Vulcan XH558 is reaching the end of her flying days and over the weekend she flew a couple of farewell fly past tours. I was able to stand on a grassy mound at Cosford in order to watch her fly by.

We heard her before we saw her because her approach was obscured by the Cold War Hangar. All of a sudden she popped out round the side of the building, tilted her wings towards the crowd and was gone…

Cosford was heaving so we went into one of the hangars to wait for the queues of traffic exiting the site to die down. We visited an art gallery which we were pleasantly suprised to find was exhibiting a different display than usual. It was an exhibition of art commemorating WWI so all the paintings were of WWI aircraft. We spent some time enjoying the paintings, of which there were several that I would happily hang on the walls in my home. By the time we had finished viewing them the traffic had eased and we were able to make our way home.

These photos are from a previous visit to Cosford when Vulcan XH558 treated us to an aerial display before heading off into the distance.

The weather was perfect for a visit to Cosford to watch Vulcan XH558 on one of its farewell flights. We allowed plenty of time to get to Cosford because I had a feeling the car parks would be fairly full. We had to queue to get in and cars were being squeezed onto every available grassy verge. The Vulcan’s pilot treated us to a spectacular ten minute air display where he banked sharply, climbed steeply and  impressed us with the noise of the Vulcan’s after burners. It was a treat to watch the world’s last flying Vulcan in one of its final flights.

After the flypast we decided to to go inside the hangars for a while until the queue of cars trying to leave the RAF museum calmed down. As I was looking at the WW1 aeroplane display, I heard one of the curators say that they hadn’t been expecting quite so many people and that the gates had had to be closed. When we went inside for a drink in the Refuel Restaurant we noticed it had run out of food. The visit wouldn’t have been complete if we hadn’t gone to see the Cosford Museum Vulcan in the Cold War Hangar; the Vulcan is a magnificent machine.

The Avro Vulcan is an iconic example of British aerospace engineering at its world-beating best. Its impressive list of technical achievements includes being the first successful large delta wing aircraft, leading directly to Concorde and the Space Shuttle, and delivering performance and agility so close to a jet fighter’s that it was given a fighter-style control column in place of the traditional bomber pilot’s yoke. Today that agility allows XH558 to deliver amazing air displays, which unfortunately must finish this year as her time as a flying aircraft draws to an end.

But XH558 is not just for the pleasure of seeing her giant delta profile appear low over the trees and pull up near vertically as she climbs high into the sky. She is an iconic example of that remarkable period of intense post-war innovation that made British aviation technology the envy of the world. As the many displays at her hangar demonstrate, this allowed her to play a fascinating role in keeping the peace during the Cold War, a period of terrifying global tension. It’s a truly remarkable story.