Now aircraft will come in from cold

WORK of two March men to bring an iconic Cold War bomber back to the skies will be rewarded after a multi-millionaire football club president made an 11th hour donation.

John Boyle, the project's senior engineer, and Dave Fisher, an airframe technician, have been working on restoring the Vulcan bomber XH558 in Bruntingthorpe, Leicestershire, since last August.

But they were told in August that if £1.2million was not found by the end of the month the project would have to be scrapped.

Supporters had pledged more than £500,000, with an extra £150,000 received in cash, which was not enough.

That is where Sir Jack Hayward, president of Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club, stepped in with a last minute donation of £500,000.

Mr Boyle said: "This effectively saved the project."

Mr Boyle, of Westwood Avenue, and Mr Fisher, of High School Close, are working as volunteers on behalf of the Vulcan to the Sky Trust, the organisation responsible for restoring the aircraft for the last seven years.

They are aiming to fly it in the Commemoration Flypast for the 25th anniversary of the Falklands conflict in June 2007.

Mr Boyle said: "It's good, old fashioned engineering. Dave and I are ex-air force servicemen and basic training covers old style construction."

The Vulcan bomber, believed to be the only one made capable of flying again, was rolled out for a publicity exercise last Thursday.

It was retired by the Royal Air Force in 1984 and used for displays before it was retired to Bruntingthorpe in 1993. But it was put up on jacks in 1999 for a feasibility study, with a view to return it to flying.

Workers are aiming for first test runs in April 2007. If successful, it will be used for displays across the country over the next 10 years, before being retired to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, near Cambridge.