Vulcan Scramble!!!

I was station at HQ 1 Group at RAF Bawtry. We used to get Scrambles about once a month. You never knew of course. High Wycombe would come on the line "This is the Bomber Controller all One Group Aircraft Scramble". Attention getting! We would then control them via UHF up to release point or recall them with coded messages. Anyhoo, One day I was in the town shopping when the launched from Finningley, just down the road, the racket was something and the sight of them stood on their tails got me doing likewise. Running into work that is! I often think of those days at Bawtry. We had superb comms on HF and could communicate by voice or morse with them all the way to Singapore and back. For a 17 year old LAC Telegraphist it was a dream job.

I was there working on them on the ramp at Waddington, prepping for these scrambles and right there at the aircraft during these scramble operations. I was also at RAF Goose Bay. Spent some years working on Victors too. All still as fresh in my mind today as back then (in the early 70's). A privilege indeed to have had all that training and then those experiences every day at work.

I was in the RAF as an aircraft fitter. We happened to be at Waddington one day when the QRA was called. We were waiting to cross the runway in a RAF coach so we had to hold whilst they scrambled...... WHAT A SOUND i will never forget it and truly sad that Rolls Royce pulled the plug on XH558 😪. She still had years of life left.

Experienced this at the end of the runway at RAF Finningley in 1969, while on an ATC summer camp at RAF Lindholme. As someone said, sticks in your mind 50 years later.

i am lucky. I was based at RAF vaddington when i was in the RAF and saw these fly every day. I've even been onboard!

This film brings back memories. As a child I lived outside Rotherham and saw the Finningley Vulcans flying over our house very frequently. Our family used to go to the Battle of Britain Day air display every year and the finale to the event was the scramble take-off of four Vulcans which made the ground and your whole body vibrate with the noise. That was some compensation for the thought that we would be taken out in a first strike on the V-Bomber base!

i have seen one of these. A scramble take-off by 4 Vulcans at an air display at RAF Waddington. My stomach felt like it was being pummeled, my eyeballs were shaking so my vision blurred, my feet were tickling from the ground shaking. The noise was incredible! Never to be forgotten.

I spent some of my early years in Lincolnshire (as well as a number of other RAF locations inc Germany.  One summer day whilst out on the (North Hykeham) school playing fields, 5 (five) Vulcan's took off from RAF Waddington.  I understand now why some events stick in your mind like video tapes that you can replay at any time. 53 years later and I can still see and hear that day.

just the pure noise of those Vulcans and the smoke trail from those monsters that will sadly never grace our beautiful skies again!

Every nut and bolt designed and built in the UK by British Engineers - This country has lost its own identity over recent years.

Just love the pollution, no one complained, you just got on with life!

Yep a leisurely kitting up before a flight, but the actual QRA scramble shots are real enough, unfortunately without the Vulcan howl.  To think that in a real world of hostility those crews who successfully bombed their targets or turned back through failure were actually given routes back to their bases or dispersal airfields or what if anything was left of them!  The V force certainly did contribute to keeping the peace and XH558 should be remembered and saved by the Nation as the Lancaster, Hurricanes and Spitfires as recent examples of "never ..in the field...so few", etc.   

Awesome, i'd been looking for this footage ever since i saw it in that exact same spot. Such an amazing aircraft, i even had the privelege to see XH558 in flight at RIAT this year (uploaded a video of that last week).

They have one of these at the Newark air museum. When it first came they used to fire the engines up once a week, it was awesome. However they slowly cannibalised the engines parts so that all stopped. Still an awesome plane to look at though.

My dad was in the RAF and worked on the Vulcan during the Falkland war and other secret missions and he says that this plane was an amazing piece of kit!

Back in 76 we had 5 squadrons at R.A.F Waddington, at the end of one of the Tac Evals we did, 4 of the squadrons were scrambled, 16 Vulcans in all .... What a sight and what a sound!! Talk about goosebumps and patriotism flowing through your veins .... I near pee'd myself!

Those of who know, will know that a vulcan makes the ground rumble. However, my grandad used to work on the airfields in Lincolnshire in the 50/60s.He described the squadron scramble and how the ground would shake as they were all taking off . You can only imagine.

With some money spent and some serious upgrading, we could have had a handful left in service today and before anyone calls me a pillock, the B-52 is the same age and is still alive and kicking!

Wow! Saw this several times at Waddington. Love the Vulcan

Visited the Museum early this month. A day before the RIAT at Fairford. This Vulcan exhibit was the star attraction for me. A wonderful plane, and still is.