Future Developments

I was reading through the last 17 years of Flypast magazines during the Christmas holidays (in between eating sessions), and found it very interesting.

Especially the mid 90’s was a very interesting period with so many RAF sites closing down and so many aircraft types coming out of service.

The other rather sad thing that I noticed was the rather high number of accidents over the years and the loss of so many good people. And secondly the loss of many rare aircraft.

Another sad thing was to loss of so many static airframes. Either because the museums they were located at closed down or after years of outside display their condition was too poor.

Have we learned anything from these last 17+ years?

The accidents are unfortunately still happening. Mostly for the same reason, pilot error.

Too many ‘wild displays’. Too many accidents.

This has robbed us of many fine pilots and many rare aircraft.

It also brought very high insurance covers.

I think there is a lack of criticisme towards the ‘historic aircraft movement’ from within the business and from oustide enthusiasts.

I think criticisme can be a healthy thing.

I believe BBMF style displays are the future, if we want to continue to enjoy seeing these aircraft.

On the static side, the museums (national, regional and private ones) now seem to understand that leaving aircraft outside is not an option.

Many museums and collections have disappeared over the last 20 years, I guess to a degree there was an overdose.

I hope that more useful museum buildings will be built in the future.

Personally I think the aircraft at Brooklands, the civil airliner collections at Duxford and Manchester are at a high risk.

These should be the priority.

I hope they can be saved.