Vulcan roars again

Wellesbourne’s iconic Vulcan bomber roared into life again on 17th July as all four engines were fired up.

The aircraft, which draws crowds of visitors to Wellesbourne Airfield, is carefully looked after by the XM655 Maintenance and Preservation Society, with volunteers regularly at the site.

It’s been five years since the Cold War bomber last performed a high speed taxi run at Wellesbourne, but according to Wing Commander Mike Pollitt, chairman of the society, the famous aircraft is in good condition and ready to get up to speed on the runway at some point soon.

Mike said: “She’s in good shape, we started her up around four weeks ago too but she had a bit of a fuel leak so we had to drop engine three out and make repairs to a fuel line. On Saturday though everything went very well, hopefully I might be able to test it on a high speed taxi run in August, though that won’t be a public event.

“What we’re really looking forward to is welcoming back the car clubs who visit us, these will be starting towards the end of the month and we give them what’s called a system demonstration, so the lights come on, the bomb doors are opened, all that kind of thing.

“It’s just great to have her running again.”