This news is not about the Spitfire, or even World War II, but I simply couldn’t resist commenting on what has to be the milestone and great news for the entire warbird movement.

Easily the largest warbird in the world, Avro Vulcan XH558 made its premiere in the air today, flying this afternoon from Bruntingthorpe airfield in Leicestershire.

Photo: Lyneham_Lad, via Photobucket

Pictures from today’s flight can be viewed through the following links:

• News article from BBC
• News article (richly illustrated) at Daily Mail
• News article from Flight International
• News article from Lutterworth Mail
• Forum post at airshows.co.uk (with more images)

The Vulcan to the Sky Trust website should be the first source of information, but their site crashed today, undoubtedly due to the tremendous traffic pressure. I bet the webmaster is wawy tonight, celebrating with the rest of the group

We have some video material, too. First, a somewhat emotional video showing her undergoing the restoration at Bruntingthorpe, filmed in August.

Here’s a video showing her post-restoration rollout ceremony at Bruntingthorpe on 1 September 2007 to the sound of brass orchestra playing the Star Wars theme. Yikes!

The last time XH558 flew previously was in March 1993. Here is a video showing her last public appearances during the 1992 airshow season.