Dr Robert Pleming - Preservationist of the Year, 2007
Dr Robert Pleming received the 2007 Preservationist of the Year Award for leading the Vulcan to the Sky Trust in its efforts to return the last potentially airworthy Vulcan to the air.
Robert Pleming gained his Doctorate at Oxford University and pursued a very successful career in IT before a fateful conversation in the mid -1990s with the then owner of the Vulcan sparked the resolve to return this iconic Cold War warrior to flight.
It has always been an uphill battle; the first Heritage Lottery Fund application was refused before a successful grant was secured in June 2004. However twelve months ago the unbelievable complexity of the project meant it was about to collapse through lack of funds.
With the engineering staff having received their advanced dismissal notices, amongst the innumerable benefactors who came forward at this last moment to keep the project afloat was one of the Transport Trust’s Vice Presidents, Sir Jack Hayward OBE. This cash injection served to bring the aircraft tantalisingly close to the roll out and first flight although sadly the target of leading the Falklands Conflict 25th anniversary flypast was missed.
Returning the Vulcan to the Sky has been the most challenging and complex project ever undertaken anywhere. Robert Pleming fully deserves the accolade of ‘Preservationist of the Year’.
Background information