Spirit of Great Britain

XH558, The "Spirit of Great Britain".  

The last flying Vulcan, on a tour of V-Force bases and her V-Force sisters in the UK.  

I don't think East Fortune (in East Lothian) ever hosted a V-Force squadron, but Vulcan, but XM597 is on display there so today XH558 gave us a fly past.  

She is spectacular - there is something very special about this aircraft.  Today I noticed something that I hadn't before - head on or side on she looks much like any other aircraft (at least at a distance), but when she climbs or rolls and I get a view of that huge Vulcan delta it always takes my breath away.  The howl of four Rolls Royce Olympus engines is a bit special too.  

It's a bit ironic that this predecessor to Concorde is still flying, while Concorde herself (powered by a later version of the Olympus engine) is completely grounded - and of course there's a Concorde at East Fortune too.

Magnificent British engineering, all of it.

(another blip of XH558)