Avro Vulcan Takes Final Flight

Pia Bergqvist

Tuesday, November 03, 2015 at 09:42 PM ET

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Vulcan's final flight

Key Takeaways:

The Avro Vulcan XH558, "The Spirit of Great Britain," has completed its final flight, ending an eight-year run of public displays operated by the Vulcan to the Sky Trust.
Its retirement was due to the increasing difficulty in identifying potential failures after extensive flight time and a limited number of people skilled enough for its specialized maintenance.
Though it will no longer fly, XH558 will be preserved at a display and educational center at Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield Airport, with plans for occasional engine startups and runway runs.

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The Avro Vulcan XH558, a British bomber with a beautiful delta profile and an unmistakable howling sound, has landed for the last time, concluding its “Farewell to Flight” season. The charitable organization Vulcan to the Sky Trust has operated the last of the breed, named The Spirit of Great Britain, for the past eight years, providing the public with many flight displays of the exciting airplane.

The Avro Vulcan was designed in the late 1940s and retired from the Royal Air Force in 1984. XH558 returned to the skies again in 2007 and flew 228 flights and 346 hours, much to the thrill of millions of airshow spectators.