'Where's all the money gone?' Doncaster Vulcan team hits back as hangar plan collapses

Bosses caring for Doncaster’s famous Vulcan bomber have hit back at critics after a £2.2 million fundraising plan to build a new hangar collapsed.
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The Vulcan To The Sky Trust had been collecting cash for for a brand new visitor attraction to house the iconic Cold War aircraft at Doncaster Sheffield Aiprort.

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Now VTTS chiefs have hit back at critics following the plan’s collapse.

Doncaster's Vulcan bomber.Doncaster's Vulcan bomber.
Doncaster's Vulcan bomber.

A spokesman said: “The Vulcan to the Sky Trust is often asked “where has all the money gone?”

"The simple answer is, operating a four-engine jet aircraft is an expensive business and all money donated and generated through sales of merchandise at events and through our online channels goes towards the work of the Trust, with looking after XH558 and telling her story being our number one priority.”

The restored Vulcan XH558 first flew again in 2007, after 26 months, over 100,000 man-hours and £7 million spent.

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A spokesman said: “That wasn’t the end of the need to fundraise.

“Over the following eight years of her second flying career, millions more pounds in donations were required to enable XH558 to be kept in flightworthy condition so many millions of us could see her at airshows up and down the UK. We required around £2million per annum to operate for 40-50 flying hours.

“Since 2015, despite no longer being allowed to fly, there remains a cost to maintaining XH558.

"We aim to keep her to the RAF standards that she has been kept at through her flying years and after.

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"In keeping her at these high standards we are able to show her off at airside tours during the year and we still operate her as a live aircraft on engine ground-run events, during which she taxys to and from the running-bay and visitors get to hear the famous Vulcan ‘howl’.

"XH558 uses 2,300 litres of fuel at each of these events.

“The grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund means the Trust has a unique contractual obligation in the heritage jet world: it is responsible for giving XH558 the best chance it can of being an operational heritage asset until at least 2085.

“Due to the HLF grant we have some unavoidable costs, such as insurance and the cost of storing the many tons of spares that were bought with XH558 from the MoD in 1993, to note just two.

"Our responsibility is not only to maintain and demonstrate the aircraft as other Vulcan operators do. The scope of the grant from the HLF also included the provision of public access to XH558 on the ground, and the setup of educational activities to tell the story of the Cold War and to provide lessons for schoolchildren in technology, engineering and maths based on the aircraft and her operation.

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“Despite moving out of the hangar facility and the necessity of the team being massively reduced, our commitment to the care and protection of Vulcan XH558 remains, along with providing access to the aircraft and delivering educational activities.”

Earlier this month, the Trust announced with a "heavy heart" that it had been unable to meet its £2.2m fundraising target - dashing hopes of having its own hangar at Doncaster Sheffield Airport.

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