The reason why it is being given away or scrapped is interesting.
The Valiant V Bomber, one of the famous three sisters in service in the 1950's as Britain Nuclear deterrent force (which I loved seeing flying around Fleet in Hampshire, and on the ground at the Farnborough Air Show in 1958) was actually grounded in 1964 due to severe metal fatigue as a result, I believe, of a miscalculation by the designers using the then advanced alloy metals used to build these aircraft.
The Vulcan's and Victors of course went on to fly in much later years as, apparently, they did not suffer from the same flaws as the Valiant did. But with this Gate Mascot Victor now being found to have major structural flaws, I wonder if finally the ignorance of using advanced materials that were not fully understood in the late 1940 / early 50's have now become apparent.
It does not matter now as all the V Bombers are well and truly grounded, but it is still interesting to understand if the trouble with the Gate Victor is due to metal fatigue, or simply corrosion due to sitting around so long without maintenance.
Anyone, like Shackeng, LC0112G, Entwood, or other aviation experts have any observations on this?