Here's the plan.. lend me a few quid
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Is it a waste, I don't think so. Museums are established to preserve history in one way or another so incarceratating a Spitfire will preserve that history. The aircraft was once a wreck and has been restored to flying condition but it is ageing and will come up with the standard Spitfire problems of old age. There are enough Spitfires flying around the world, mostly with remanufactured wings and the cockpit filled with gizmos so that it can fly in todays ATC envirionment.
It will probably still be there in fifty years time, the only drawback is that the Spitfire has no history in China so it will not be appreciated as much by visitors as in the UK but they have odd Russian, French and German aircraft in British museums so why worry.
The museum at Cosford has stacks of unusual aircraft that were built for research in the fifties but nobody is screaming for them to get airborne.
It will probably still be there in fifty years time, the only drawback is that the Spitfire has no history in China so it will not be appreciated as much by visitors as in the UK but they have odd Russian, French and German aircraft in British museums so why worry.
The museum at Cosford has stacks of unusual aircraft that were built for research in the fifties but nobody is screaming for them to get airborne.
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TE330
Errrm... it wasn't a wreck as such. It spent decades being underappreciated in the USAF Museum in generic RAF markings before going to NZ. It was replaced by a PR.XI in US colours. Quite a lot of work has gone into making it airworthy again (as it was when delivered to the US) and now it will probably be "displayed" backed against the wall of an underlit tunnel (or heaven forbid, outdoors, but I don't expect so). Do you remember the "MATS Connie" once owned by Vern Rayburn? It came to the UK for a visit circa 1997. It was bought by Korean Airlines and now it is "preserved" outdoors on an island in Korea in the colours of an airline that has no ties with KAL. Let's see how much good that does it in the long term.
I'd rather see both flying, myself...
JT
I'd rather see both flying, myself...
JT
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with all the cuts going on in the armed forces, perhaps its time to set up a volunteer airforce, if not the fighters then cargo, Helio's, Nimrods etc, lol could not do any worse than this current government.
