The Vulcan Bomber is arguably the world's greatest aircraft, and a piece of British history. "Delta Lady" XH558 is a show stopper, and with the famous howl, no-one can mistake it. This blog is for all Vulcan fans to enjoy and interact with, and efforts are now underway to get the Vulcan ready for the 2012 Display season. Find out how you can help achieve that aim...
Today sees the first part in a brief two part interview with Mike Pollitt, Operations Director for the Vulcan to the Sky Trust...
TVB:It’s been a really successful season for the Vulcan to the Sky Team, what have been the highlights for you personally?
MP:Getting through the season safely was my greatest delight. I was pleased that we had spiced the display up a little this year and loved the spiral climb ending to the show too. I have been delighted with our serviceability throughout the season (thanks to Taff and the engineering team). I was also delighted by the response from the great British public ranging from a couple who we overflew on their 50th wedding anniversary who were simply overjoyed - to the rapturous reactions of the crowd at the big shows such as Lowestoft and Fairford.
TVB:2009 saw a couple of fly bys with the Red Arrows and also Typhoons, are there any plans to vary the entrance to displays for next years schedule?
MP: We also flew with Hunters, F16s and VC10s. Nothing in the pipeline for next year yet but we would like to arrive at a show with the Reds certainly.
TVB: The plans for the funding appeals for next year’s 50th celebrations have just been released, can you underline just how important it is for the Vulcan to be flying during those celebrations?
MP:It’s just important to keep her flying for as long as we can. Actually, to me, anniversaries are not important occasions, ask my wife! Just keeping the aircraft going is my driving ambition.
Coming up this week on the Vulcan Bomber Blog, I'm pleased to announce an interview with the Vulcan to the Sky Trust Operations Director, Mike Pollitt.
Mike joined the RAF back in 1974, and completed flying training on Jet Provosts, Hunters, before being posted to Phantoms, before moving on to the Vulcan Force in 1978.
Mike then completed his co-pilot tour in 1981, and qualified as Captain, followed by a 4 year spell at Cranfield, where he trained as an instructor on Jet Provosts.
Scampton was Mike's next destination as he was placed in command of the Squadron just after joining, where he had a heavy involvement in the introduction of the Tucano aircraft.
Following the retirement of XH558 in 1992, Mike returned to the Vulcan team in 1998, helping out with the taxi runs of 558 at Bruntingthorpe, and also XM655 at Wellesbourne, before then becoming the Operations Director of the Vulcan to the Sky Trust.
It's been a great season for Vulcan fans, and for the team itself, after a series of displays at venues up and down the UK, and even abroad too, although a difficult winter lies ahead, as Vulcan XH558's 50th Birthday Appeal has just been launched, where £800,000 is needed by spring - £400,000 of it by Christmas this year.
Mike has kindly agreed to answer just a few questions, giving his highlights of the season, his views on a potential farewell appearance for Woodford, and just how long he believes the Vulcan can remain in the sky.
The first of the two part interview starts tomorrow here on The Vulcan Bomber blog!
Today, at 2.00pm, we launch XH558’s 50th Birthday Appeal.
Through the money pledged by the public at the start of this year, we have proudly delivered on our commitment to bring XH558 back to the public this summer, in a hugely spectacular and wide-spread set of displays around the country.
In the meantime, we have made significant progress at reshaping our business plan so as to be far less dependent on one revenue stream. We have also looked at our costs for the coming year, based on the experience of the last twelve months and in the knowledge of what we need to do to keep XH558 flying into the future.
We now know that we need £2.4million to keep XH558 flying in displays for another year, and crucially to ensure that she can fly on for as many years as possible. We also have confidence where £1.6million of that amount is coming from over the year, leaving £800,000 to raise from public donations. Full details of how these costs and funding streams are built up are available on our Appeal website.
Now that we are entering the winter maintenance period, inevitably our cash reserves are dwindling rapidly. We need to generate immediate income over the next few weeks and months, to fund the Winter Service and critical modification work - work for which we have to pay up-front.
With an initial funding target of £400,000 by Christmas, and a further £400,000 after that, we hope to build a steady increase of regular standing orders, bringing further stability to our finances. These core tasks form the basis of our fresh appeal, with the vital goal of celebrating the Golden Anniversary of XH558’s first flight on 25th May 1960.
This time we are asking directly for donations, since we believe that we have proved that we make good on our commitments. Full details of the 50th Birthday Appeal and our 2010 budgets have been laid out within a dedicated Appeal site that will be clearly visible and active from 2pm. Forecast Income and Expenditure Charts are included, with historical data from this year, together with an extensive Question and Answer section.
Next week, we will start to mail out details to over 35,000 Members and Friends who have helped us in the past. We will include an Appeal Poster that we hope you will be able to place in a prominent place.
Our primary goal is to take our story out to the wider world and new audiences, who will be key to securing the many, many small donations we need.
There will be a widespread publicity campaign and other initiatives aimed at taking the project out to the wider public and corporate bodies. If you have not seen our Sponsorship Video, it is available here:
Over 2.5million people were thrilled by XH558 this summer, but only a fraction of those have helped keep her flying. We – you and the VTST team – need to bring many, many more people on board!
We will continue to provide regular updates throughout this new 50th Birthday Appeal Campaign, and hope you will find the time to fully explore all the aspects built into our future funding proposals. In turn, your support of the Appeal will be central to our success!
