There are hopes that one of the Cold War’s most iconic military aircraft, the Avro Vulcan will make a flight over London in 2012 for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee – but the flight is under threat due to a lack of money.

There are a few planes in various states of restoration, and a couple of years ago, one of them was able to make its “maiden flight” as a fully restored plane. However, the charity that maintains it is now in financial problems and may have to mothball the plane.

Photo courtesy of Vulcan to the Sky Trust

With realistically, just a eighteen months to go before the plane has to be confirmed to be part of the fly past over London, the timing is an appalling blow to the charity.

With under £200,000 raised since November against a goal of £800,000, the Trust needs to raise over £300,000 in new pledges by the end of February to justify a stay of execution, followed by a further £300,000 in pledges by the end of March.

At this moment (24th Feb), they have just a few days left to raise the remaining £100,000 needed to stop the shut-down.

At the moment, they are just seeking pledges to donate, not actual cash – so you don’t even need to get your wallet out. Just click a link and fill in the form, or you can make a cash donation right now.

The Vulcan XH558 is the only flying Vulcan in the world, and is also the oldest complete Vulcan anywhere: her first ever test flight was on 25th May 1960, so 2010 is her 50th Anniversary year.

As a fund-raiser, the charity it attempting to set a world record by getting the most signatures on a 50th birthday card, and you can add your name here.

Although it looks like a fighter jet sized plane in the video, it is actually a very big bomber – with a wingspan of 99 feet, about half the width of a football field.

Photo courtesty of Vulcan to the Sky Trust

If you want to see a Vulcan bomber up close, there is one in the RAF Museum in North London – with slightly amusingly – the bomber bay in the plane having been converted into a mini-cinema showing an educational film about the plane. That plane is grounded, but if you want to see one in the air again – click here to pledge a donation.

To add an element of topicality to the blog posting – it should be remembered that it was the Vulcan bombers that made the then record breaking flight from the UK to the Falkland Islands to bomb Port Stanley Airport. With the Falklands back in the news again, you never know, they might need that last remaining Vulcan to be called back into service again!

The infamous (amongst tunnel/military aficionados) tunnels under Chancery Lane are to be put up for sale at last. I have been aware that BT were working on decommissioning them for some time, and was trying to find out who was handling the sale – only for them to put out a press release about the sale today.

I have a serious business idea for the tunnels – which do not (alas) involve turning them into a tourist attraction – but the current economic turmoil in the city makes that less viable, but not totally silly. Most of the deep level tunnels which were emptied out have been converted into secure document storage facilities, but my business plan was a bit more techie.

Anyhow – now that the tunnels have been cleared out of the secret stuff we can’t see, such as the claimed section occupied by the security services for a while, it will be interesting to see if BT let people go down for public tours during the disposal process.

Weblinks:

BT press release

Sub Brit report