THESE emotive pictures, by Review readers, show one of the last flights of the final remaining Avro Vulcan bomber still in airworthy condition, before it will be mothballed for the last time.

The plane, designated XH558, had two historic flights last week, the second one on Sunday taking it across the Forest and Wye Valley area, from Staverton across towards Bristol.

Some plane spotters, who set out to watch the iconic plane in a final flypast, were somewhat disapointed, particularly the large number who gathered at Black Rock, near Caldicot, when it flew at a high altitude over the area. It was expected that the Avro Vulcan would cross the river between the two bridges, at a relatively low height.

The cold-war bomber will be retired later this month, because the skills required to keep it airworthy are not now available, as technology has moved on, and those trained to maintain such an aircraft have now retired.

The plane is owned by the Vulcan To The Skies Trust, who have had to make the difficult decision to cease flying the delta wing aircraft, which was the precursor of the commercial plane Concorde.

A trust spokesman said: “She is an iconic example of that remarkable period of intense post-war innovation that made British aviation technology the envy of the world.”