| One of three aircraft designed to form a part of Britain’s V-bomber fleet to carry the country’s independent nuclear deterrent alongside the Valiant and Victor, the Avro Vulcan was perhaps one of the most iconic aircraft to have been designed and built in the UK in the postwar years. Ironically, however, the type’s most famous action did not involve combating the threat of international communism but from the Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands in April 1982. In two of the most carefully planned and audacious aviation raids in history, Vulcans from RAF Waddington attacked the airfield at Port Stanley in early May 1982 in order to prevent the airfield being used by Argentinian Air Force fighters. The success of the raids was an essential part of the ultimate British victory in the South Atlantic. By 1982, however, the Vulcan design was already more than 30 years old and the newest aircraft was almost 20 years old. Between 1952 and 1964 no fewer than 89 of the delta-winged aircraft were built but by the time of the Falklands War the type was rapidly approaching withdrawal. The final examples of this highly regarded aircraft were withdrawn from Squadron service in 1984. However, it is a tribute to the popularity of the Vulcan amongst aviation enthusiasts that numerous examples survive in preservation both in Britain and overseas and there is an active campaign to restore one example to flying condition. The latest addition to the highly successful ‘Aerofax’ series will attract the interest of military aviation enthusiasts across the country. The aircraft was manufactured by Avro at its factories in and around Manchester and was flown primarily from RAF bases in Lincolnshire and eastern England including Waddington, Finningley, Coningsby, Scampton and Cottesmore. Complete aircraft or cockpit sections have been preserved at Bruntingthorpe, Bournemouth, Foulness, Carlisle, Hendon, Usworth, Doncaster, Coventry, Southend, Flixton, Gloucester, Nottingham East Midlands Airport, Winthorpe, East Fortune, Cosford, Woodford, Waddington, Welshpool, Wellesbourne Mountford and Duxford. One aircraft, XH558, is currently the subject of a high profile nationwide appeal with the aim of having the aircraft restored to flying condition.
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