I know there us a tendency in the UK to pour scorn on experts and common sense- lets deafen all the men working on Big Ben , they are only workmen we still want to here that chimes that Napolean and Hitler couldnt stop etc etc. Surely we can keep the BBMF going , Dunkirk spirit etc etc
As has been said these aircraft are very very old and were designed with a life expectancy in months not decades and the lovely exploded view of a Merlin (no pun) earkeir on shows just why recips were ditched the moment they solved the metallurgy problems of jets - too many moving bits in conflict with each other.
Now i absolutely adore the sound of a Merlin and no book aviation or otherwise had a better title than Spit test pilot, Alex Henshaw's, wonderful 'Sigh for a Merlin'. But surely if there is a problem ground the aircraft for a few months and fix it rather than risk a catastrophic display accident which post Shoreham could well be the death knell for UK Airshows.
And having said that i ahve had the delight this weekend of seeing and hearing two Merlins , one I think on a Hurricane ( but I might have been wrong with that one) and then just a few hours ago a P 51 snarling across the sky over Camberley ( the Hurricane , cos it was surely not a Spit ) took the same route . Was I right about the identification , as they dodged from view through the tree canopy heading North to South. I do love the sound of big piston props on a fast moving fighter