You may have seen on the TV News that a British icon of the Cold War has taken to the skies again after 13 years.

XH558, first flown in 1960 is an Avro Vulcan B.2 nuclear bomber. The aircraft is unusual in that it is a large (about the size of a Boeing 737) tailless ‘delta’ design. It’s four Bristol Siddeley Olympus turbojets are well remembered from airshows where they produced their unmistakably loud sound.

XH558 was finally retired from display flights in 1992 and was delivered to Bruntingthorpe aerodrome in Leicestershire the following year. There, with the help of many public donations and the Heritage Lottery Fund, she has been restored to airworthiness culminating in her first test flight on 18th October 2007.

Here we have a video of her return to flight. She makes a noisy and swift takeoff due to her reduced weight; the heavy military avionics and system have been removed and replaced with a modern avionics suite suited to her new display role.

Almost immediately after takeoff, XH558 seemed to be throttled back, this presumably to avoid overspeeding the still deployed undercarriage. I’m informed the undercarriage was retracted later in the flight but I would expect the flight crew were working through operations in stages for the purposes of testing.

It’s great to see a Vulcan flying again, after some more test flights, XH558 is expected to join the display circuit in 2008.

A good description of the return to flight can be found over at Thunder and Lightnings

The Vulcan Operating Company website is here.

On a personal note: When the flight restoration effort began nearly ten years ago, I was extremely enthusiastic about it. Now, while my enthusiasm remains, I feel there is a cruel irony in that while we can return this one British built aircraft to flight, this country no longer has an extensive aviation industry. Indeed, the majority of the industry that once made us great and produced this aircraft domestically is now gone.