Vulcan's hits high speed for first time in five years

Wellesbourne’s world-famous XM655 Vulcan bomber performed its first high-speed taxi run for five years last weekend, wowing onlookers at the airfield.

Wing Commander Mike Politt said: “The aircraft performed fantastically on Sunday, she’s in great shape, it went flawlessly. It’s been five years since the last high-speed taxi, and there were certainly a few people in the café and on the airfield pleased to see her running.

“She may have been brilliant, but operating on a 2,000ft runway might not have been great for my blood pressure!

“The team have done a great job with all the electrical systems, all four engines ran well and we got the front wheel off the ground, it couldn’t have gone better.

“Our engineers have worked so hard during the pandemic and we’ve had a couple of 80-year-olds painting the aircraft. The paint should last ten years, but doing the whole aircraft is not a quick job, it’s not like doing your front room, it takes about two years to do everything.

“We are planning to do another high-speed taxi this year, I don’t think we will be running a Wings and Wheels in 2022, but we anticipate getting the Vulcan running maybe three times in the year in front of members and 100-200 invited guests.”

The sight of the Vulcan running again attracted attention on social media on Sunday with many excited to hear the engines roaring into life.