MOD spending on BBMF
 

Interesting link from the Mil forum...

Proposed spending on various items, including 5 years worth of maintenance etc on the BBMF aircraft.
Sums includ £2.5M on new wheels for the Lancaster...


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....5e33d83f2b.jpg

I always worry when I see this sort of thing . Opens the door to "how many doctors/nurses/train drivers could we get for this money" crowd.

Maybe they better should build new flight display ones for all the money and keep the originals in museums as national treasures? Remember the Swiss Junkers Ju 52 that had bad corrosion and fatigue deep inside.

Of course we cannot see from the table how many wheels the MOD wants to buy, but £2.5m does sound a tad excessive. Perhaps having tooled up to make them the MOD might be able to recoup some cost by selling replacement for the Canadian based Lancaster as and when they are required.

ATNotts,

I was thinking the same thing. You could machine them from solid, gold-plate them and still have a few pence left over from £2.5 million!

They might be able to sell a set to the NX611/Just Jane project as well.
I guess that the originals were machined castings. So you'll need moulds, various test castings, machining to final shape, probably surface treatment and a complete stress evaluation because I'm sure part of the process and/or the materials will not be completely to original spec.

3D printer - simples

It would be very interesting to see a complete breakdown of the proposed costs and whom they may have in mind as a preferred bidder for the maintenance given the amounts appear to be very lucrative.

Which cabinet member's sibling, you mean ... ? :O

Not really when it comes down to it, design, metallurgy, tooling, manufacturing, testing, and the all important airworthiness release, I believe the MK1 spitfire props that had to be manufactured came in close to 1 mil per prop.

A long long time back I think I read that the each blade for a MkIX (Dowty Rotol?) was £25k so I can well imagine that price being authentic. As the article said, in an accident the prop is almost always a casualty.

With the Lanc, there are several other potential fliers such as Kermit Weeks' kit of parts (mainly the ex Strathallan/Charles Church KB976 plus parts from several other airframes) if his team can ever get around to them into a whole, and FM104 is potentially going to be restored to fly in Canada (it says here...! ) so spreading the cost a bit more could happen...

I thought the undercarriage had been nicked from a Shackleton? Could they not find some Shak wheels in good nick somewhere to go with the legs?

The £2.5m must have been a quote from B*E :ugh:

A couple of years ago varies organizations were contacted to try to find Mk2 Shack /Lanc wheels. It was known that two or three museums had acquired the remaining stocks of Shack spares when the MOD sold them off. Sadly, I believe that any wheels found were in such poor condition as to be unusable. It may well be that with a number of MK2 Shacks as well as Lancasters still around there is ready market for these wheels. That just leaves the issue of tyres and brake bags.

Perish the thought.

What would be equally interesting would be to learn the sources that, presumably, provided the quotes for all the published expenditure.

Given the costs mentioned, it would seem unlikely that other operators could afford the outlay with regard to their own types by way of offsetting the costs.

Much as everybody would love to see the BBMF continue to display, unfortunately, aircraft are like humans and to tend to have a finite life span.

Many years ago we visited the Rockefeller Auto Museum in Arkansas -. As you can imagine no expense had been spared and all the cars are both immaculate and driven . Asking the guide what was the biggest problem he said "wheels & Tires". Apparently the cost of effectively hand building old wheels and getting replica tyres is UNBELIEVABLE - but then as he said with a smile "Mr Rockefeller is able to afford it..."