The pictures you've been waiting for
Jul. 29th, 2008 09:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
major_clangerLike many of the vast crowd at Farnborough 2008 there was one entry on the flying display programme that was the real draw. Red Arrows? Good, but seen them many times before. Airbus A380? New and impressive, but at the end of the day it's a commercial airliner. No, I wanted to see a famous and iconic piece of British aviation history that last flew more than fifteen years ago until a dedicated group restored her and put her back in the air. In only her second public set of displays since being granted a licence a couple of weeks earlier, Avro Vulcan XH558 was due to fly.
During the earlier displays I'd watched as she was attended to by her groundcrew; eventually, as the scheduled display time approached, her lights came on, the engines started and she taxied away from the north dispersal down to the eastern end of the runway. The crowd behind me fell silent.
Then XH558 began her takeoff roll.
I'd seen a number of videos of earlier test flights on which you could hear the very distinctive 'induction howl' as the four Olympus engines reached full power, caused by air in the long intake ducts resonating as if in an organ tube. In real life, it's a deep, penetrating wail that leaves you in no doubt that something very, very powerful is being unleashed.
And then she passes you, and you get the noise coming out the other end of the Olympuses. The Vulcan's engines aren't fitted with afterburners, but they sound as if they are; being pure turbojets, they produce a supersonic exhaust that tears through the surrounding air with a cascade of crackling shock waves.
In a staggeringly short distance, she rotates and doesn't so much unstick as rip herself skywards.
As she climbed away, a patch of sun illuminated her gloss paint against the stormy backdrop.
There was a brief interlude with another display whilst our eardrums recovered and the Vulcan crew set up for their approach. Then, off to the west we saw a distinctive shape approaching.
Power on, she pulled up and left, giving a magnificent view of her distinctive delta planform.
Another pass, this time with the cavernous bomb bay open.
Then, a turn onto final approach with gear down and airbrakes out for landing.
Too big to use the north taxiway, XH558 turned around and taxied back up the runway to near-riotous applause.
As she turned off to the dispersal, she paused for a few minutes with her engines running. I took the opportunity to shoot a zoomed-in panorama which I've stitched together to make a single 9,000-pixel-wide image. Click and select 'All Sizes' and 'Original' for the full detail.
Congratulations to the Vulcan to the Skies Trust for the incredible achievement of getting XH558 back in the air again. I hear that they are starting to add more display venues to their programme over the summer (hopefully the idea of doing two displays during the trade days at Farnborough brought in some corporate sponsorship) so she may be coming soon to an airfield near you.
During the earlier displays I'd watched as she was attended to by her groundcrew; eventually, as the scheduled display time approached, her lights came on, the engines started and she taxied away from the north dispersal down to the eastern end of the runway. The crowd behind me fell silent.
Then XH558 began her takeoff roll.
I'd seen a number of videos of earlier test flights on which you could hear the very distinctive 'induction howl' as the four Olympus engines reached full power, caused by air in the long intake ducts resonating as if in an organ tube. In real life, it's a deep, penetrating wail that leaves you in no doubt that something very, very powerful is being unleashed.
And then she passes you, and you get the noise coming out the other end of the Olympuses. The Vulcan's engines aren't fitted with afterburners, but they sound as if they are; being pure turbojets, they produce a supersonic exhaust that tears through the surrounding air with a cascade of crackling shock waves.
In a staggeringly short distance, she rotates and doesn't so much unstick as rip herself skywards.
As she climbed away, a patch of sun illuminated her gloss paint against the stormy backdrop.
There was a brief interlude with another display whilst our eardrums recovered and the Vulcan crew set up for their approach. Then, off to the west we saw a distinctive shape approaching.
Power on, she pulled up and left, giving a magnificent view of her distinctive delta planform.
Another pass, this time with the cavernous bomb bay open.
Then, a turn onto final approach with gear down and airbrakes out for landing.
Too big to use the north taxiway, XH558 turned around and taxied back up the runway to near-riotous applause.
As she turned off to the dispersal, she paused for a few minutes with her engines running. I took the opportunity to shoot a zoomed-in panorama which I've stitched together to make a single 9,000-pixel-wide image. Click and select 'All Sizes' and 'Original' for the full detail.
Congratulations to the Vulcan to the Skies Trust for the incredible achievement of getting XH558 back in the air again. I hear that they are starting to add more display venues to their programme over the summer (hopefully the idea of doing two displays during the trade days at Farnborough brought in some corporate sponsorship) so she may be coming soon to an airfield near you.
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