Jumpseater said:-
"Surely anyone with any time in the industry on the engineering and ops side realised that this project needed to be run as a 'business' and there would need to be massive sums of money involved, simply because of the type and complexity of the aircraft. That money would need to come from somewhere, and regularly. Unfortunately many of the highly motivated enthusiasts weren't/aren't aware of this fact of life, or have chosen to bury their heads in the sand".
You are dead right about the highly motivated enthusiasts being unaware that this aircraft was going to keep swallowing huge sums of their money. Mr Pleming gave the impression that once flying, the aircraft would attract so many sponsors that they would be battering his door down to shower him with money. Well, he was wrong wasn't he? So it was back to the highly motivated enthusiasts with cap in hand and a sob story to tell. This has carried on being the case until we again arrive at the situation of the aircraft still sitting on the ground halfway through the display season. We enthusiasts have not buried our heads in the sand, we are just bloody angry at the mismanagement of what is turning out to be a sorry project. Value for money? I think not!