The trouble with the UK is we are blessed with 400+ sites of aviation interest or history, there are around 70 museums/collections with scores of aircraft dotted around the Country, – over the years, we’ve lost a great deal & sadly are bound to lose some more! (This of course excludes most Army or Navy non-aviation sites which are just as important, but suffer even greater threat of being lost).

However IMHO it is possible that we can almost halt, or even reverse some this by co-operation between tri- service, national & private museums & other bodies such as M.V.T. National Trust & UK heritage trusts , coupled with a strive to make these sites fashionable.

To me the key to this our love fornostalgia & heritage ;- let me ( Think out of the box :rolleyes:) and try to create for a moment what I’d envisage as an achieveable set of goals.

Start lobbying for a series of national heritage trails or even “blue plaque” everything – where a former airfield, navy base or barracks stands, or stood, only to be replaced by agriculture, housing or industrial estate, make it compulsary for the developers to erect a memorial to the sites original role- a good example of this can be found at site of the former Budbrooke Army Camp in Warwickshire.

Pool our current transportable resources– instead of the nationals expecting every visitor to go to their sites, which given the current economic climate, is even more difficult – have a “road show” of easily transportable exhibits & take them to other Cities, Towns & Museums, schools or even larger retail parks – yes I favour having wartime history on the national curriculum.

For example the recent move of artifacts from Lambeth to Duxford, to me instead of taking just 6 months to carry out the improvement work, they could have spread it over a longer period. during the available time the IWM could have taken the bomber cockpits & fighter aircraft etc, on a national tour- i.e. “Victory Week” style.*

Dare I say it, but even go so far as to use the CASA 111 as a travelling exhibit, bring it up to B of B Luftwaffe standard (but say what it is you have done to the aircraft, replica Jumo nacelles,of course ) & take it on a “Blitz tour” of those Cities & Towns that were targeted by the Luftwaffe.*

Involve smaller museums to act as a base in a mutual effort to show off these national treasures as well as their own, if need be have long term loans of some desirable artifacts – the smaller museums then acting as “stepping Stones” for potential Visitors, i.e. mutual advertisement benefitting guest & host ammineties.

[B]*To be honest, if they did this in wartime to raise funds & awareness when resources were scarce,why can’t it be done now?*[/B]

The RAFM has so much stuff in store that it could do something similar;- for starters they have at least 4 spare Spitfires, currently acting as dust platforms, that could relatively cheaply, be made into travelling exhibits- let’s face it from the public point of veiw they’re so iconic, that they would create a great deal of interest by their presence alone.( besides am I biased on this one- I’d love to see one at my local museum- even if it was for a week.)*

Encourage the involvment of interested Celebs & VIP’s;- If James May can do what he did with a 1:1 plastic “kit”, what could a group of interested others do for those who volunteer to preserve our aviation past?

Let’s push the positive boundaries out– instead of whinging about this or that Council or Mr J who chose to move into his house then complain about the noise of a Merlin- invite them in & show them the importance of this legacy.

These are only a few of my ideas, please give them some thought, but let’s hear yours as well.

regards Rad.