There are at least half a dozen aircraft sitting outside at Duxford looking neglected, some more so than others. There is nowhere near enough room to keep all the current exhibits undercover, without lumbering them with several more large airframes.
Yes, exactly, Duxford is an excellent museum and they do a great job. Without further building I cannot envision anywhere at Duxford that would accomodate the Constellation, Trident and Comet <anyway the latter would be duplication as there is already a Comet there> and that is without taking into account the other substantial number of exhibits at Wroughton.
The so-called 'state of the art' Museum that was slated for Wroughton has come to nothing as the lottery grant allocation was withdrawn.The government won't put any money into it, so those aircraft will just sit there til they rot!
IMHO it was a massive "over kill" that was costed in millions of £sss. It would have yielded another "theme park" museum. The hangars at Wroughton are fundamentally sound structures. What is required is a much lower budget project that will allow essential maintainace <not something driven by an unnecessary H&S adgenda>. Obviously there would be costs invovled in staffing the site while visitors were there. Part time opening would be acceptable, say 2 or 3 days a week. A number of successful volunteer run museums operate this way.
One suspects that the Science Museum is run by a management that has "mind set" which believes unless it can provide a "gold plated" service, nothing can or should be done. As pointed out in earlier threads quite good levels of accessibliity were achieved in the 80s and early 90s. It is a question having the will and desire to do it.
By comparision look at what has been achieved at Newark on what will undoubtly have been a relatively modest budget.
Planemike
PS...... [quote] £275 for any Group to visit one hangar is extortion in anyones language! [quote]
Amos, certainly agree with you on this. A charge of this type comes from the "mind set" referred to above.