Few aircraft have acquired the emotional following of the Avro Vulcan. More than just a machine, the Vulcan has become one of the most recognizable symbols of Britain's Cold War aviation heritage, and for generations of enthusiasts it remains the Vulcan.

Among all the surviving examples, XH558 holds a particularly special place. The twelfth Vulcan B.Mk.2 built, XH558 made her maiden flight at Avro's Woodford works on 25 May 1960 and was delivered to the Royal Air Force on 1 July of that year. She initially served as a conventional bomber before being converted to the SR.2 maritime reconnaissance configuration and later to the K.2 tanker configuration.

Her RAF career eventually took another turn when she was returned to B.Mk.2 configuration and selected for the RAF Vulcan Display Flight. She made her display debut in 1986 and subsequently became the world's only flying Vulcan after the withdrawal of the other RAF display aircraft.

For several years XH558 became a familiar and unforgettable sight at British airshows. Anyone who saw her display will remember the experience: the enormous delta wing appearing in the distance, the unmistakable howl of four Rolls-Royce Olympus engines and then that huge aircraft sweeping overhead with a presence that seemed completely disproportionate to its age.

The RAF finally disbanded the Vulcan Display Flight after the 1992 season, and XH558 made what was expected to be her final flight in March 1993, leaving RAF Waddington for Bruntingthorpe. But this was not to be the end of her story.

After years of preservation, fundraising and an extraordinary amount of work by dedicated volunteers and engineers, the seemingly impossible happened. On 18 October 2007, XH558 returned to the sky.

From 2008 until 2015 she once again became one of the world's most famous airshow aircraft. Crowds gathered wherever she appeared, eager to see and, above all, hear the last flying Vulcan. The aircraft that had once represented Britain's nuclear deterrent was now doing something very different: carrying the memory of an era of British aviation to a new generation.

Sadly, the return to flight could not last forever. Age, increasing maintenance requirements and the difficulty of obtaining specialist technical support eventually brought her flying career to an end. On 28 October 2015, after more than 55 years since her first flight, XH558 made her final journey through the air.

Today she remains preserved at Doncaster Sheffield Airport. Although she will not fly again, the aircraft continues to be maintained, and efforts are being made to provide her with a permanent, protected home where she can be conserved and used for education and heritage activities.

There is something rather fitting about XH558's present role. She has already lived several lives: bomber, reconnaissance aircraft, tanker, display aircraft, preservation project and finally the Spirit of Great Britain. She has survived retirement, changing priorities and the passage of more than six decades. Most importantly, she has survived in the memories of the people who saw her fly.

There is something almost magical about a Vulcan in the air. On the ground, XH558 is an enormous and somewhat austere Cold War machine, all sharp edges, huge delta wing and four massive engines. In the sky, however, she becomes something else entirely. The sound arrives first, followed by that enormous delta shape moving with surprising grace. For a few moments, the decades disappear.

XH558 may never fly again, but she still has a future. Instead of carrying bombs or fuel, she now carries memories. Instead of demonstrating Britain's military power, she demonstrates what persistence, engineering skill and affection for aviation can achieve.

One particularly distinctive feature of the later Vulcan was its wraparound camouflage. As RAF Vulcans changed from high-altitude operations to low-level penetration, the traditional pale underside became increasingly unsuitable. The aircraft could be surprisingly conspicuous from below when banking at low level, particularly against the terrain. The later wraparound camouflage therefore extended the Dark Sea Grey and Dark Green pattern over the undersides, reducing the contrast between the aircraft and its surroundings and helping conceal its silhouette during low-level operations.

It is a particularly appropriate finish for a machine that, despite its enormous size, was expected to fly fast and low and use the terrain as part of its protection.

This is the older tooling of Airfix's 1/72 Vulcan B.Mk.2, a great kit when it first appeared and one that has been superseded by the newer, superlative, also by Airfix offering.

For its time, this older tooling offered a good level of detail and solid engineering, especially considering the sheer size of the subject. It was an impressive model then, and it remains one today.

Of course, the newer Airfix Vulcan has raised the bar considerably in terms of detail, accuracy and engineering. But that should not diminish the qualities of this older kit. It is still a good kit, albeit simpler and challenging to put together.

Should you wish to have a look at its contents, you may check its dedicated preview in the ever-growing MM archives

Following the instructions, I first assembled the cockpit and the two pairs of intakes. All cockpit parts were painted black, save the seat cushions that were painted olive drab. I used the kit supplied decal for the instrument panel, while I added seat belts from masking tape. That was more than enough, since practically nothing can be seen through the small canopy windows. The intakes were painted white, with the compressor faces painted silver.

I added some extra shims, apart from the ones provided, from the inside of the lower fuselage half to help ensure a secure fit for the single-piece bomb bay door, which was then attached.

The two fuselage halves were next brought together, trapping the cockpit and intakes between them. The instructions called for 30 grams of nose weight, but I really did not want to take any chances with such a large model, so I secured a good 50 grams of fishing weights at the nose with cyanoacrylate.

The wings, fin and tail were assembled separately and then attached to the main fuselage. With these major components in place, the basic Vulcan was already taking shape.

A bunch of smaller parts were then added on the undersides, before proceeding to filling and sanding. The model required quite some work in this respect, as several of the major joints needed attention.

Despite its size and some fit issues, the construction proved surprisingly straightforward, and I was quite pleased with how quickly this enormous aircraft had come together. Once the major joints had received their first treatment, I gave the model another complete filling and sanding session.

It was now time to take the big bird to the paint shop.

Spiros Pendedekas

April 2022

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