XH558

A rather curious title for today's post, but you'll soon see why.
There is only one Avro Vulcan still flying in the world. The plane has the call-sign XH558 and first flew in 1960 as part of Britain's strategic nuclear defence.  It has been flying ever since but this will all change very shortly when it's flying life will come to an end. Before that however, the Vulcan has been embarking on a number of fly-pasts, air displays and national, farewell tours. Yesterday's tour was supposed to fly directly above Shipley Hill on it's way back to base at Doncaster Airport, so Malcolm (who had never seen the aircraft) and I, set out for a walk up the hill yesterday afternoon, to have a look.
We joined dozens of others who'd had the same idea and waited for this iconic ex-nuclear bomber to fly over. Unfortunately, due to a bit of a mix-up at East Midlands Airport - where the Vulcan was supposed fly over before getting to us - the route was changed at the last minute. This meant that the plane didn't fly directly overhead, but slightly to the north of us, so our view was rather less spectacular than we'd hoped for.

I did however manage to grab a single photo as it flew by and with a little manipulation, it didn't turn out to be too bad. Despite the disappointment of not getting the promised view of this wonderful aircraft, it was nonetheless fabulous to see it for one last time.

What a fantastic plane this is!