British Vulcan Bomber's Farewell Tour Draws Crowds of 250,000

  • Delta-winged icon carried U.K.'s first nuclear warheads
  • Jet was brought out of mothballs during 1982 Falklands War

The Avro Vulcan XH558 makes a fly past on the last ever day of public display flights over the former RAF Gaydon base at the Heritage Motor Centre on October 4, 2015 in Gaydon, England.

Steve Thorne/Getty Images
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More than a quarter of a million people craned their necks skyward at the weekend to view the final tour of the U.K. by the last flying Vulcan bomber, which carried Britain’s nuclear arsenal at the height of the Cold War and helped pave the way for the supersonic Concorde airliner.

Saturday’s flight spanned northern Britain and Sunday’s took in Wales and southern England, with thousands gathered at each of 60 designated way-points including airports, aircraft factories and Royal Air Force bases as the delta-winged jet swooped low overhead.