8:00am Monday 8th February 2010
By Stephen Bailey
YOU could see the delight in the children’s faces as they clambered around the great chunks of metal at Bournemouth Aviation Museum.
They were too young to have read the news the Vulcan bomber may be grounded by the end of the month without emergency money.
But many of the parents have seen these planes in action at the Bournemouth Air Festival and think of them as part of the story of our country.
Dave Turner, 36, a teacher from Wimborne, said: “In terms of the history of avionics the Vulcan is really important. But it’s also part of our history.”
Volunteers have been restoring ex military jets at Bournemouth Airport since 1978 and this helped create the Aviation Museum.
These planes are ghosts from Britain’s many wars.
They exhibits include the front end of a Vulcan – and climbing into the crew area is like climbing back into the Cold War.
The windows are tiny. Everything is dark. There are hundreds of dials and switches with old-fashioned lettering.
It’s hard not to kneel over the bombsite, flick a switch, and imagine you are looking down at Russia.
The newest arrival is a Jaguar, a bomber that had its swansong during the 1991 Gulf War.
There is the cockpit body of a Lightning, the 1950s designed fighter that had the job of intercepting Russia’s nuclear bombers.
It looks like a giant rocket and performed like one –it can climb to the cruising height of a jetliner in less than three minutes.
Today the only four flying examples in the world are flown by Thunder City in South Africa.
That shows another drain on Britain’s flying heritage – private operators based abroad.
Museum trustee Steve Rhymes, 46, from Wallisdown, said: “We have got one Vulcan left flying and we have got to try and keep it in the country.”
The Bournemouth Air Festival crowds appreciate the noise and spectacle more than the history.
Many of the older but less dramatic planes from the 2008 show did not reappear in 2009 and people’s favourites, like the Chinook, Red Arrows or the Eurofighter, are the big noisy ones.
“For us older people we remember them when they were flying,” Steve Rhymes. “The youngsters just love the noise.”
He has heard a ‘phenomenal’ sound that youngsters would love to hear – up to 20 Vulcans taking off from RAF Waddington.
The festival has sparked more interest in aviation history – the museum has been asked to provide three exhibits during this year’s show.
Someday the children watching the air show with delight and terror will be walking around museums themselves, telling their own children about the day they heard the Eurofighter tearing across the seafront, as it sits quietly on a stand.
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