 The Vulcan's successful test flight in October. |
Northampton-based forklift dealer, Stantone Mechanical Handling, has played an essential role in putting a big bomber back into the British skies.
The GBP5.5 million (USD10.8 million) project by the Vulcan to the Sky Trust to restore an Avro Vulcan XH558 aircraft caught the attention of Stantone's managing director of sales.
Richard Barkworth was approached for help as the project's co-ordinators knew of his interest in aircraft.
"It all started when I was a boy, living just a few miles away from RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire where the new Vulcans were being tested. Every morning at about 7am they were fired up ... and even at that distance, the sound was loud enough to rattle our windows," he says.
Stantone loaned the project a Clark EC500 30 four-wheel electric counterbalanced forklift built in the early 1980s, a 2004 Clark CGP30 four-wheel gas-powered counterbalanced forklift and other lifting equipment.
"Over the course of the project, the plane had to be taken apart entirely and then put back together bit by bit," says Barkworth. "Just about every component had to be moved by forklift."
The biggest components lifted by Stantone's forklifts were the Vulcan's three-tonne Rolls Royce Olympus 202 engines.
Restoration work on the aircraft included the rewiring of electric cabling weighing over one ton, the installation of refurbished flying controls and new piping for its pneumatic and hydraulic systems. Corrosion has been removed from the Vulcan's structure and 14 fuel tanks have been reinstalled, along with four engines and modern navigation aids and a new avionics suite.
Stantone donated a sum of money and provided engineers to carry out equipment maintenance. Barkworth and Stantone's managing director of service, Robert Hall, also gave their time.
The Vulcan was retired from active service in 1992 after over 30 years of RAF service. Designed in 1948, it is capable of reaching speeds of up to 645mph. It was part of Great Britain's nuclear deterrent in the Cold War era and also served as maritime reconnaissance, air-to-air refueller and finally as a display aircraft.
Out of the 320 Valiants, Victors and Vulcans built for the RAF's V-force, XH558 is now the only one flying. It will make its first public flight at RAF Cosford on 1 June.