Avro Sisters - canvas print and jigsaw from my own collection:

Christmas 2022 - Tangmere Hurricanes:

Right place, right time: Bruntingthorpe, 31st August 2006, first public viewing after seven years of restoration work. A year later, on 18th October 2007, XH558 returned to the skies for eight more glorious years. Posted by the BBMF March 2016

What started it all ...

Woodford factory. Difficult to imagine the size of the building, there was another line of Vulcans under construction to the right. The Government published the specification that led to the production of the three V-bombers in 1947, the year that I was born.

Early production models and scale prototypes

XH558 and a Victor tanker, in RAF service

Ascension, during the Falkland's War

Refuelling plan to get one Vulcan to Stanley - 17 aircraft including reserves

Mockup of Vulcan cockpit section for the James Bond film 'Thunderball'

Martin Withers, Chief Pilot of XH558

XH558 dwarfed by the 'Titanic' Harland and Wolff Belfast shipyard

Typhoon captured from the BBMF Lancaster, with the Lancaster reflected in the Typhoon weapon sight

Geoffrey Wellum, author of the superb 'First Light' his account of learning to fly with the RAF, first flight in a Spitfire, and his experiences in the Battle of Britain and the defence of Malta. If you only read one account, make it this one, it spurred me on to make my own Spitfire flight. Here sitting in Spitfire Mk IIa P7350 ...

... operated here by the BBMF in his 92 Sqn markings QJ-K

BBMF 60th Anniversary, 11th June 2017: Sadly, time catching up with Geoffrey Wellum

Geoffrey passed away on 18th July 2018 aged 96, the day after the release of the documentary 'Spitfire', in which he made several appearances.

Mary Ellis, one of two ATA ferry pilots appearing in the same film, passed away on 26th July 2018 at the age of 101. On flying her last Spitfire she signed her (maiden) name in the cockpit. That Spitfire still exists in flying condition, and her name is still visible. At the invitation of the owner the two were brought together again, and she signed her name again, this time her married name.

Click the thumbnails to see them in all their glory:

A bit of Photoshopping doesn't do any harm

XH558's final flight, with atmospheric conditions making it appear she was vanishing from the sky before our eyes

Back home, after the final flight

Christmas present from our daughter, 2015

Perfect for my phone

April 2018, and a fascinating account of displaying XH558 by Bill Ramsey, with these pictures: