letters...
Just a small point and off-subject but it still irritates... A hangar is what you hang clothes on and a Hangar is where you store Aircraft...
Biggest spelling mistake in Britain is on the Hangar Doors at South Cerney - Hangers 1,2 & 3 in 10 ft letters...
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I humbly apologise to all those who I have offended, I would like to lay blame to my A Level English teacher, who, on numerous occasions, failed to notice that I was asleep. I'd get my coat, but someone's moved my hangar...
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Originally Posted by BEagle
a famous aeroplane which played a hugely significant part in winning the South Atlantic conflict!!
What is the RAF's view as to how succesfull the Blackbuck mission was? Would they have preferred access to a few B-52's?
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I know I've mentioned this snippet before, maybe even on this thread, but when I enquired of Maj Gen Julian Thompson as to the effect of the Vulcan missions, he replied that it had been a superb psychological device, and that the Argentinian conscripts were terrified every time they heard an aircraft in case it was the Vulcans coming back.
Incidentally, I was in the second to front row of the auditorium, and I could hear an awful lot of young green types muttering "Vulcan?", and "whassat then, chaps?" behind me.
Apologies to the good Maj Gen for the paraphrasing of your comments, should you happen to be reading this!
Incidentally, I was in the second to front row of the auditorium, and I could hear an awful lot of young green types muttering "Vulcan?", and "whassat then, chaps?" behind me.
Apologies to the good Maj Gen for the paraphrasing of your comments, should you happen to be reading this!
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The second biggest problem that the RAF faces with regard to storing and restoring old aircraft is keeping the airframes out of the cr*p weather we get for most of the year (June & July 2006 excepted!) until they are ready to deal with them properly. So has anyone on high ever considered some sort of arrangement with the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARC) at Davis-Monthan AFB, whereby selected airframes could be moth-balled there until somebody has decided on some positive course of action and then done it.
The biggest problem, as you already know, is the complete lack of interest by the powers-that-be, so I suppose this idea is a non-starter.
Yes, I know - and money.
The biggest problem, as you already know, is the complete lack of interest by the powers-that-be, so I suppose this idea is a non-starter.
Yes, I know - and money.
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Suppose you could mail 607 over to Arizona in a series of Jiffy Bags?
I think you said it all - the "Powers That Be" are simply disinterested in such things. That would be sad enough, but I'd still like to know what idiot imposed the rule that called for all stations to have just one gate guard, so that Waddington had to destroy the Black Buck Victor that was originally preserved with the Vulcan. What was the point of that? Was he trying to score some brownie points with his superiors?
I think you said it all - the "Powers That Be" are simply disinterested in such things. That would be sad enough, but I'd still like to know what idiot imposed the rule that called for all stations to have just one gate guard, so that Waddington had to destroy the Black Buck Victor that was originally preserved with the Vulcan. What was the point of that? Was he trying to score some brownie points with his superiors?
Nixor ut Ledo
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I think that I know the idiot that made the one gate guard decision. He was also party to some very strange base rationalisation ideas which he was pushing to his masters.
He was a sqn ldr at MOD and he was a pilot. Nuff said - no names, no pack drill.
He was a sqn ldr at MOD and he was a pilot. Nuff said - no names, no pack drill.
