Visited the old lady and the Vulcan Operating Company over the weekend and am able to post a brief update on their immediate and long term aims.

The first flight is anticipated to be in 3 to 4 weeks time (mid September) and will involve one circuit with the undercarriage down and land.

As the CAA regard 558 as an experimental aircraft now that c12,000lbs of equipment have been taken out, the first flight will piloted by a BAe test pilot (Al McDicken?).

She will fly approx 40hrs a year and perform at 10 airshows / events and these will be the successful 10 most highest bidders. It is not anticipated it will potentially not fly further than a Scottish show, and then only VMC.

The current engines comprise two unused engines and 2 refurbished, zero timed examples. At least four other brand new engines were pointed out by our guide.

The long term aim is to keep her flying for 10 years and obviously pilots will be introduced to the programme to retain currency etc.

Obviously, all these plans are determined by future sponsorship and continued support by the general public. Each stage of their plan will only advance when they are 100% certain all engineering and safety criteria have been met, they have come so far and don't want to rush things with their goal insight.

So all in all, great news.

Thanks to the staff and volunteers with the Vulcan Operating Company and especially, Kev 'The Mouse' Penfold for his time.

Good luck to them.......

thanks for the update - can't wait to see her flying again.

Latest update on the project. 

The Vulcan To The Sky Trust is in desperate need for £100,000 ($200,000) to fund the completion of the flight-test programme for Avro Vulcan XH558, which would enable the V-Bomber to participate in the 2008 air show season.

See more info on flightglobal.

I see that they are still struggling to raise the money. They needed £150,000 but looking at the recent donations they have only managed £40,000 of it. I think its about time the government stepped in with our tax payers money and bail them out! I am sure the British tax payers would rather see some of their taxes go to getting the Vulcan back into the sky rather than funding the likes of immigrants!

Come on the British Government get your hands in your pockets and spend some of our money wisely for once!  

Oh yes lets make sure she stays in the air as long as possible. Its about time the government put some money behind this project if only in recognition of all the time effort and fundraising that has occured up to now by so many individuals.

Lets keep the Iron Overcast up there!

Phew, looks like they've made it.

The £150,000 has been raised, but they still need £50,000 a month to roll in over the next four months to keep it going.

Also, they've now got the added help of 2Excel Aviation (Blades display team) in running the day to day operations etc.

Onwards and upwards. Hopefully we'll see the Delta Lady in the not too distant future.

Keep your eyes and ears peeled peeps. Latest news is that XH558 could be conducting test flights in the next couple of days out of Bruntingthorpe - weather permitting.

Looks like today's the day. XH558 is due at RAF Cottesmore between 1 and 3pm this afternoon, and is due back at Bruntingthorpe Wednesday.

Anybody in the area, enjoy the sight and sound.

Confirmed the Vulcan flys this afternoon, engines running now 13.09, also confirmed the above info from Dragon Lady, arrives back from Cottesmore on Wednesday...no times yet

 Confirming, XH558 is airborne and on its way to Cottesmore.

Great news! I'm sorry I'm not there to see her.

XH558 made it to Cottesmore, but as I just seen on East Midlands news it was with a scare. An APU fire warning light showed in the cockpit, so it landed more swiftly than anticipated. Thankfully it seems at the moment it was just the light at fault, but further checks will be carried out before the aircraft is deemed fully fit.

Well done everyone, good job.

Here she is taking off yesterday from Bruntingthorpe. Turn up the volume and enjoy!

Latest update, XH558 is due to depart Cottesmore around 2pm today, for another test flight and back to Bruntingthorpe, following a compass swing yesterday. 

Victor:

Here she is taking off yesterday from Bruntingthorpe. Turn up the volume and enjoy!

Great stuff Victor, thanks for putting it up for us. 

Agreed Batfink, Good work Victor(or should that be Steady hand Victor| )

Thanks chaps. It was hard to do with the wind and no tripod. Hopefully i should get the first flight from October on in the next few days, but i was not as close as this time as i was on top of the control tower.

For those who can't get there, i have just heard on BBC News 24 that they are showing the flight live (weather permitting)  

 Unfortunately I'll be in the office then, I don't imagine they'd stream it live on the web?

I hope they are there due to a genuine interest and arent just going to be there hoping that something will go wrong with it, following the incident the other day! I just dont trust these news people. I was reading an article before from some Rutland newspaper going on about all the fire crews called to Cottesmore the other day. They were saying that firecrews from Lutterworth were called to Cottesmore! They would have covered Bruntingthorpe in case it came back there! I wont put a link in here as they dont deserve people viewing their web site!

Lets hope for a successful flight and landing back at Bruntingthorpe today.

 I've just seen it land on BBC, there seems to be a landing gear problem, nothing significant apparently but a procaution. I guess it's good to get these things sorted out now!

It's starboard main undercarriage door stayed open, so they cancelled the test flight and just flew back to Bruntingthorpe.