Could this spell the end for the Vulcan?

[SkippyBing]

When I took my daughter "home" to London for her first visit a few years ago she was amazed at how polite everyone was. We walked down a very crowded Oxford Street and anyone that even slightly brushed you said "sorry".

Ahh Oxford street, not actual Londoners then. Whenever I visit my sister in London it normally takes about half an hour on public transport before I want to kill someone, starting with the bus driver and working my way down the aisle. Unfortunately it's an hour and a half on public transport to either airport from her flat which really gets me set up for check in....

[airboatr]

....my sinuses would like to thank you for the coffee bath...

I don't mean to make fun of any emotional pain though ....
but I was thinking ....it wouldn't be long before you met a nice person you were able to
converse with. .....then read a few words into the next line...kill

:o coughcough hak

now I feal like I been in the water all day.

[nigelb]

When I took my daughter "home" to London for her first visit a few years ago she was amazed at how polite everyone was. We walked down a very crowded Oxford Street and anyone that even slightly brushed you said "sorry".

Ahh Oxford street, not actual Londoners then.

Well, it was around Christmas and we went to see the decorations. While many of the crowd were tourists like us ( although I suppose I can claim not to be a tourist in my own birthplace) there were some actual Londoners around - I can tell one of the many London accents when I hear it. Besides she noticed the politeness all over the UK, not just in London.

[Pielstick]

Over the Christmas period my Serbian girlfriend visited the UK for the first time. We went to London several times...

She commented to me about how few *BRITISH* people she saw in London, how she could hear just about every language being spoken except English.

I was born in London, and lived there until I was 11 years old when my family moved to Kent. I used to go back to visit family quite often. The last member of my family to remain in London was my grandmother, who died in 2003. I haven't been back to Fulham since then. I went there last month with my girlfriend to show her my old house, my school, all the places of importance to my family... I was saddened to walk the streets and see that British culture and identity has been almost completely erased from the place where I grew up.

What to do? Mention these things to a lot of people and they will call you a racist :roll:

It's just very sad As my now ageing Mum often says... if her father and his generation who fought a war for this country could come back and see what it has become :-(

Anyway, as for the Vulcan...

I read an article in one of the aviation mags a couple of months ago, they had an interview with the Chief Executive of TVOC and he said events have conspired against the Vulcan. They really hoped that high profile displays over the summer would result in a commercial sponsor coming forward with the cash to keep the Vulcan flying. The appalling weather over the summer prevented the Vulcan displaying as much as they would have liked, and obviously resulted in the Vulcan having a lower profile than they would have liked. Now the current economic situation means many businesses are tightening their belts and it's going to be extremely difficult to find a commercial sponsor.

If it goes to the US then it would be very sad for everyone who worked so hard to get the Vulcan flying again, but given the choice between an airworthy Vulcan in the US or no airworthy Vulcan at all....

Anyway, with hindsight I think returning the Vulcan to the skies again was an extremely ambitious and risky project, maybe too ambitious.

[Hot_Charlie]

Surely the terms of the agreement that allowed HLF funding, which IIRC stated that at the end of it's flying life the aircraft was planned (oddly) to be retired to IWM Duxford (as they already have one).

Surely even if the flying life is to end prematurely, this must still apply. Sounds like another ploy to plea for funds.

Great project, but just took 5 or 6 years too long to get moving (which wasn't anybody's fault, due to the hurdles that had to be crossed in the 90s).

[forthbridge]

Can't help but agree with most of what's been said. Something else that really gets my goat is the issue of lottery funding. In so many cases, the "good causes" seem to be, actually, projects for people with that interest - and of dubious benefit to the public at large (which is surely what it's all supposed to be about).... now, I'm not putting the Vulcan into that category, but, suspect lottery awards aside, given that TVOC has had lottery cash, it surely would be money WELL spent by the lottery to pump a little cash in even if it's to allow safe storage and maintenance of the Vulcan for a period to 'weather the economy' so to speak? After all, the target mentioned by TVOC (As far as I can fathom) seems to be for a 'period' only - or, does it actually secure the long term future of the aircraft? If not, then we are looking at the same thing again next year.... and this is what gets me - for a mere fraction of a fraction of lottery awards, a 'foothold' could surely be given to the Vulcan, whereas, if it does go overseas, then the original award has basically been completely thrown away.

[Chris558]

558's plight appeared on ITV news this evening. We're very nearly up to £600K!! PLEDGE PLEDGE PLEDGE!!!!!

[DaveB]

Yup.. saw it! They reported that if half a mil isn't found by the end of the week, then that's it. If they're nearly at 600k.. surely they've done it.. for this week at least (and don't call me Shirley) :think:
Or put another way.. do they need a million by the end of the week??
ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Techy111]

Shirley you cannot be serious Dave....er Shirley......400k in a week...???

Would 600k not keep them going til they get it...?

Tony

[Chris558]

Well guys, apparently they only need to get up to £850K (at least) by 6pm Friday.

In just 3 hours tonight, £16,000 has been pledged!!! :o I (managed) to work out that only just over half that ammount in 3 hours needs to be pledged to get up to the £850K

It's now at £615K, so I'm pretty confident