Armed Forces Day - V Force Last Salute

[cessna152towser]

Today was Armed Forces Day and an occasion to wear my Royal Air Force tartan kilt and cross the border into England for an event at Carlisle Airport where I do some volunteering at the aviation museum.

Our museum is custodian of the airport gate guardian, Vulcan bomber XJ823 which entered service in 1961 and landed here in January 1983 when it was stood down from service. This plane was a standby for the Falklands campaign having been based on Ascension Island for a time during 1982.

My wife got to meet Flight Lieutenant Frank Hilton, RAF retired, who flew XJ823 while based at Akrotiri, Cyprus from 1969 to 1972.

She also met Flight Lieutenant Bob Wright, RAF retired, who was radar operator and bomb aimer on Black Buck mission 1 with Vulcan XM607 which bombed the runway at Port Stanley on 1st May 1982 during the Argentine occupation of the Falkland Islands.


The V force comprising the Vulcan, Victor and Valiant were retired from active service thirty years ago, and the few flyable survivors have only been flown for display purposes in recent years. Now airframe fatigue life is catching up and the people who knew how to fly and to maintain the V-bombers are reaching retiral age, so the last airworthy V-bomber, Vulcan XH558 is about to be grounded for ever at the end of this season. XH558 gave us a display today as a last salute to her sister aircraft which have donated parts to keep her flying.

It was an emotional moment when XH558 made her final flypast and climbed away to the south. Almost certainly the very last time I will ever see one of Britain's famous V-bombers in flight.

The Sea King RAF Air Sea Rescue helicopter also paid us a visit, another type which is soon to retire from service.

The Lotus car club put on an excellent display.

The Vulcan might fly no more but you can still enjoy virtual Vulcan flying thanks to the Flightsim ladies in the air museum.