1958 Syerston Avro Vulcan crash
Rolls-Royce Avro Vulcan (prototype) · Structural failure
From Hucknall airfield to Hucknall airfield
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 7 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 3
- Occupants
- 4
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 3 · all on the ground
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
Avro Vulcan (prototype)
- Aircraft type
- Avro VULCAN
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- VX770
- Operator
- Rolls-Royce
- Onboard fatalities
- 4
- Route
- From Hucknall airfieldTo Hucknall airfield
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft structures
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 20 September 1958 a prototype Avro Vulcan bomber crashed during an air show at RAF Syerston, Nottinghamshire. All four crew on board and three people on the ground were killed.
Flight
VX770 was the first prototype Vulcan. It had first flown with Avon engines, and had later been fitted with Sapphires. More recently, it had been fitted with Rolls-Royce Conway engines; on the day of the accident it was flying from the Rolls-Royce airfield at Hucknall to test the Conways. The four crew on board included a flight test engineer from Avro. During the course of the test-flight VX770 diverted to RAF Syerston to participate in the Battle of Britain day air show.
Accident
The Vulcan flew along runway 07 then started a rolling climb to starboard. During this manoeuvre the starboard wing disintegrated, resulting in a collapse of the main spar and wing structure. The Vulcan went into a dive with the starboard wing on fire and struck the ground. Three occupants of a controllers' caravan were killed by debris and all four of the Vulcan crew were killed. Three servicemen who were in an ambulance were injured by debris.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The official primary cause for the accident was a gross structural failure of the aircraft's main spar, which was confirmed by amateur footage, photographs and eyewitness accounts. The reason for the failure was not determined by the Board of Inquiry (BoI), but it was suggested by an accident investigator called in by Rolls-Royce that the main cause was that the pilot, upon performing the planned aerobatic display, exceeded the prototype's briefed speed and turning rate limits.
The accident investigator submitted a statement to the BoI, but did not give evidence under oath. The BoI was apparently not informed that the aircraft manufacturer considered the basis for the statement to be invalid. The Technical Officer of the Board of Inquiry identified a suspected fatigue failure of the inboard arm of the front bottom wing attachment main forging, and suggested vibration from the high airflow volumes required by the RR Conway 11 engines as a possible cause.
The Royal Aircraft Establishment carried out a structural analysis of the wreckage and produced a report on 21 April 1960, but no copy has been found in the public record.
Avro's then chief test pilot, Tony Blackman, has argued that the aircraft had probably suffered undetected damage during earlier flights during which the aircraft had reportedly been 'unofficially' rolled and looped by Rolls-Royce test pilot(s), and that the maintenance crew did not carry out an inspection for potential issues with stress damage to the aircraft's leading edges and nose ribs known to the manufacturer which had been observed in another prototype he had flown earlier. Avro reportedly inspected for damage using an exceptionally small technician after each aerobatic flight, Rolls may not have been aware of this practice.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1958 Syerston Avro Vulcan crash” (revision 1366181885, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 1958 Syerston Avro Vulcan crash
- Revision
- 1366181885 · 2026-07-26 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q4569403
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "1958 Syerston Avro Vulcan crash" (page 37958046, revision 1366181885)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): The prototype Vulcan was operated by Rolls-Royce as an engine test bed on a test flight from the company airfield: a manufacturer's test flight. The article: "on the day of the accident it was flying from the Rolls-Royce airfield at Hucknall to test the Conways"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: ground fatalities
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.