Originally Posted by
LOMCEVAK
However, the aircraft essentially belongs to the RAF Museum collection and they do not fly their aircraft. It would be fantastic to get her airborne again, especially as a tribute to Russ and his magnificent team but, sadly, I doubt that will ever happen.
Which opens a whole separate can of worms.
For a few years I was a university lecturer teaching aircraft design. I wasn't far away from Hendon, and went over there - and at one point had a meeting with the director - about using the museum as a resource for teaching.
Basically, no go. Despite the geography, despite the free admission, the whole place seemed to be about history and preserving non-airworthy exhibits in aspic. I just couldn't use it as a useful teaching resource.
I ended up spending quite a lot of the university's money taking my students to Duxford, about whom I can still make complaints, but they were an order of magnitude better in support to my attempts to teach the science and technology aspects of aviation, and of course I got to show my students airworthy aircraft (and to talk to people whose job it was to keep them airworthy) from which they benefited massively.
Of course you can't keep all museum exhibits airworthy, nor should you try. Resources are limited, and some aircraft really do need preserving in aspic -but in my opinion the RAF museum historically has not got this balance faintly correct.
G