Where should the Vickers Vimy go?
 

As everyone knows, it is the 100th anniversary next December of the Vickers Vimy flight from England to Darwin.

I was down in Adelaide over the weekend and had a look at the Vimy. The aircraft is hidden in the side of the overflow car park. It is very difficult to find, and every young Adelaidean I spoke to about the Vimy had no idea even what I was talking about. Here is a link to an article published in the Adelaide Advertiser.

It appears the airport operator could be interested in relocating the Vimy into their new International Terminal. Also, the South Australian Aviation Museum at Port Adelaide would be interested in having it there.

Another idea would be to set up a Smithsonian type museum in Canberra and have the Southern Cross, the Vimy and our other major aviation icons located there.

What do others think?

The idea of a National Aviation Museum was floated 30 ? years ago. Out of Cantberra, talkfests, promises?? and never any funding or a result either. .Someone else may know more about these past machinations that had no positive outcome.
Now with smaller Museums all over the country..its of benefit to communities there other than the fairyland of Canberra where big bucks can be splashed about...depending on the political idea of the time eg 1/2 billion for War Museum, "Saving" the Barrier Reef etc. Aviation ?? Que ?
The winning flight in the Vimy landed in Oz in Darwin, but their journey terminated in Adelaide.
It used to be readily visible before the Big Dollars from Car parking, and new terminal caused a shift.
Inside the Adelaide Airport terminal, many more people would get to see it, I'd reckon than housed in a CB facility..as yet un-built.
The 'Southern Cross ' at BNE terminal is a bit out of the way..you have to be interested enough to pull off the road and go for a look. Not so many do that.

Most visitors were people parked up waiting for a flight to arrive at one of the terminals. Now they wait (and are encouraged to) at the Maccas up the road. The Southern Cross is almost impossible to actually drive to these days, unless you already know where you are going. No signage, and only one, now effectively by-passed, road that has the entrance off it.

Probably the opportunity to create a National Aviation Museum has been lost. Any government money that might be available for such a project would be better spent on the existing aviation museums. The groups that run these museums have achieved remarkable results with minimal resources and they don't waste money on glossy brochures. By fostering the development of existing museums, the aviation history message will reach a greater percentage of the population than will a centralised museum. Unfortunately there isn't much hope for aviation museums when our government is pushing nonsense like this:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....a0e48abc90.jpg

It used to be the main road in to the airport which I went along every shift going to the Met Office. It was a beautiful site then and deserves to be better placed. I guess people forget he flew that flight but was not allowed to fly the race as the RAC was sure he would not be able to read the map.

Dick, the conservation of our great aviation icons, the Southern Cross and the Vimy is nothing more than a national disgrace. I visited the KIngsford Smith memorial the other day and the airconditioning for the aircraft was still not working and no one cares.

These icons need to be housed in a purpose built fully maintained facility for all of the public to see and understand their contribution. A real National Aviation Museum in Canberra is needed now to hold these artifacts. Great to see $550M being spent at the AWM but nothing for aviation. Frankly the RAAF MUseum buildings are a ramshackle collection and other bigger exhibits outside next to Port Phillip Day. Guess what they'll be corroded junk in 10 years and then disposed of..

Off-topic, but what exactly will the exhibits comprise of?

The Lockheed Hudson which is situated inside the Canberra Airport Terminal is in the perfect position. It is away from the weather. Use that as an example of where to put the Vimy in the Adelaide terminal?

The Adelaide terminal moved, but the Vimy didn't. It's dedicated building was adjacent to the original terminal.

If the millenials had a computer game of the great air race, they might know about it....

Also, there's a Bristol Monoplane M1 Sout (the only survivor in the world) in a little town called Minlaton in country SA that should be moved to a better location too...

I like the idea of a National Aviation Museum, but would it be simpler to take an existing institution like HARS (as an example only), beef up its funding, and transfer these aviation icons there as opposed to creating an entirely new place from scratch? I don't think we have the population to sustain many museums for something like aviation so, maybe it is wiser to do one place really well.

AAL took over YPAD and YPPF and paid not a lot to the Commonwealth. Since then they've made a fortune from both airports in the form of fees and charges, but significantly from real estate development bringing in IKEA, Bunnings and a host of other retail outlets. I believe they got a valuable land rezoning at Parafield when the road at the S end took some of the land. The windfall rezoning would give them a benefit North of $100M. My point is, AAL could build a decent display to house the Vimy without blinking at the cost. The could then redevelop the old display building and earn some doolars from that.

South Australians built the Southern Cross Replica which languished in the Hartwig hangar at YPPF for years, and after some underhanded deals it was given to HARS along with the insurance payout to repair it. It's now more than 16 years since the accident and some 12 years since HARS were given it, but is it flying again? I'm dead against the Vimy going interstate, and in particular going to HARS.

A message to Dick Smith. Go and play with you peanut butter, vegemite etc, but keep your nose out of South Australia's heritage. It's not wanted.

The Vimy Lang Kirby used is in in the Brooklands Museum in the UK. It also crossed the Atlantic and flew to South Africa!
.https://www.brooklandsmuseum.com/exp...t/vickers-vimy
mmitch.

Yes....I think the Vimy should probably stay in Adelaide, and it is regrettable how remote the Southern Cross is in BNE now....I've visited many times of course...but it gets harder. I was in Tamworth this time last week and my Son and I stopped to look at the East West Avro Anson...again, not terribly easy to access.

Caboolture, Caloundra & the once a month Amberley Museum are all enjoyable, and after driving to Tamworth not too far from here! .... All very enjoyable little museums!...

At least by Dick Smith raising the question, something positive may come of it.

I was getting worried there - a thread opened by Dick with no gratuitous "bashing" of the OP for almost 15 responses :ugh: