RAF Cosford no longer getting a VC10?

[WH904]

I agree that blaming CAS directly might be unwise, at it might not have been his decision. Point is, whoever made the decision ought to be ashamed of himself! I fail to see how anyone could argue that a VC10 could not land safely at Cosford when the aircraft's performance clearly indicates that it could, and as we know, one VC10 already did land there safely.

But I also agree that even if Cosford did acquire a VC10, it wouldn't necessarily be "preserved" there. Clearly, it would be doomed to stay outdoors as the Cold War Museum doesn't have room for anything new (possibly its greatest fault - it's never going to be any different no matter how many times you visit it). Maybe there is some hope of a new hall being built sometime in the distant future but somehow I doubt it, therefore any new acquisitions are likely to languish outdoors for a long time, if not forever. We know from experience that sooner or later, the powers-that-be at Cosford will decide that aircraft left outdoors should be dumped.

It seems likely that any VC10 (and I guess this applies to the Nimrod already?) would remain outdoors until Cosford either lose interest in it, or decide that it makes the site untidy, as happened with the airliner collection. They will doubtless claim that the aircraft is unsafe, or beyond economical restoration (as happened to the unique Vulcan B1). If Health & Safety zealots continue to infect our lives, it also seems likely that aircraft left outdoors will be declared a risk (little Johnny might climb through the barrier and stand underneath it and a wing might drop him at any moment).

So, I go back to one of my previous posts. The whole issue goes beyond the VC10 saga. We already seem to have a situation where Cosford decline aircraft if they are deemed too big to fly-in, or too expensive to transport by road. They have a demonstrable dislike for externally collections of any great size, so in all respects Cosford has become another Hendon.

Perhaps we've reached a stage where the preservation people need to start suggesting that the RAFM find another site to pursue longer-term preservation, or perhaps look at ways of working with IWM so that Duxford takes-on aircraft that RAFM cannot or will not save? Or maybe Duxford's also too small to accept a VC10-sized aircraft these days?!

But whatever happens, it seems pretty likely that only Bruntingthorpe will save an example of the RAF's mighty VC10. Well done RAFM... Well done IWM...