On behalf of all those who appreciate what XH558 is and what she stands for, many thanks for your continued support.
The latest update has been released from Robert Pleming:
Following what we expect to be XH558’s last sortie of 2009, we have been working hard to bottom out all the activities we need to carry out over the next few months, and crucially their costs, preparatory to explaining our plans for the next year to you all.
Very important decisions are being made concerning aircraft flying life management, with the objective of ensuring that we meet our commitments to fly the aircraft for as long as possible into the foreseeable future.
We have decided to bring forward work that we had intended to carry out during Winter 2010-11, and that of course brings forward the associated costs.
One of the big disappointments arising from our history of continually having to struggle for funds is that we are not given the usual commercial terms by our major suppliers: we have to pay for most technical, engineering and support costs at the start of the related activity, rather than at the end. Whilst providing comfort to our suppliers, this creates real timescale pressure on fund-raising, since we obviously then have to raise substantially all of the funds needed before the work can start.
Given our proven success at raising funds over time, what we could do with right now is a £500,000 line-of-credit or overdraft, but sadly, for us as a charity, this sort of facility is apparently not available from traditional banking sources.
As the result, we are now nearly ready to launch XH558’s 50th Birthday Appeal.
We are currently finalising the detailed explanation of our plans and the 50th Birthday Appeal that will be available from our web site, whilst also being sent out to all those for whom we have address information.
There will be an explanation of our situation, detailed income and expenditure analysis, whilst on the web site - a comprehensive set of Questions & Answers and regular updates of the Appeal progress, both by performance graphs and by weekly updates. If there are any queries, there will also be a facility to contact us and have those matters resolved.
Our official launch date is currently Friday 16th October. Once you have received this information, we hope you will understand the rationale behind our proposals and the 50th Birthday Appeal.
We estimate that only about 50,000 people have actually helped sustain XH558 over the past year, compared with over 2.5million who have enjoyed the sight and sound of her flying. We need your help to convert the remaining 2,450,000 from passive spectators to active supporters!
The Vulcan to the Sky team have released the video that they will hope will bring in some much needed sponsorship in the future, and in particular, next year, so that the Vulcan XH558 can fly in it's 50th year.
If it were to fail on that account, it would be a crying shame, as the look and sound of the Vulcan bomber is second to none, and certainly deserves to celebrate its 50th in style.
Please send this video link on to anyone you know who may be in a position to sponsor the Vulcan next year, it's fair to say that it's life depends on it.
The man behind the success in getting Vulcan XH558 back in to the skies of the UK and beyond has released his latest statement to members of the Vulcan to the Sky Club:
What a fantastic, spectacular summer XH558 has given us!
Last weekend saw the completion of a comprehensive and hugely successful season. Following an overflight of her birthplace at Woodford Aerodrome, XH558 flew an approach and overshoot at Manchester International Airport, before completing her last display of 2009 at Southport. If any further proof of the Vulcan Effect is needed, the official figures of the Southport audience were 32,000 on the Saturday – when XH558 did not display – compared to 70,000 on the Sunday when she did!
I’m sure you will all join me in sincerely thanking all those who have risen to the challenge of the last few months to ensure we have gained maximum exposure to the public, including our hard-working engineering and logistics team, the embedded Marshall Aerospace technicians, our air crew and of course, the numerous and totally dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers from the Vulcan to the Sky Club.
Special thanks must also go to all those who have contributed anything from a few pence upwards towards the on-going battle to finance this project.
Our audiences and the entirely positive feedback seen at shows, and exemplified in the Guest Book comments, are at the very heart of our new plans to build income streams that will see XH558 through another year of flying. My next update will be to announce the plans in some detail that we have put in place to raise the necessary finance for another year and then onwards into the future.
Central to our immediate funding will be recognition that May 2010 is the 50th anniversary of XH558’s first test flight following her roll-out from the manufacturing sheds at Woodford. Our 50th Birthday Appeal will be targeted at making sure we can cover the costs of the servicing and modifications that are needed over this winter period, to deliver us an airworthy XH558 in May. In short, we going after money for XH558’s BIG BIRTHDAY BASH!!!
This Appeal will include postal and electronic campaigns, dedicated pages on our web site and will be backed up by advertising features in newspapers and magazines. We have already touched over 2.5million people at the events we have visited in 2009. Only another 57.5 million to go! The more widespread we can make our story, the easier our task will be.
Meantime, let’s draw a little breath and thank one another for each playing our own vital part in this very exciting project. I hope the sight and sound of XH558 in the sky has made it all worthwhile for you this year.
We can, we should, we must do it all again.
With best wishes,
Robert Pleming
Chief Executive VTS Trust
So, with that, let's hope we can all celebrate the Vulcan's 50th birthday next year in style!!
Another great video lined up here for the Vulcan Display at Southport Airshow on Sunday, which was the final airshow of the year that the Delta Lady would be appearing at.
It was another great viewing of the Vulcan, and one complete with the Vulcan howl at the end of the display, plus it was a much longer display that the 2008 show, which was always going to be a good thing for the fans!
Thanks to 06Paull on Youtube who shot a great video from the front at Southport, and for mobile phone footage, this is extremely good, and gets a good sound from the Vulcan, music, and commentator too.
