Clearly there is not a bottomless pit of cash for aircraft preservation - but I just wonder whether the available cash is being spent in the best interests of the nation's aviation heritage. We have spent a lot of money preserving American aircraft indoors at Duxford (Ok, WW2 has relevance but a B52??) Getting the Vulcan airworthy may well have drained the pot of any lottery funding for other projects and whilst I would love to see it fly again - at what price? The Cosford Museum has decide to go "Cold War" and so we will have 2 Vulcans preserved inside (Hendon and Cosford) and another one in airworthy condition(for a few years at least). Is that really indicative of the importance of one ac type? - even one as special as the Vulcan. Meanwhile, less sexy but still historically important aircraft have been left to rot outside and will now be cut up because they don't fit a theme.
The Trident is unique and every effort should be made to save it intact. The loss of the VC10 will be sad - but maybe this clears the decks for Cosford to eventually aquire an RAF example. The 707 may be written off as American (although the Conways are a bit special). However, the most interesting aspect of the display is that these aircraft are collectively significant to the UK aircraft industry. The Trident maybe could have been as sucessful as the 727, but for BEA interference with the design. BOAC never wanted the VC10 and did everything they could to kill it off. The 707 was BOAC's desired aircraft, amid stories of underhand dealings. These 3 ac together represent milestones in the "what could have been" story of UK airliner manufacture. Maybe it is BA's ownership of the aircraft that has actually inhibited their use in telling the warts-and-all story of how BOAC, BEA, the goverment, and the industry itself ruined the British airliner. Throw in the Comet and mildly sucessful 1-11 (again what a chance was missed compared with the DC9 and 737) and this could have been a superb theme.
Cosford, BA and even BAE Systems should be ashamed.