The dim military leadership are missing a trick then arent they?
Could never understand why the military didn't make more of the cash cow that an air day can be. Yes get an outside agency to run the thing. But they must surely be a good money generator if ran straight and correctly (not all of them were-fiddling was always terrible.
The people want to see the hardware they have paid for and they want to meet and see close up the people who fly them, maintain and manage them.
Its a no brainer.
The military top set have no real brains though and no link to the proles either. Put another way if you put Typhoon, Tornado, Merlin, Lynx, Apache, Hercules, Reaper, Hawk.....together at the remaining bases, they would probably sell out. It doesn't read as a lot anymore and I concede it wouldn't look brilliant. Need some other exotics to balance it out a bit.
But people would come. Cash would come in and positive publicity would be made. The military needs positive publicity.
That's an amazing picture above my post here-can anyone name all the aircraft? Are they naval aircraft in the top right corner? Does actually show how much UK air power has declined entirely.