The Avro Vulcan was one of the three "V" long-range nuclear bombers that entered service in the 1950s. The Valiant was the first to be withdrawn from service, and when the "nuclear deterrent" was taken over by submarines of the Royal Navy, the Vulcan and the Handley-Page Victor were assigned to other duties. The Victors were converted to the air-to-air refuelling role and the Vulcans to low-level tactical bombing with conventional weapons. The Victor continued in service into the 1990s (including the First Gulf War), while the Vulcan was retired in the late 1980s with the exception of a display aircraft which continued to perform at airshows until 1993.

Since then, no Vulcan flew until 18th October 2007, when XH558 once more took to the air after years of painstaking restoration. On 5th July 2008, XH558 returned to the display circuit.

These galleries contain pictures XH558 in flight, as well as some photographs take whilst the project to return XH558 to flight was in progress, together with some other Vulcans on static display at various locations.