Henry VIII was massive. Henry V was a short arse.

Incredible aircraft; not only in that it’s a feat of engineering, but also that it’s such a historical one too – there are few aircraft that did so much to keep us safe yet no one ever knew.

I’m reading the book Vulcan 607 and it just shows how incredible British guile, knowledge and ingenuity helped to pull off an impossible operation; simply mind boggling how the logistics worked to get them from Ascension to the Falklands and back.

Emzs, as entitled as you are to your opinion, it cannot be dismissed that without military technology, development and budgets, we would simply not be where we are now in terms of human technology. Without these planes, helping to keep us safe, and without the guys who quite simply broke the mould in terms of development, we would not be enjoying the delights of hydroforming for our tubes on our bike frames, we would not have titanium tubing at a reasonable cost and there certainly would be no carbon technology. I could go on, but I won’t.

From my perspective however, many of us have relatives who developed these machines; aircraft many of which could be argued to have characters due to the handmade nature of them, some flying with certain characteristics, some with the need to be given a thrashing to get the most of – this leads many of us into a personal attachment to the aircraft and the emotional connection. To see the Vulcan or the Concorde or even the SR-71 be decommissioned breaks many hearts, and for XH558 to be flown today from donations warms the cockles mightily.

I would hugley love to see a Concorde fly again, as would I like to see a SR-71, both accelerating full tilt and showing us just how amazing the guys engineering these things in the 50’s were.

Yes. The 1950’s. And yet, we still can’t build anything comparative…

Ermm…it did two loops over Stafford yesterday, low-ish and very slow but spectacularly loud. Did no one else see it?

Love the vulcan and remember seeing the SR71 fly.

We lived close to Farnborough and after the airshow.. 1980ish I would guess was sitting in the bag garden on the sunday afternoon & the SR71 headed back to the US – it was at Farnborough but parked on the far side of the airfield so difficult to see – we heard it and when we looked up it was at an angle of about 70% and just kept going up at that angle until it disappeared from view.
Stunning

Check out this excellent site including the sad story of the TSR2.

we heard it and when we looked up it was at an angle of about 70% and just kept going up at that angle until it disappeared from view.
Stunning

When I was at school, I was lucky enough, with about 5 other classmates, to be taken on a trip to RAF Mildenhall by a couple of our teachers to see the SR-71. Just as we arrived, we saw a Blackbird take off just as you described, amazing sight.
Although we were happy to have seen one in flight, we were all slightly disappointed thinking we wouldn’t get to see one close up, but we were taken into a hanger where another one sat, I can remember when walking underneath it really wanting to touch it but being too scared!

I saw an SR71 do a fly past and light up the re-heat at Duxford Airshow in the 80s. Very impressive.

The best thing I was was at St Mawgan in about 1980. The Red Arrows had just done their thing and a couple of F-104s had buzzed the crowd at a million miles an hour. Next up were a pair of USAF A-10s. They slowly rumbled down the runway and lifted off, then the pair of them rolled through 360° when they were only a few feet off the ground and side by side before clearing off into the distance at a stupidly low height. I bet the pilots were pissing themselves. Not sure they would be allowed to do it today.

Now, the A-10 was a great example of function over form. Uglier than an ugly thing.

any aviation enthusiasts may enjoy this:

http://www.econrates.com/reality/schul.html

As a kid my favourite treat for my birthday was to go to airshows like Farnbrough and Fairford.

The highlights were always the Vulcan, Lightening, A10 and seeing the Blackbird which was at the time an aircraft I held in total awe.

Saw the Vulcan at the Windermere airshow last year – there is simply nothing to compare it to – awesome.

Bristol Pablo, that and many MANY great stories like that are told by Brian Schul in his most excellent book ‘The Sled Driver’.

Good luck searching one out, I managed to blag one for about £70 second hand off eBay – they’re truly collectors items, but oh so worth it. So many gems in there, including little known facts about the aircraft.

‘The Skunk Works’ book by Ben R Rich is also a very very good read and takes you through just how the managed to come up with the U2, SR-71 and ultimately the F-117 Night Hawk bomber.

It’s not what it was designed to do that’s important

Sorry, but that’s just rubbish isn’t it? You can wrap it up any way you like, but these things have one job, and that’s killing people. I wonder if the people in Afghanistan and Pakistan appreciate the design of those drones that drop bombs on them from miles away, or those helicopters that look like something from a terminator film.

How about wrapping it up under this:

The sheer abomination of the concept of all-out nuclear war is probably the only thing that kept the cold war cold. As grim as it is, mutually assured destruction just about kept even the hottest of heads away from the red button. Without nuclear weapons, it’s debatable whether or not WWII would just have carried on between the USSR and the west. What is certain is that the nuclear bombs in Japan saved thousands and possibly millions of lives if a ground assault had to be mounted.

Pacifism is great, but only if everyone agrees. If they don’t, and you’ve just surrendered your country’s means of defence, you have a big problem.

So as much as I dislike the concept of a nuclear deterrent, it serves a purpose. And when it was designed, the Vulcan was a big part of it. Now I live in Australia, it’s blatantly apparent that there’s actually very little stopping China wandering over here and taking what they currently pay a lot for – our mineral wealth. Right now I doubt it’s much an issue, but it’s one that gets raised occasionally on current affairs shows. As China’s power rises, and the USA’s diminishes, this will become more of an issue.

general plane stuff: my favourite airshow experience was four F4 Phantoms taking off together at Fairford one year, they took off and banked right and we were stood just where they were banking right and could stare straight into the engines. Loud doesnt even begin to describe it. I was about 9 and my father was adamant that ear protectors were not necessary 🙂

F104 Starfighters were a favourite in the early 80s, i remember a few at Yeovilton Air Show coming in super fast and low, rumours were one went supersonic the early 90s were quite good too with mental Russian pilots in the Mig 29 and Sukhoi 27s. they could do some seriously cool aerobatics in those things with the moveable front ailerons.

At Farnborough last year the Dutch F16 pilot did his full display on afterburner, most likely for shits and giggles because the Typhoon was stealing the show display-wise and its all he had!

I used to live on the flight path out of Fairford and we could hear the B52s leaving in the night in the early 90s druing the first Gulf conflict. it was pretty weird knowing they were fully loaded becuase the engines were screaming.

finally, the F111s used to have new engines fitted at Filton and the last one to be completed took off, did a wide loop and came back through very fast and very low then put it on its tail and went straight up vertical, christ alone knows how much fuel he used doing that put it went as fast vertical as it did horizontal

Read some book recently about post-war British aviation. Had some good Vulcan stuff in it.

My favourite bit was the recounting of some joint exercise with the US, where the Vulcans were to take off from the UK, then play the part of the “baddies” attempting to penetrate US air-space. Now, obviously the Septics reckoned this was impossible and looked forward to showing the Limeys a thing or two.

The reality was that, other than one group which were a deliberate feint, the rest of the Vulcans successfully overflew their “targets” before landing undetected on the US eastern seaboard!

My favourite bit was the recounting of some joint exercise with the US, where the Vulcans were to take off from the UK, then play the part of the “baddies” attempting to penetrate US air-space. Now, obviously the Septics reckoned this was impossible and looked forward to showing the Limeys a thing or two.

The reality was that, other than one group which were a deliberate feint, the rest of the Vulcans successfully overflew their “targets” before landing undetected on the US eastern seaboard!

Plenty of stories of the SHar running rings around confused F-15 pilots on exercises too 🙂