B.2 XH558 at Bruntingthorpe, 18th October 2007; author	B.2 XL318 at Hendon, 8th March 2003; author

Starting off with the last flying Vulcan - everybody's favourite - XH558! Flying with the Vulcan Display Flight until replaced by XL426, XH558 soon came back into the limelight with the VDF when 426 was retired. Several years of airshow appearances later, a massive public campaign to keep her flying was ignored by the MoD's bean-counters, and XH558 was sold the Walton family at Bruntingthorpe airfield. For a while she regularly carried out fast taxi runs, but living outside was doing her no good and eventually the financial effort became too much and so the aircraft was sold to a company formed with the intent of returning her to the sky. After over two years of engineering work and the raising of over 6 million pounds - both from donations and lottery funding - she has taken to the air once more and began a programme of test flights on 18th October 2007. Well done to all at TVOC! A full report on the restoration to flight can be found here. Information current as of 18/10/2007.

The RAF Museum's Vulcan B.2, XL318 (above) dominates the museum's On Target Hall (formerly the Bomber Command Hall). Unfortunately it's very difficult to take a decent picture of her because she's hemmed in on all sides by various other exhibits, even down to having a biplane parked under her port wing! The refuelling probe is a matter of inches away from the wall, which gives you an idea of how carefully they had to position the beast. Unfortunately to transport the aricraft to the museum they had to cut her up, though she's been put back together very well and you can hardly see the joins Information current as of 08/03/2003.

B.2 XL319 at the North East Aircraft Museum, October 2000; Bob Lawson	B.2 XL361 at Goose Bay, June 1988; Tom McGhee

Looking rather faded is the North East Aircraft Museum's XL319. Unfortunately the paintwork on Vulcans was meant to be renewed every few years but this sort of task is huge and expensive for museums to undertake. The result is as you see - dark green becomes light green or even brown and the grey paint just bleaches to light grey. XL319's cockpit is normally opened up for visitors on bank holidays; you can always ask at other times though, bribery apparently works well. Information current as of 10/2000.

Now, the one and only Vulcan preserved in Canada! XL361 ended up there after a serious in-flight malfunction. It would have cost too much to repair her so instead of scrapping her, it was decided to turn the airframe into a gate guard for the RAF Support Unit based at Goose Bay. Soon after it was gifted to the local community of Happy Valley as a mark of the bond between the RAF and the local inhabitants. Information current as of 01/2005.

B.2 XL426 at Southend, 7th May 2004; author	B.2 XM573 at Ashland, July 2005; Scott Pinkerton

Above is XL426 at Southend Airport. XL426 was initially bought by the same person who bought XM655 from the MoD; it was after getting hold of XL426 that XM655 was left to rot. Unfortunately much the same then happened to 426, and she too eventually passed onto new owners. Now she is in the care of the Vulcan Restoration Trust who brought her back to life and keep her in running order and regularly taxi her. Visit the excellent VRT Web Site to find out more. Information current as of 07/05/2004.

XM573 was retired to the USA in 1982 and, like most of the collection at the former Strategic Air Command museum at Offutt AFB was outside for many years in the harsh weather conditions typical of Nebraska (summer highs around 30-35C and Winter lows that can be well below -10C) and shows the effects of being exposed to those extremes. Happily with the Museum's move to a new facility at Ashland, she is now indoors and the dedicated restoration facility there will no doubt move on to her in due course. Information current as of 15/02/2007.

B.2 XM594 at Newark, 6th February 2006; author	B.2 XM597 at East Fortune, November 2000; Bob Lawson

Not too far away from XM575 is XM594 at the Newark Air Museum. In pretty good condition having been repainted over the course of three years in the mid 90s, her paint work is now suffering once more and could do with some sprucing up. Until a few years ago, she was electrically live and regularly powered up but Health & Safety guidelines put paid to this when the museum's staff expanded to the point of coming under the aegis of the H & S villainy. Damn shame. The cockpit is in excellent condition and opened up at weekends for visitors with a small entrance fee. The aircraft was owned by one of the Newark Air Museum's trustees but in early 2004 he sold it to the Lincolnshire Lancaster Association. The LLA have placed the aircraft on loan to the Museum for the foreseeable future. Information current as of 06/02/2006.

Above is XM597 at Scotland's excellent National Museum of Flight. She entered service with 12 squadron on the 27th of August 1963, then served with 35, 50, 9, 101 and 35 squadrons, including use in the Falklands on Black Buck missions. Retired to East Fortune shortly afterward. She's in excellent condition and very well-maintained, though is purely static, not in running condition. Many panel lines are sealed against the weather and her undercarriage bays have mesh across them to stop birds nesting in there. She was repainted with gloss paint in 1994 to help preserve her too and is kept in excellent nick. Her cockpit is not usually open to the public, but sometimes the museum have special event days such as Air Days in 1997 and 1998, and on those occasions the cockpit was opened up for visitors. Bob's picture taken 3 years after my last visit shows her to be in just as good condition as in 1997! Information current as of 11/2000.

B.2 XM598 at Cosford, 15th May 2007; author	B.2 XM603 at Woodford, 1998; Colin Mears

This is XM598, the RAF Museum's second Vulcan. Cosford almost never open up their aircraft; however 1997's Aviation Heritage Week offered an open cockpits day at Cosford, and the Vulcan and Belfast were accordingly opened up and I have the pictures to prove it! An air conditioning unit was humming away inside and has kept the cockpit from getting too damp, but there is still some moss and moisture in, for instance, the periscope used for checking the undercarriage status. The exterior of XM598 was looking pretty poor at the time and by 2005 was looking worse than ever. Happily since then a great deal of work has been done to rectify corrosion and repaint the airframe, and now it is permanently undercover in the Cold War Exhibition, it should stay that way. Unfortunately it's a bit tricky to photograph now but at least it is protected from the elements! Information current as of 17/05/2007.

XM603 was lovingly looked after by the Avro Heritage Trust at British Aerospace's Woodford plant with what appears to be on/off/on support from BAE themselves (currently 'off'!). Three of her engines were in running condition, but the fourth was giving them problems for some time.The death of their engine specialist Dougie Godfrey dealt a blow to the plans to replace the engine but they overcame this and installed another 301 engine. They hoped to run all four engines up soon after, with a possibility of taxiing the aircraft at the Woodford airshow in 2000 but sadly never made it and now it seems the aircraft is fading back into obscurity and inaction. Sadly the aircraft's future is now looking very bleak and she is likely to be scrapped in the near future. She has at least donated a few parts to XH558 so she will live on in one way. Information current as of 20/10/2007.