Weekly meeting

We had 19 attendees this evening for the much-awaited talk, via Zoom, from Martin Anscombe about the history of the Vulcan bomber and his time flying in them.We welcomed two guests, Vivian Gicquel and Edward De Alejandro, whilst a third guest, due to join us from New Mexico was unable to attend due to sandstorms locally, interfering with the signal.

The iconic Vulcan bomber is one of the most popular military aircraft produced in the UK, although its deployment in battlezones was limited to the Falklands conflict (where 16 mid-air refuellings were needed to reach the islands). Martin illustrated his talk with some fine photos of Vulcans, and anecdotes of incidents that occurred involving them.

The aircraft flew from 1953 to the mid 1980's, and one aircraft was revived by public donations about 10 years ago and spent a glorious year in 2012 flying at various airshows and events, including the Queen's Diamond Jubilee that year. Many questions followed, and Martin reminded us all that a Vulcan bomber can still be viewed at the City of Norwich Aviation Museum.