noisy I suppose my interest comes from feeling that the contribution of the Halifax to WW2 in all it's guises has been so overshadowed by the Lanc. My dad was a Flight Engineer with 158 Sqn (Halifaxes surprise, surprise) and flew a few ops in the famous Friday 13th. As the only "complete" genuine Halifax airframe in the UK, I feel that it deserves to be restored. Other aircraft in far worse shape that the RAFM's Hali have been rebuilt to museum display standard. Despite it's looks the Hali is in remarkably good basic condition as it spent it's time in a very cold, very low salt environment. A major contribution to it's dishevled look is the fact it's covered (sensibly) in preservative. The half hearted attempt at restoring the nose turret makes it look even worse in my eyes.
As I mentioned earlier, the Canadians are restoring the Hali VIII that they recovered (in no better condition that the RAFM's example) so that they have a representative example of the two heavy bombers that so many Canucks sacrificed their lives in. Pity we can't do the same eh? The YAM have managed to take a very tatty fuselage, some Hermes wings, scratch built nose and tail to make a fantastic replica of Friday 13th complete with fully restored turrets. Why can't the RAFM do something similar?