Rog747:
funding is bloody hard but the steam engines and heritage railways seem to do fairly well, infact fare much better than nostalgic aviation it seems.
As someone with a career in aviation but now involved in Railway Preservation, like yourself, I can see merit in what you say. Unlike you (Peppercorn A1 Pacific) my efforts (in Carriages and Wagons) are restricted to 25mph. Nonetheless they are Public Transport Vehicles and everything from structure to fitting out, operation and maintenance has to meet the appropriate regulations. There I think the similarity with aviation ends. Restored and Preserved Military Aircraft on the civil register have an almost impossible mountain to climb in that respect with an ever increasing cost and complexity to do so. That VTTS achieved that is an enormous tribute to all who gave so freely in terms of money, time and skill. The one item in that list that is more demanding than the others is money. I see you mentioned "fare" and indeed your costs and ours are helped in part by just that. Vulcan isn't and gives much pleasure for no such return by simply being seen in the skies to which she returned. Of course revenue from venues helps but clearly nowhere near enough. There was talk on another thread that the BBMF might come under threat from an ever more restricted Defence Budget. Hopefully if that were so some means of PFI/Sponsorship etc would keep it airborne. I would see more hope for such an arrangement than for this I'm afraid. Military Aircraft were never designed for commercially safe operation and to make them capable of such will always be very demanding and costly. As a nation we have a need to be reminded of our aviation heritage and especially of its Finest Hour. For me that would be the sound of RR Merlins, preferably 4 in extremely close formation! Give me that and I am content to see the others, including Hastings, Hercules and BAC 1-11's, all of which I flew, in museums. Reality check perhaps?