A world famous Vulcan bomber narrowly avoided disaster on Friday after it overshot a runway and was just inches away from crashing into cars on a busy road.

The XM655 Vulcan bomber careered off the runway as it attempted to 'high-speed taxi test' at Wellesbourne Airfield ahead of an event planned for Sunday (September 18).

Pictures taken at the scene show the bomber's nose just feet away from Stratford Road.

It is understood that no one was hurt in the mishap which happened at around 11am on Friday (September 16).

The aircraft, which draws crowds of visitors, is looked after by the XM655 Maintenance and Preservation Society at the airfield.

The Vulcan only occasionally makes high-speed taxi runs, and prior to last year had not done one for five years.

But following the incident last week, yesterday's event was cancelled with all ticket holders informed and refunded.

Warwickshire Police at the scene at Wellesbourne Airfield (Image via SWNS)

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The society posted on Facebook: "As far as we can see, the aircraft is largely undamaged, but in addition to the ongoing recovery work, we also have a lot of inspection work to carry out before we can consider any further live activity.

"In an attempt to reduce uninformed speculation, we will explain what happened. After satisfactorily completing low speed steering and braking tests on runway 05/23, the aircraft was taken onto runway 18/36 for a trial high speed run.

"Due to a malfunction of a piece of equipment in the cockpit, the aircraft remained at full power for approximately two seconds longer than intended.

"This resulted in excessive speed and less distance in which to stop, and the aircraft passed beyond the end of the runway on to the agricultural area, stopping just before the airfield perimeter.

"The failed equipment was an air speed indicator which had been tested and found satisfactory six days ago, and which started working normally before the end of the run. The aircraft brakes worked properly but were unable to bring things to a halt within the reduced space available."

The preservation society said the aircraft was undamaged after the incident (Image via SWNS)

The aircraft overshot the runway while preparing for an event that was due to take place on Sunday (Image via SWNS)