Just a question, and i dare not breathe it almost 🙂 When PA474 is retired in the hopefully far far future, what will happen to her?
I presume LLA will have something to do with it, i would imagine the RAF will keep her and not offer her for sale. Could she be retired and kept in live condition at a purpose built complex or would the RAF prefer to send her to a place like Cosford never to move again.
This is of course purely theoretical and i would imagine by the time this happens the political/economical climate will be vastly different to todays so things may be different.
At the very least i would hope she stays in Lincolnshire.
Steve
By: Hatton - 31st March 2004 at 01:20
Originally posted by Dez
Love the ‘Thames’ Picture…:D
want a print of that also dez! 😉
By: Dez - 30th March 2004 at 23:54
Knowing our luck it will end up in the states…
or turned into a ‘Starbucks’ or something:(
Love the ‘Thames’ Picture…:D
By: Last Lightning - 30th March 2004 at 23:33
sods law says………….mind what you say:rolleyes:
By: JDK - 30th March 2004 at 21:00
Hmmm.
Improves the view, in a way.
Are you tendering for the big nail job to hold it to the perch?
Cheers
By: Hatton - 30th March 2004 at 20:00
i think she’s been here before but a hundred foot higher and facing the other way!
By: Peter - 30th March 2004 at 16:19
OMG!!!!!!!
Omg That is sooo bad for so many reasons!!
Look Lancman, she even has a little budgie perch like R5868..tweet…tweet…. LOL
By: Bluebird Mike - 30th March 2004 at 12:26
ROTFLMAO, that’s brilliant!
No no no, that’s still far too dignified; it’s needs to be crammed into a small internal space, have most of the lights directed at it turned off, and be regularly taken apart because it blocks a doorway, too!
Man, that’s funny! 😀 😀 😀 😀
By: Hatton - 30th March 2004 at 12:17
dignity lancman, you mean something like this? 😉
By: Bluebird Mike - 30th March 2004 at 09:39
I would suspect that it will only be a particularly nasty landing accident or some bean-counter from up on high that would ever ground the Lanc. Hopefully when that awful time comes, the LLA will get to kick in with their original intention of making sure the bomber stays on display in Lincolnshire?
I just don’t want to see it grounded, sold off by the RAF and having a ‘last flight’ to somewhere, then doing taxi runs, then being stripped to pieces, then having a huge ‘Lancaster To The Skies’ campaign…I’ll hope for some dignity, instead. 🙁
By: JDK - 29th March 2004 at 22:43
Thanks Fluffy,
Just the answer I hoped for.
Propstrike, I think there was such a suggestion, but not taken as a serious one within the RAF, MOD or (of course) the flight. IIRC, it came up when Paul Coggan interviewed the head of Strike Comm about the BBMF’s future in Warbirds Wrldwide XX – you guess, I’m too tired.
Cheers
By: Propstrike - 29th March 2004 at 22:27
Wasn’t there some barmy proposal a few years ago to ground the Lanc, as a ‘tribute to World Peace’ or some such neo-political gesture?
By: Fluffy - 29th March 2004 at 21:12
JDK
I understand BAE calculate the flying hours/ fatique we do every year and on that basis they have come up with a rolling programme of major components they believe require replacement ie fin spars replaced 2 yrs ago, tailplane spars are due in about 6-8 yrs time, engines /props are not a problem at the moment. The flight at this time has a very secure future but it could change.
By: Hatton - 29th March 2004 at 21:05
Originally posted by anneorac
One small point, the RAF do not own the Museum at Cosford.Anne (She who is pedantic)
🙂 thanks for the correction. It was the best way i could think of putting it, i did realise that it wasnt owned as the hendon airframes were in the last few years transferred over from the RAF to the musuem itself.
Fluffy, if you’re going to have her then you might as well go the full whack and convert her into a ‘special’ and bounce bombs off the duck pond 😉
Id always figured if i bugged the nice people at the visitor centre enough then they might give me her.
Dont put her anywhere near Lincoln City Centre, please!!!! Somewhere in the middle of nowhere on a cold windswept airfield is the best place for her, isn’t the hanger at East Kirkby twice as big now ………….hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 🙂
By: JDK - 29th March 2004 at 20:58
I think thre are too many variables in this equation to come up with a meaningful answer Hatton, though it’s an interesting question nonetheless.
Answer should be ‘just after G-ASXX regains her C of A, PA474 gets a purpose built hangar in Lincoln. Rumors of a pointy building devoted to a discretited higher being being raized for space in Lincoln city centre are unfounded…’
Flyffy, anyone – what is the critical timeline under current operational requirements? New spar was what – 25 years? engines, props? fuel? pilot’s kid gloves?
Cheers
By: Fluffy - 29th March 2004 at 20:54
anneorac
Forget my last post I can’t read.
By: Fluffy - 29th March 2004 at 20:50
Yes, but it’s not in Lincolnshire
By: anneorac - 29th March 2004 at 20:41
One small point, the RAF do not own the Museum at Cosford.
Anne (She who is pedantic)
By: Fluffy - 29th March 2004 at 20:17
When that day comes you will be able to visit her in her new hangar in my back garden for £550 and watch undercarriage retractions and if you are lucky we might start her up.
By: Hatton - 29th March 2004 at 17:02
Just a point of clarification. The Lanc will have to retire one day, im not concerning the issues of why or when, i just wandered where it may go and where people would like it to go.
The reason Cosford was mentioned as an example is because if the RAF want to keep hold of it, it is one of the few museums owned by the RAF that would have space and a roof for it.
By: Bruce - 29th March 2004 at 16:53
Who knows what may happen
BBMF have been under threat from the bean counters before, and no doubt will be again.
If it comes to a decision to cease operation, then I guess it and all the others will be sold for the maximum they can get.
If it comes to a point where it is no longer airworthy, and hence (relatively) worthless, then it may go to a museum. One of the national ones would be an obvious choice – I would hazard a guess at East Fortune!
Bruce
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March 29, 2004 at 4:22 pm