Today's test flight takes place at Doncaster’s Robin Hood Airport (ex RAF Finningley), where XH558 is based in the same Cold War hangar in which she was housed when she was part of Britain’s nuclear deterrent in the early 1960s.
If the flight goes as planned, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) will renew the iconic aircraft’s Permit to Fly, confirming that she reaches amongst the world’s highest standards for aviation safety.

After taking off, she will be put through a rigorous 90 minute schedule of checks to confirm that every system is working as it should. The crew will test every planned-for emergency scenario, including stopping and restarting each engine in turn, deploying the Auxiliary Power Unit and exploring parts of the flight envelope, such as very low speeds, that hopefully will never be seen in normal operation.

A busy Diamond Jubilee season is anticipated, celebrating both the accession to the throne of Her Majesty and the 60th anniversary of the first flight of both the Vulcan and of sister V-Force aircraft the Handley-Page Victor.
On May 20th, the pilot who lead the famous 'Black Buck' raid on Port Stanley’s runway will be back at the controls of a Vulcan for the dedication of the new Falklands Memorial at the National Arboretum in Staffordshire.
The flypast by the last airworthy representative of Britain’s V-Force will commemorate all those involved in the conflict, evoking the remarkable 8,000 mile mission by a solo Vulcan, supported by 11 Victor tankers, that began the liberation of the Islands almost exactly 30 years ago.
Two Vulcans took-off from Ascension Island on April 30th 1982. The ageing aircraft, which were about to be retired from service, had been rushed through an upgrade programme at RAF Waddington that included new Electronic Counter-Measures and reinstatement of their air-to-air refuelling capability. The tanker force was sourced from RAF Marham, where air-to-air refuelling specialists developed an elaborate logistics plan that would allow the bombers to reach their target and return to base after their remarkable journey.

Operation Black Buck: http://www.raf.mod.uk/hi...y/OperationBlackBuck.cfm