ROARING engines of some iconic aircraft were fired up at the Yorkshire Air Museum this weekend.

Visitors to the Elvington attractions were able to feast their eyes on the Yorkshire built Blackburn Buccaneer XN974, fresh from its winter overhaul and repaint.

The XN974 provided a striking spectacle in its original Fleet Air Arm markings and was the first time the aircraft has been seen on the Elvington runway in the colour scheme since the aircraft’s development in 1964.

Also on display was the Nimrod MR2 XV250, the ‘Mighty Hunter’, as this intelligence gathering, surveillance and submarine tracking aircraft was known.

It gave full vent to her four Rolls Royce Spey engines to roar off down the runway as her dedicated team paid tribute to all those who spent many hours of duty aboard her.

The XV250 is maintained as a ‘living’ memorial to the 14 crew of Nimrod XV230, who lost their lives in the tragic accident in Afghanistan in 2006.

Visitors were also treated to the sight of the Handley Page Victor XL231 roaring along the runway.

Famously known as Lusty Lindy, this aircraft started out as part of Britain’s airborne nuclear deterrent in the late 1950s, later converting to the tanker role for air to air refuelling, where it saw action in the Falklands War in the Ascension Island theatre and then in the first Gulf War.