Seems sad to think it can't fly anymore, but the thought of losing one is probably worse
Guy Martin: Last flight of the Vulcan. Channel 4. What a brilliant piece of engineering, so complex, the thought of what these war machines were designed for and the death and destruction they can cause is horriffic but it cannot detract from the graceful beauty of seeing this great aircraft fly.
The one on the ground at Solway Air Museum is definitely one to have a look round! You can get a good feeling of the space in the cockpit when you're trying to get out of it!!
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Originally posted by owelly
The one on the ground at Solway Air Museum is definitely one to have a look round! You can get a good feeling of the space in the cockpit when you're trying to get out of it!!
Amazing bit of TV, what a machine and how old it is!
Seems sad to think it can't fly anymore, but the thought of losing one is probably worse
Great program. I know there's a certain amount of artistic licence about these programs but it has to "tell a story" and be dumbed down
a bit to appeal to the non-engineering savvy public. Think this balanced it quite well.
Love the bit about the under-carriage problem and the RAF "scrambled" a spitfire to have a look.
Damn it I missed it! I hope I can get it on the catch up thing!
I thought the ending was a bit confusing, it made it seem like the north and south tours were the last flights which they weren't! Other than
that worth watching 
quote:
Originally posted by Adamirish
Damn it I missed it! I hope I can get it on the catch up thing!
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Originally posted by peter030371
I thought the ending was a bit confusing, it made it seem like the north and south tours were the last flights which they weren't! Other than that worth watching
quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
quote:
Originally posted by Adamirish
Damn it I missed it! I hope I can get it on the catch up thing!
Don't bother with the on-line catchup thing - I just tried it, and got the message "we won't show videos while you've got ad-blocking on". Fair enough, I won't watch their videos then. Their loss, not mine.
The programme's repeated on Channel4-7 on Friday.
Fascinating programme and wasn't GM the luckiest person being allowed to taxi it?
Three interesting facts - 1) didn't realise that the crew were as good as dead if the pilots bailed out using their ejector seats.
2) Seemingly the main reason for it being grounded is lack of fail-safe systems i.e no back-up system if one fails.
H&S must have been having a field day on that one in recent years.
3) Never realised quite how touch and go the whole Falklands bombing was in terms of it being a near suicide mission!
I was lucky enough to see it flying at Dunsfold in the summer - mighty impressive.
Cheers, Pewe10
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Originally posted by pewe
3) Never realised quite how touch and go the whole Falklands bombing was in terms of it being a near suicide mission!
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Cheers, Pewe10
quote:
Originally posted by pewe
Fascinating programme and wasn't GM the luckiest person being allowed to taxi it?
Three interesting facts - 1) didn't realise that the crew were as good as dead if the pilots bailed out using their ejector seats.
2) Seemingly the main reason for it being grounded is lack of fail-safe systems i.e no back-up system if one fails.
H&S must have been having a field day on that one in recent years.
3) Never realised quite how touch and go the whole Falklands bombing was in terms of it being a near suicide mission!
I was lucky enough to see it flying at Dunsfold in the summer - mighty impressive.
Cheers, Pewe10
Was also about to suggest the book Vulcan 607.
Watching now and next line down under the flight log with red "Mayday" annotations it says Machrehanish which will not have any relevance to
most but I made a film about it mid 90's as there is one of the longest runways in the UK there.
It was not sold off as I recall ( no peace time use apart from some Scotish islands traffic and private jets of the glitterati flying from the states
to play on the links) but I understand it may be considered for a space port.
Alan Bond, Reaction engines, gas turbine/ rocket engine hybrid "Sabre" Hypersonic
He didn't taxi the flying Vulcan - it wasn't made very clear, but it he taxied a different one, XM655, at Wellesbourne.
The rear crew would have been OK (or at least have a better chance) at medium of high level. It was at low level, which it was never designed for,
that they were less likely to survive - the real crippler was having the gear down, as the nose wheel is immediately behind the exit door.
The main reason it being grounded is the aviation companies' reluctance to maintain their support, which was a pre-requisite for the CAA - more
here: http://www.vulcantothesky.org/history/end-of-flight-2.html
The mission wasn't so much a suicide mission - they only realised that it was going wrong once they were past the point of no return. With all
the bombs on board, and refuelling to max, the Vulcan was above its max weight for enough time to use more fuel than expected. Even the last tankers
were not going to have enough fuel to get back to Ascension but for the quick thinking of the first tankers to return. They realised what was
happening and re-launched some of the tankers to get the last tankers back, as well as moving the planned post-target RV for the Vulcan further south.
There would have been an option to divert to Brazil, which one of the later missions had to do.
Edited to remove my suggestion about the book Vulcan 607 which has now been mentioned elsewhere while I was typing - but it is a good book!
[Edited on 30/11/15 by geoff shep]