WHARFEDALE TR's & FRIENDS VISIT THE VULCAN BOMBER 22nd SEPTEMBER 2024
On Sunday 22nd September Wharfedale along with a few friends from East Riding, Vale of York and White Rose Groups visited the Vulcan Bomber at what used to be Doncaster Sheffield Airport, formerly RAF Finningley.
We had visited in 2015 when she was still flying, and at that time she was stored in a hanger. Sadly, for the last few years she has had to be stored outside, which isn’t good. We all know what happens to classic cars that are stored outside......
It was mixed group of some 30 or so cars, with 17 of them being TR's. We met at the Vulcan Trust Office / Unit on the airfield site for signing in and coffee etc. Before we were taken in convoy to the aircraft.
The future of the Vulcan has been in some doubt over the past few years, with the prospect of the aircraft having to be moved off the site there was talk of having to sympathetically cut her up to get her off the site. How on earth you would undertake that is completely unknown, and would have been a nightmare.
Fortunately, with the recent news of activity to re-open the site as a functioning airport, Doncaster Council have signed a 125 year lease on the site and is actively undertaking feasibility studies and talking to interested parties in an effort to plan a re opening. With all this going on the Vulcan’s future at DSA is looking much brighter, but they need to find a way to store her under cover.
When we visited in 2015, because the aircraft was still flying you weren’t allowed in the cockpit, now, because she is grounded cockpit visits were included.
What a place that was, well, I say place, a broom cupboard is bigger. With a crew of 5, pilot, Co pilot, Navigator, Electronics Operator and Radar Operator, it is tight.
Plenty going on in here, ooeer.
The cockpit is on 2 levels, the Pilots sitting in a slightly higher position to the others. The pilots are the only crew members to have the luxury of ejector seats, the other 3 only have parachutes and must take their chances by dropping out of the entry hatch if anything goes wrong. Not a good situation.
I suppose the most mind blowing piece of information is that the Vulcan was designed by Roy Chadwick. The same guy who designed the Lancaster Bomber, the mind blowing bit is was only 11 years later.
A great visit, a classic piece of aviation history. Magnificent.
Ian Meeson