(Image via author)

Though rather grainy, this rare image captures the beginning of the end for Avro Vulcan B.2 XM652, which was dismantled at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire during the early 1980s.  One of the last Vulcans in service, 652 was sold to a private owner to be displayed outside a Sheffield country club.  But the dismantling team hadn’t realised the sheer scale of the project – only one Vulcan had previously been dismantled and moved by road for preservation purposes, carried out by military engineers.  Despite a valiant effort by some members of the team, which saw the mighty Vulcan broken down into 11 huge pieces, the owner pulled the plug on the project and XM652 was controversially scrapped.  Thankfully the cockpit section was saved and now resides on a farm in Wales. (Help keep the last flying Vulcan airworthy.)