"But when we landed and stepped out onto the Tarmac it was truly amazing," he said. "We were mobbed by the world's press and hailed as heroes," said Mr Masefield, describing the scenes at the recent test flight which took place at Bruntingthorpe airfield in Leicestershire.

"It was also very emotional. The technicians, who in my estimation are the real superheroes of this story, watched, many of them with tears in their eyes, as we took the glory."

The Vulcan had last flown 15 years ago, but she powered down the runway and into the clouds on her first test flight as coolly as she did during her operational career in the RAF.

And as usual Mr Masefield, as the air electronics engineer, was tucked away out of sight.

"It is like being in a broom cupboard, in the dark, with the hoover switched on, so it is noisy and also very smelly," he said.

He has been in on the Vulcan to the Sky restoration project virtually from day one and in the crew for the three test flights which are necessary to earn the plane a Civil Aviation Authority licence permitting it to fly on a regular basis.

Before it was finally rolled out of its hangar, there were years of restoration work, rebuilding it from the ground up and installing a new avionics suite, including GPS navigation kit.

There have been some teething troubles, including a false fire alert and a minor glitch in an undercarriage door control which caused the last flight to be aborted.

But now there is just one last test flight to go – scheduled to take place in the skies over East Anglia towards the end of May.

Once that is in the bag, the Vulcan is scheduled to fly in a display at Duxford in June for everyone who has contributed to the plane's restoration and then in air shows across the UK, including the offshore show at Lowestoft during the summer.

With an estimated £1.5 million a year needed to keep the plane airborne, the appeals for financial support, and, if possible a big sponsor, will continue; and Mr Masefield, who is retiring from his chiropody business next week, will be back in his broom cupboard again.