Farewell to the Vulcan :(

Hey Steve, anytime you wanna pop over to see her in the hangar and a close up of take-off (the sound is enormous and that's before it starts moving!) come up and see me!

Blimey, there's an offer! Shall have to find out her final schedules and take you up on that!!

Got room for a caravan in the front garden? (what's your baby sitting rates?)

I use to watch this plane perform at Farnborough air show, as a boy it looked pure evil in the sky and it still looks mighty impressive today. Should they keep it and preserve it? Depends on you viewpoint I guess, if your nostalgic and remember it flying at what seemed a 100ft above your head and could remember the roar of the engines in your ears weeks after it had flown past, then yes it should be kept... British engineering and design in it's hey day and at it's best.... Now we just get excited about the next cyclonic hoover to hit the market..

You know..... when you said Vulcan.... very tricky you are.

History is what makes us who we are. Its a part of us. I think that things that come from our past should be looked after, because they remind us of events that happened. its just a pity they can't keep it flying. It was what it was built for after all.

Whilst strolling along the prom at Shoreham-by-Sea on the south coast a couple of months ago, we stopped in our tracks as we suddenly heard the distant roar of a mighty engine, and it was heading our way. The other half recognised it to be the Vulcan just from the noise. We think it may have taken off at Eastbourne, but felt most privileged to witness this display.

Of course it should be kept alive. I felt the same when I heard this news about the Harriers, these were my favourite at the Biggin Hill air shows.

It's great that we do preserve a lot of things, Steam Railways, things like the Black Country Museum etc, but I suppose it's the huge physical cost with complex technical expertise needed for older aircraft, particularly former military aircraft.

It's a shame we don't have something like the Commemorative Airforce (used to be called the Confederate Airforce) in the UK, as they do in the States.

It's great that the MOD fund the Battle of Britain Flight, and I hope they continue to do so, but there are so many superb aircraft around, wouldn't it be great if we could still see a Lightning, Phantom, Harrier or even Concorde at Airshows around the country. I think there were all sorts of red tape obstacles as well for privately owned jet aircraft.

The largest operator of ex military jets was Thunder City Aircraft based in South Africa, who flew Buccaneers, Lightnings, Hunters, but have just ceased flying after a tragic crash and also blame the recession.

All their aircraft are now up for sale, so hopefully someone will buy them and keep them flying...

Haha, you can get your c'van in my drive if it's not a big one!

Apart from any test flights, which can leave you sitting around for hours and then still aborted, it will be next year before any scheduled flights take off.

But if you're ever up this way let me know, you can actually go into the hangar and stand underneath her, take pics, talk to the chief engineer, etc. He keeps telling me to pop over for a coffee but sod's law i've been so busy this year. Can't complain in a recession though.