Your of course right Albert Driver: My attitude can be construed as defeatist and not helped by Mig15s post as it sums ups the situation that existed in part of the BA management structure at the time he made his offer.
They would have been totally nonplussed at how to respond. Amazed anyone would make the offer without payment and totally without any understanding that peserving their history would be of interest outside some 'nuts' within the company.
Another reason for my less than 'positive' attitude is that within BA there are many who do passionately care about preserving the Company Heritage and not just out of a sense of 'History' but as something that can work for the company in Marketing, Advertising and Promotion. But if those working from the inside cannot stop acts of corporate vandalism who can!
Whilst this thread is about the Aircraft Collection, the loss of BEA and BOAC Heritage Material has wider implications than just the Aviation History Community - BEA were early Adopters and Developers in Aviation Specific Computing as well as more General Business Aplications, Telecommunications Systems and Networks. Use and development of Ground Transport Operations both Bus and Truck. In all these cases echoes of this pioneering work still exist in todays Airlines and Transport Industries. So much of this has been lost and because so many of the 'people who were there' are no longer with us, it is well nigh impossible to 'reconstruct the story'.
So from my viewpoint and I accept today (especially) that I am in a non-positive frame of mind, the fate of the Aircraft Collection is another lost cause in the 'long defeat' over the British Airways Heritage.
When the RAF and others 'woke up' to what had already been lost and what was in clear and present danger of disappearing, they did start to do something (too slow one might say)! BA perversely seemed to go the other way!
As for Cosford - It is not for me to defend them further - they are big enough to do it themselves. But even if they are deemed not totally blameless (and I remain to be convinced that any blame can be attached), as this was not the 'National Airliner Collection', the Company who's name it bore is the primary Culprit.
DIH