IT might be the 'will it, won't it' plane of Bournemouth Air Festival, but when it manages to fly the Vulcan bomber is a big highlight of the show.

Not surprisingly for a 60-year-old plane, technical problems can leave fans disappointed - like last year when the Vulcan was grounded at Bournemouth Airport.

See our Vulcan images here

Its flying life has been extended thanks to modifications carried out by Aerospace firm Beagle at Christchurch and it will now fly until the end of the 2015 season.

Fans will be crossing their fingers that the 'Vulcan effect' will be coming to town this year.

Vulcan XH558 is the world's last flying example in the world and is kept in the air by the Vulcan to the Sky Trust - it receives no public funding.

The plane's roar comes from four Olympus jet engines and its dedicated team of volunteers got her back in the sky in 2007 - with £7 million raised and 10 years' work needed to do so.

Once XH588 is retired, it hope is for it to be the basis of something that can inspire and educate young people.

The Avro Vulcan was operated by the Royal Air Force from 1953 until 1984, famously being the type of plane that bombed Stanley Airport during the Falklands war.

It was designed in the late 1940s by the team that created the WW2 Lancaster bomber.

It had a 4,600-mile combat range and a maximum altitude of 56,000ft.

On operations it had an air crew of up to five and a maximum speed of 625mph - although air festival crowds will get to see it wafting around the sky at a somewhat slower pace.