Hi All
Stepping up a gear now, I’ve often thought that if someone had the hindsight to preserve some aircraft after the war when they were relatively cheap then they would have made a great investment for retirement. Apart from always having a vision of preserving a complete airframe in Lincolnshire as a memorial to the British 1st Airborne division that was based there, getting one as an investment has partly driven my quest to find and preserve a Dakota as I feel the type is coming to the end of its useful life and especially in Europe with the EASA idiots banning passengers.
……. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I have found a few suitable airworthy airframes and want to form a syndicate to add another Dak to the UK register.
I’m not a millionaire but do have enthusiasm for the project and willing to commit several thousand pounds myself but am looking for likeminded individuals to join me, so if anyone is interested in investing about 10-20k for a part share then please get in touch as it would do a lot better than sticking it in an Icelandic bank!!!!
I have been offered several aircraft with suitable wartime histories that are airworthy and capable of a ferry flight over to England, the plan would be to maintain the aircraft as a ground runner and then look into the possibility of keeping her in the air subject to funding/ sponsorship.
By: austernj673 - 22nd December 2008 at 09:55
So many questions,
The plan would/ will be not to put it on the UK ‘G’ register and not to keep her flying unless someone more clever than me could work out a way to keep it profitable e.g taxi run passengers, sponsorship, advertising etc etc but judging by the response to the Vulcans need for cash it would be a non starter. However the plan is to preserve an airworthy example and keep her fully serviced so that if at some time in the future there was an interest in getting her airborne again then it wouldn’t be an issue.
As for storage etc, we have an undercover workshop that is suitable for the next few years for the restoration back to 1944 spec with wings removed but i’m working on the theory that it will be a tad easier to find a suitable place to display her once restored than to start looking now for a place without actually having the credibility of having the aircraft. However as for suitable locations, Lincolnshire is full of British 1st Airborne Division history and RAF Barkston Heath or surrounding area would be an ideal location but we will see.
As for shares, Ideally another 2 part owners each contributing £20,000 each should do the trick, several machines have been identified with interesting histories however one thing i didn’t plan for is the credit crunch and the strength of the GBP to the USD and at this moment in time it looks as if the project will be relegated to the back burner unless the economy gets back on track or the price of the global Dakota fleet suddenly drops.
Why bother???? Well, we are all on here due to an interest in historic aviation and a feel that in another 50 years we will be writing the same comments about the Dakota as we do about all of the other classic types and since I started researching, it is amazing just how quickly they are being scrapped around the world and I’d imagine in another 10 years or so no one will be operating them commercially so now seems the ideal time to pick up a relatively cheap airframe for long term preservation and investment.
By: Tom Everitt - 19th December 2008 at 22:57
When you say add another Dak to the UK register, are you intending to give it a G- Reg? If so you may find it easier and cheaper to leave it on the N reg, especially from a maintenance point of view.
I would suggest talking to PPS at Booker (maintainers of N1944A) and Air Atlantique at Coventry as they are the two main knowledge pools when it comes to Daks in the UK.
Tom
By: XH668 - 19th December 2008 at 22:13
Do your costings include hangarage?
Keeping any aircraft as an ‘investment’ not under cover is a fairly faint hope.
Moggy
There’s lots of questions here like the one above.
How much is the whole project? By that i mean the whole aircraft
How many shares in the project are going to be offered? Will this depend on what money people can offer?
Where is the aircraft in question going to be based?
Will it be under cover?
what are the costs involved in that and keeping it at an airfield?
Who will maintain the aircraft?
How will it be operated?
If you can have a good answer for the following you might get many more interested
Tho i wish you all the very best, if this works out it could be a very good thing 🙂 you can never have too many daks about
By: Moggy C - 19th December 2008 at 21:50
Do your costings include hangarage?
Keeping any aircraft as an ‘investment’ not under cover is a fairly faint hope.
Moggy
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December 19, 2008 at 6:49 pm