She flies like a bird in the sky...

It was good to see the vulcan bomber XH558 flying once more at Waddington airshow; the last time I saw her fly was in September 1992 and she flew over my house, with her bomb bays open and 'Goodbye' written in the doors, clear to see along with the RAF display team.

Picture above is courtesy of a colleague.

She flies like a swan, elegantly (if a little noisy when close up) and I admired her then rather like concorde it seemed a shame to mothball her but keeping aging aircraft airworthy not only costs a fair amount of money but parts are hard to come by and skills are lost.

She was so loud when she flew over the house that she scared Sam who was only a youngster at the time and he clawed his way up my leg and into my arms trembling with fear; never much of a braveheart but he was loveable.

I didn't think we would ever see her fly again, but it was nice to see that 16 years of work and people pulling together to make it happen actually metamorphised into a living piece of history. Yes it isn't something that should be brushed over, these are tools of war however they are an important reminder that even tools of war can be ambassadors of peace.

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