Vulcan XM603 storm damage update

The maintenance team did an excellent job repairing the storm damage to our Vulcan today.

A detailed examination revealed that the damage was thankfully not as bad as it first appeared. The wind had got underneath some aluminium sheets and ripped it off the rivets holding the sheeting in place. The aluminium sheeting was originally fixed to a badly corroded elevon during the restoration.

The first thing was to secure the sheeting with clamps so that the repair could be completed in very windy conditions.

The old rivets were then removed and replaced with new ones.

Finally, an aluminium strip was secured to the trailing edge of the wing to stop the wind from getting underneath the sheeting.

Our thanks go to Museum members Peter L, John G, Dave J, and Al S for a fantastic job completed in dreadful winter weather. Some minor cosmetic work will finish the repair but we will wait until the weather improves first!

Repair complete and XM603 looking good as new!