Originally Posted by
A and C
This sounds like a great idea for too long this collection of large objects has been largely hidden from public view.
Who knows if you visit the museum you might also get a glimpse of the Grand Tour team torturing cars on the Eboladrome.
Let there be no misunderstanding. My own direct experience with the Science Museum is that they have ZERO. empathy, enthusiasm or experience in matters aviation. The way they have handled our aviation heritage in their care both at Kensington and Wroughton is a complete disgrace. As just one example, their are many others, the massive A330 landing gear which once graced the entry at Kensington, an example of UK excellence in aerospace science and engineering, has been replaced by a collection of old bikes and much of the space it occupied left empty. The landing gear is now hidden away at Wroughton and inaccessible to the public, thanks to the disinterest by their staff.
In my dealings with these people, I have uncovered crass incompetence, clear hostility and an element of dishonesty amongst certain individuals in their management team.
None of these things would I dare to say in a public forum ( and in two meetings with the PM I made these statements to her ) unless I had the documentation to prove my statements. I do, FOI was very useful but the SM stopped responding when I asked some uncomfortable questions.
It's some 25 years since anything changed at the " Flight" section at Kensington. Compare their efforts, or lack of them, with the huge progress made by Alan Winn at Brooklands or,indeed, the massive progress made by so many aviation museums here in the UK and around the world, many of which I have visited, so often by volunteers without the public funding, taxpayers money,handed to the SM by the DCMS who show no interest in its management, despite the considerable documentation which I forwarded to them via the PM, my MP, detailing the deficiencies I had uncovered.