Vulcan XH558

I live in Grantham and I certainly didn't see anything like that - everytime she flew over, it was a normal straight and level transit flight to/from somewhere more interesting.

However, there is one issue I will take with your post.... Grantham....a major conurbation......come on!!

 

Agree with you that I am sceptical - if it happened, there would be more than one single shaky film to prove it: these days just about everyone has a film camera in their hand (a.k.a. a phone) and a significant number would have filmed it. Even if they only did so for their own enjoyment, more footage would have emerged by now had it happened.

Tom

 

I'm sure the media would have been awash with reports and grainy pics if the Vulcan had really been rolled but we will have to see what the investigation reveals.

 

Yes Vulcans can (could) roll but your video clip is from some years ago and is of one with the original wing design.

 

The modified wing on the B2 would not prevent it from performing a roll of the pilots were minded so to do.

 

I have read this as less that a Vulcan cannot roll, more that perhaps she shouldn't be....

 

Properl executed, a barrel roll puts little strain in an airframe and certainly much less than '558 would have experienced during her days in the low level strike role.

 

Be nice to think it had - came into the world with a ticking off for rolling, and potentially leaving it again with a ticking off for the same manoeuvre!

The news bite doesn't give the impression the CAA are loosing too much sleep about it either - comments that the current aerobatic 'ban' is primarily intended for public airshow displays, which the alleged incident wasn't, together with the CAA stating that it's a "benign" manoeuvre and confirming that the aircraft is/was safe for such a thing tend to suggest they're paving the way to slap wrists for doing something they weren't authorised for, but at the same time the aircraft was capable of doing safely, and which technically didn't infringe the current airshow aerobatic restrictions.

If confirmed I guess the greatest fuss would be from the thousands of enthusastics who didn't get the opportunity to witness it first hand for themselves!
Advertise that in advance and there'd have been gridlock on the roads for miles around! Lol.

 

One aviation forum I'm on is alive with ridiculous posts about this. Many condemning the pilots for bringing about the end of the world as we know it and each one trying to be more outraged than anyone else. All born out of jealousy that they didn't see it IMO and they are the same people as applauded Kev Rumens for that takeoff at RIAT on the Saturday.

 

Is it me or have the BBC been on a bit of a crusade about vintage jets since Shoreham?

Steven

 

Personally I'm a bit of a sceptic, as others in the thread have already stated.

This is 2015, not the mid 90's. We have streamed live HD, there's no need for a butchered highly compressed low frame rate video clip. The sky in the background changes tone between frames, and the aircraft hops about with size shifting - just what was used to record it?!

Up until the end the aircraft would take off straight into a steep climb before swinging the wings vertically at 90 degrees and banking round sharply - all of which with CAA blessing. Even during the last flight the great unwashed online were posting comments asking not only for personal flypasts over their coffee table, but also for it to do a roll on the final flight. I'm also suspicious why when the alleged incident occurred a month ago, that it only becomes known about a week after the aircraft is grounded?!

It seems on a lot of the flights the pilots were joined in the cockpit by GoPro style video cameras, so if this was the case on that flight then it shouldn't be too difficult for the Trust to provide onboard evidence to show just what did occur during that flight.

 

A typically British ticking off too. Roly Falk was admonished as a roll was "unbecoming of a bomber." Tell that the the Bomber Command boys who corkscrewed their heavies in desperate attempts to throw night fighters of the track.

 

One suspects the "ticking off" was administered by a senior ex-fighter pilot, not because rolling was "unbecoming of a bomber", but because the fighter boys were somewhat embarrassed about a bomber having that level of performance!

Tom

 

Unlike other bombers the Vulcan was fitted with a fighter like "joy stick." At high altitude that big delta wing generated so much lift that she could out turn a fighter quite easily.

 

It's major compared to where I live.

 

The only jet plane I like is the Vulcan, first saw it in the Prestwick Air Show in the sixties. I won a Goldfish that day and called it Vulcan!

 

Here's a letter in our local paper from someone else who saw the Vulcan. It seems to support those who doubt the claimed manoeuvre took place.

http://www.granthamjournal.co.uk/ne...er-nothing-unusual-about-the-vulcan-1-7053998

 

Guy Martin's Last Flight of the Vulcan Bomber' airs Sunday 29th November on Channel 4 at 19.30 hrs

 

If anyone missed this brilliant programme tonight I highly recommend watching it. Fascinating history of Vulcan bomber's and a fitting send off for XH558.
It's repeated on Friday at 7.30pm on 4seven.