The last Vulcan flies for Children In Need as fans struggle to save her

Private flight for Terry Wogan’s ‘money can’t buy’ auction winners raises £25,000 for charity. On the morning of Friday 8th October, two very fortunate bidders from Children In Need’s ‘Money Can’t Buy’ auction will have the most spectacular view possible of what could be the last UK flight of the iconic Vulcan bomber. Each winner will be flown alongside the giant delta-winged aircraft in a unique, twin-seat commercially-licensed aerobatics plane piloted by a former Red Arrows air ace.

The experience, auctioned by Terry Wogan on BBC Radio 2 earlier this year, was donated by The Blades aerobatics team and by the Vulcan To The Sky Trust, which operates the aircraft. Originally one seat was offered but the auction proved so popular that both organisations donated an extra seat, helping to raise £25,000 for the charity.

The Vulcan played a vital peace-keeping role throughout the cold war. Its delta-wing design and Olympus jet engines led directly to Concorde. It is so agile that its designers gave it a fighter-style joystick instead of the traditional bomber’s control yoke. Now there is only one left flying and the Vulcan To The Sky Trust must raise £400,000 this month to keep her in the air.

Despite its financial problems, the Vulcan To The Sky trust continues to support its mission to inspire and educate young people and to support good causes such as Children In Need. On September 26th, the aircraft also helped raise money for Help for Heroes when it made a VIP appearance at the Coventry Airport Fly-In, jamming roads around the city as people rushed to see what could have been her last public flight.

“This is only part of the value that the UK derives from this amazing aircraft, but we survive on a tiny fraction of the budget of comparable heritage activities and receive no Government support,” points out Vulcan To The Sky chief executive Dr Robert Pleming, who hopes to see the plane fly for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012. “We have tremendous plans for 2011, including growth in our commercial revenues and in our education initiatives. It will be a tragedy if, at the end of this month, the aircraft had to be auctioned, with the almost inevitable loss of her to an overseas private collector.”

Further Information

Find out about the annual Children In Need appeal at www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey

The incredible history of the Vulcan and the struggle to keep her flying:
http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/vulcan/history.html