Indeed; some Spits, for instance the time-capsule OTU Mk.I at Chicago, are especially valuable as artifacts for reference, to establish the sort of details we see being thrashed out with great effort on this forum regarding, say, the Hornet, Whirlwind and Stirling cockpit projects. Fortunately there are enough Spits extant that not only is it practical to operate some of the survivors, but critical mass of the type has been achieved so that a cottage industry has come into being in support. (Compare that with the Tempest situation.) There’s certainly room for both, and some of the museum Spits really should remain static permanently.

As to not enough possible “Spitfire reincarnators” to render viable a theoretical haul of hulks from underneath old airbases in Myanmar…surely that would be at least partially because never before has such a haul been mooted as a possibility! And I’d think that even if Mr Cundall’s effort were to bear fruit, not all of the resulting airframes/parts would perforce become projects to fly: surely some would become museum rebuilds, and some even conserved for display as found. I think there’d be enough interest to find homes for any number of exhumed Spitfires. Heck, if I had the space and the cash, I’d take one on…and it’d become one of the “as-found” displays…

S.