I believe that the people at Southend have already agreed to simply maintain XL426 in a taxy status, having abandoned any hopes of ever flying it again.
I think it fair to say that regardless of or various gripes, we'd all hope that 558 does fly again, but this doesn't mean that we aren't entitled to criticise some of the aspects of the project. While lots of people are evidently working very hard on restoring XH558, I still think it's remarkable that so little feedback comes from the administrators of the programme. I think an occasional press release and the odd few lines in aviation magazines really isn't much for such a major project, especially when it is now supposedly a "national" heritage programme supported by the Lottery.
Raising cash through dontaions is fine, but it just seems like a very amateurish way to try and support such a hugely expensive project. I know that TVOC claim that they've been unable to find a corporate sponsor but come on, you'd think that in ten years, someone could have been found? Likewise, appointing a
PR company that was evidently no good is simply not a valid excuse for appointing a better one, is it?
This subject has popped-up on lots of forum sites, and yet I still haven't seen so much as a line of response from TVOC. Maybe they don't even bother to look at such sites, in which case I wonder if someone from Pprune could draw their attention to these postings? You never know, they might even manage to respond?!