XH558 WILL fly again!!

eh? 2 letters and 3 numbers?! What's he on about?

Well.... XH558 was the first Avro Vulcan Mk2 to enter RAF service, and in 1993, was the last Vulcan bomber to ever fly when she landed at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground in Leicestershire.

The 'Tin Triangle' as she was known was the only 4-engined delta bomber ever to enter service, and could out-turn ANY fighter at 50,000 ft thanks to her 111 ft wingspan and powered elevons.

Only ever called to action weeks before retirement in 1982, Operation Black Buck 1 was assigned the task of flying from Ascension Island in the middle fo the Atlantic, flying across the ocean to bomb Port Stanley's runway, stopping Argentians fighters from deploying there. At the time, this was the longest ever bombing mission, lasting over 14 hours each. The B-52s subsequently broke the record in 1991.

After her retirement in 1984, vulcans XL426 (now at Southend) and later XH558 were chosen as public display aircraft, where she remained a crowd favourite until 1993, when the RAF claimed no money was available to do a 'Major' service (full strip-down and re-build job).

2 weeks ago, the restorers of '558 found increased costs required £1.2M before the end of the month. This was achieved with ~ £600,000 of public donations and a very generous 1/2 million pounds from the former Chairman of Wolves Football Club. This means she will fly in time for the Falklands 25th anniversary flypast over Buckingham Palace next year.

Here's a picture of the Delta Lady: