Wouldn't it be nice if that very charming Cirencester couple who won the £55million lottery jackpot last week were 558 supporters....
Quite agree BEagle, but has anyone wondered why:
a: a sponsor has not been forthcoming, and credit crunch, financial crisis etc as an excuse does not cut it because people are still spending millions on art, football players, aircraft etc etc.
b: all the big lottery winners over the past couple of years; why has none donated money, they cannot all be blind to the 'plight' of the Vulcan.
c: education; the HLF funding was on the back off apparently, why have large engineering/aeronautical corporations not got involved in what on the face of it could be good advertising for future engineers etc and be mutually beneficial to both sides, if a deal could be worked out.
So what is the common denominator, well IMHO it is due to those at the top who rely on those passionate club members/supporters to bail them out without any support, encouragement, direction etc and there appears to be an approach from those at the top of this is my aircraft, my project and if you want to join in and give me money it is on my terms i.e. my way or no way. Also those at the top stay out of the funding limelight and mearly leave the passionate club members/supporters leaderless and rudderless but they are automatically expected to just do all the work, as they have in the past, until they swamp/annoy all and sundry with e-mails, phone calls, etc with calls for more money, which eventually has a counter-productive effect of 'sod it, I have given enough'.
But the bottom line is despite all I have said above and what others have said, I would not write off the chances of a last minute reprieve, for about the 4th time, as they are not too far off with getting enough funds to keep those hard working engineers and start the work required, allthough I think that come the end of 2010 this approach will definately not work again. Unfortunately I think they think they have found a working funding solution, so I wont hold my breath of them changing after all the promises at the beginning of 2009.