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		Our heritage - as important today as it was yesterday Lincolnshire Echo - October 28 2004 On Sunday 24th October I was invited to attend a meeting of the 'Vulcan to the Sky' group, who are running a project to get this splendid Cold War V-bomber airborne again. The meeting surprised me for several reasons. Firstly, that a plane in almost-airworthy condition exists at all. Secondly, that is in a hangar at Bruntingthorpe, only a few miles from my Leicestershire home. Almost on my doorstep! I was shown inside the hanger and saw this beautiful testament to British engineering up close. The Vulcan really does take the breath away and I was hugely impressed. There's a lot more work to do. Despite the care and attention of those dedicating their time restoring it, the Vulcan still has some way to go before it is airworthy once more. But project leaders Robert Pleming and Felicity Irwin are doing a superb job. They've raised two thirds of the funds needed, and hope to see the plane flying next year. However, it is worth remembering just how vital the Vulcan was in the defence of our country through the Cold War. Designed as a high altitude bomber, the Vulcan was armed with 21,000lbs of conventional payload. It was also the first jet bomber to use the distinctive delta shape wing. But it was the nuclear deterrent that became the Vulcan's primary military purpose. With a ceiling of 65,000 feet, the strategy of high-level nuclear attack became the RAF and NATO's main use for the aircraft in the struggle for Cold War supremacy over the USSR. The Vulcan's connection with Lincolnshire is strong. It was based at RAF Waddington, and Waddington's Commanding Officer, Wing Commander Nick Sharpe, gave the key-note speech at the meeting. I can only imagine the racket local residents in Waddington and Bracebridge Heath must have had to contend with when these wonderful beasts were in action. Apparently they find conditions almost eerily quiet these days! Apart, that is, for the annual Lincolnshire show at RAF Waddington! What I was genuinely struck with, when I met these Vulcan enthusiasts, was the sheer determination they have in getting their pride and joy into the sky. I'm very keen to get a follow-up invitation in the coming year or so to see this great plane actually fly once more. As we approach the referendum on the EU Constitution, we'll hear the Yes side telling us that the EU has kept the peace in Europe. But of course it wasn't the EU that kept the peace. It was planes like the Vulcan, with its Blue Steel nuclear missile. It was NATO, the Transatlantic Alliance, and a hundred thousand GIs in Germany that kept the peace. It wasn't Brussels that brought down the Berlin Wall in 1989. It was the courage and commitment and determination of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Visiting the Vulcan bomber reminds us of the reality that our security depends not on the EU, but on NATO. Indeed the EU's pretensions to create separate military command structures outside NATO threaten to undermine our security by side-lining our trasatlantic ties. So when they tell you to vote for the EU Constitution because it will contribute to security, and to peace in our time, remember the Vulcan and vote "No"! You can contribute towards the campaign to get the Vulcan flying again by e-mailing vulcantothesky@aol.com