Memories of an Avro Vulcan crash...

[Oglivie]

Hello Everyone,

I was reading Kelti's post in the Tuskegee thread about the bomb craters at Fidenza and it brought back memories of an Avro Vulcan crash in my neck of the woods when I was 8 years old, just a couple miles away from our house. I went to the crash site with my parents and uncle the day after the crash. The impression of the destruction may never leave my memory. I did a google search yesterday for any info about it and wouldn't have thought before hand how many writings there would be about the crash. This article by Richard Bak is perhaps the best detail and acuracy of the event.

http://www.hourdetroit.com/Hour-Detroit/July-2008/Mayday/index.php?cparticle=1&siarticle=0#artanc

 

[Oglivie]

Further thoughts of the crew....

To my recollection of this event the pilot stayed with the Vulcan in an attempt to steer clear of the buildings and get the aircraft over the lake and save his crew. This no doubt explains why the pilot stayed with his aircraft, and probably ordered his copilot to eject.

Crew of XA908 RIP and my sincerest condolences to their families.

GM

 

[hawkeye52]

Thanks for posting. I was unaware of this accident although I was very much into aviation at that time. I still have all my aviation-related newspaper clippings from the Sixties.

- H52

 

[DennyA]

I remember a Vulcan crash in the US in 1978... I'd watched the Vulcan perform live at an airshow on a morning TV show as a 13-year-old, and the plane crashed the next day doing a display in Illinois. I'd been so amazed to see the Vulcan perform the day before, it was a shock.

 

[Oglivie]

DennyA,

The 1978 Illinois crash also appeared in my google search for the 1958 Detroit crash. I did not recall this crash back in 1978 and your post inspired me to do some searching for more info. Although some already know about the Vulcan, I found that it was nimble/highly manueverable aircraft and therefore was probably a joy to fly and see being flown. The Vulcan has been stated as even being aerobatic, very capable of being barrel rolled by experienced pilots. The sites I visited stated that it was Vulcan XL390 (in 1978) that crashed after an apparent wing-over stall shortly after departing Glenview Naval Air Station. They were doing rehearsals for a weekend air show. I thought I'd share these, I think they are good articles about the Vulcan and XL390. I hope the crash articles aren't too bothersome for some, but it is an explanation of the reality of the crash event.

1978 article of the XL390 crash
http://www3.gendisasters.com/illino...l-air-station-il-vulcan-bomber-crash-aug-1978
Photograph of Vulcan XL390
http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1134074/
Vulcan Production List (with brief operational description for each)
http://studysupport.info/vulcanbomber/airframelist.htm#top
Vulcan description & photos from Air Force magazine
http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Magazine Documents/2011/June 2011/0611classics.pdf
Vulcan history
http://www.enotes.com/topic/Avro_Vulcan

Ogalive

 

[Oglivie]

Thanks for posting. I was unaware of this accident although I was very much into aviation at that time. I still have all my aviation-related newspaper clippings from the Sixties.

- H52

You're welcome...it appears you have a nice variety of aviation newspaper clippings collected. Aviation interest for me became more prevalent in the 70s onward. I have one newspaper clip from 1975 of twelve Selfridge Base Air Guard pilots (my step-dad knew one of them) that flew F-100s over the Atlantic via inflight-refueling to Germany and back to Selfridge. The flight also included twelve F-100s from the the Conneticut Air Guard.

I guess you could say I don't have a big newspaper clip collection.


Cheers,
O