Vulcan Delivery Diary 02
Mixed Views In 1982
By Howard Heeley
Nearly forty years ago on 7 February 1983, Vulcan XM594 landed at Winthorpe Airfield in eastern Nottinghamshire. When it safely touched down it became the only Vulcan to be flown into a non-licensed airfield in the UK. This is the first part of an abridged version of an article, which describes the acquisition process, that was originally published in an edition of Aviation News that year.
Back in 1982
In early 1982 there was a lot of talk about a Vulcan being acquired by the Newark Air Museum and everything looked settled, but the conflict in the South Atlantic meant that the aircraft were kept in service and indeed some saw action in the Falklands. In 1982 after a fairly busy autumn things looked set for an interesting 1983, but on 17 December everyone's hopes took a severe tumble with the receipt of a letter from the Ministry of Defence [MoD].
The main point of the letter was that the Ministry did not consider the facilities on Winthorpe Airfield suitable to allow a Vulcan to land safely. In short, Newark would not be adding a Vulcan to its collection. A letter was immediately sent to the Ministry outlining our case, and asking when we had already received the go-ahead early in 1982, why had things suddenly changed; after all, the runway hadn't altered significantly.
Over Christmas virtually everyone seemed resigned to the inevitable "No Vulcan for Newark Air Museum", despite Stuart Stephenson indicating that he was willing to purchase an airframe to display at Newark Air Museum.
Footnote:
Some of these notifications from MoD conflict with John LeBrun’s Inspection Findings.
Vulcan XM594 is pictured landing at an airshow in Western-Canada (NAM Archive)