Yep, the organisation having type certification for the aircraft can pretty much dictate what anyone does with it by providing or denying services, pricing the owners out of the sky, etc. There's simply no money that could convince the type certificate holders to develop new mods for a one-off aircraft as complex as the Vulcan and the costs would be prohibitive for any organisation to do it philanthropically.
Glider licensing has now been transitioned into the european airworthiness system and hence I am being told by the company that has "inherited" type certification for my glider that they can extort over 400 Euro a year from me just for the right to fly the aircraft I own before I even call on any services from them. So far I've managed to prove them wrong...
Without access to the original design data and a lot of expertise, going it alone is not an option either whereas it might be in the case of a simpler aircraft like the Lancaster. Other warbirds are much simpler in design, less highly stressed airframes, orphaned from their original manufacturers and/or flying in significant enough numbers to allow other organisations to viably step in and perform this role. It simply couldn't be done for the Vulcan, especially not for a fleet of one.
Ditto for the engines. Unless you can convince Rolls Royce to support them again (they can't) then an Olympus can't be touched if it is to remain airworthy. Beyond the time to overhaul left, or if they require non-routine maintenance, they are scrap, regardless of actual condition. In comparison, a Merlin is a simple piston engine that's as easy to support as a car engine. They are still flying in significant numbers so there is a business case for an organisation to set themselves up to take over support from the original manufacturer.
Oh, for the days when gravity was the only impediment to flight. Paperwork is much more effective at keeping aircraft on the ground!
I suspect we have seen the last generation of aircraft that will remain flying into old age. In future we'll see them only in museums, which are the most depressing places to see an aircraft languishing, IMHO.
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Topic: Another Lancaster to fly again! (Read 2164 times)