This is symptomatic of the difficulty we have in the UK for recognising important parts of our heritage. We are happy to preserve old houses and warehouses because it is easier and relatively cheap, but given the opportunity to preserve aircraft that have contributed to the economic welfare of the UK by carrying business men and women who won orders for British businesses there is no corporate sponsorship to be found.
The other difficulty is the sheer size of the product we are interested in preserving. How long before we need space to preserve a B747-100 srs in BOAC colours, or better still a 747-200 in BCal colours
and where in heavens name would it be housed? Far easier to tug at distant memories and preserve another 10 Spitfires!!
Are we going to be able to find a home for the present and the future large commercial aircraft that are part of the history of UK aviation; DC10-30 for BCal, DC-10-10 for Laker; Lockheed 1011 Tristar for BA, B767 and B757 again for BA etc etc. Heaven knows where we will ever house an A380!!
Look at the difficulties that the Bristol Aero Collection has recently had re the move of their Britannia from Kemble.
If the Spitfire tugs at the heartstrings for its deeds in 1940 then surely the heart strings of the general public can be pulled for aircraft that took them on their first trips to far off places on holiday or business? It needs one site to be developed for this purpose and it needs an airfield with a good runway and lots of development potential for a museum to grow in the future.
I have many photos to remind me of the missing a/c types and airlines at work, but others are not so fortunate and it would be good if they could at least see the aircraft on the ground.