Originally Posted by
Not_a_boffin
Not so.
BBMF is fully funded by MoD. As the RAF website quotes : "The BBMF is a regular RAF unit, manned by service personnel and funded by the Ministry of Defence."
Not that I'm against the BBMF funding model by the way. In the great scheme of things it's probably unimportant. But it is - unlike the others - wholly funded by the MoD.
Close, but no cigar.
MoD pays the following full time personnel
purely to manage, operate, administer and maintain the Memorial Flight;
1. The OC.
2. A handful of admin/ops personnel.
3. The engineering/logistics staff.
MoD pays the following personnel,
not to participate in the Memorial Flight, but to crew Typhoon, Atlas, Phenom, etc in operational and training roles; to manage and command flights and squadrons operating those aircraft, and to man operational training establishments. These personnel, in addition to their normal duties,
volunteer to operate the Flight's aircraft at weekends and on days-off from their full-time paid duties:
1. All of the fighter pilots except the OC.
2. All of the multi-engine pilots.
3. All of the loadmasters.
4. All of the navigators.
5. All of the flight engineers.
MoD funds the direct operating costs with regard to
operation, maintenance and airworthiness only of the Flight's aircraft.
MoD does
not fund any costs relating to their representation of historically significant embellishments (eg; restoration of turrets and facsimile ammunition belts; engine exhaust flame-suppressors). This is all privately funded from charitable donations.
It may be apocryphal, but a close family member who was on the staff of the Flight advised me that the total MoD budget for the Memorial Flight amounted to 4-times the annual cost of RAFAT's
smoke.