on Sept. 5, at Prestwick airport, during the Scottish Airshow 2015, the last flying Cold War-era Vulcan bomber experienced a nose wheel failure before landing.
The Vulcan XH558 did a flyover over the airfield, then made a right-hand turn to land on runway 30. However, after he made that turn things seemed to go wrong.
Rather than report final he then did a second flyover and started entering orbits to the north of the airfield. After it became clear he was having a nosewheel gear issue
A WWII Supermarine Spitfire of the BBMF (Battle of Britain Memorial Flight) called up the tower and asked if there was any way he could help by giving the Vulcan a visual inspection from underneath the aircraft to asses the situation.
Related Article: Things You Might Not Know About The Supermarine Spitfire
As the bomber slowed down to below 170 knots, the Spitfire formed upon its right wing and confirmed that the nose wheel was not properly extended.
Once they had determined the Vulcan’s speed the Spitfire confirmed that his nosewheel was not extended fully and that there was nothing blocking it from locking into place.
In an attempt to unblock the gear, the Vulcan entered into some very aggressive yawing, both left and right in an attempt to free whatever was holding the nosewheel back from extending and locking.
After some time they were successful and initiated a landing. Thankfully the landing went well, and as you can hear at the end of the video was a great relief that everything had gone so well.
Here is the epic footage of the incident (that includes also radio comms on the Tower frequency)
Praise must go to the Spitfire pilot for taking the initiative in helping the crew of the Vulcan resolve the issue.
