Thunder & Lightnings

Avro Vulcan - Survivor XM597

B.2 XM597 - National Museum of Flight, East Fortune Airfield, Lothian, Scotland

Click for previous survivorSurvivor imageClick for next survivor

Vulcan B.2 XM597 at National Museum of Flight, 24th June 2022; Adam Poultney

Above is XM597 at Scotland's National Museum of Flight in East Fortune. 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.

XM597 was once very well-maintained but has unfortunately lacked some attention over the last 20 or so years. Many panel lines are sealed against the weather and her undercarriage bays have mesh across them to stop birds from nesting there. She was repainted with gloss paint in 1994 to help preserve her but has had another repaint since, which hasn't lasted very well. The paint is flaking very badly, especially around the nose. There is also a fair amount of corrosion around the exhausts, but this is often the area that begins to corrode first. Peeling paint and some areas of corrosion aside, the airframe is not in all that bad a shape, with the cockpit being in very good condition still. Hopefully one day she'll be treated to some TLC.

Information on this page current as of 28/06/2022, last updated by Jake

Find other photos of XM597 on the following sites:

Air-Britain - Airliners.net - Airplane-Pictures.net - flickr.com - WorldAirPics.com - JetPhotos.net - PlanePictures.net