Hmmm… GO229 HO229 Horten IX prototype elevon 1945 flying wing german aircraft

190780787169

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190780787169?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fsch%2FCollectables-%2F1%2Fi.html%3F_nkw%3D190780787169%26_rdc%3D1

Historic, Aviation, memories, short sighted, lost cause, tragic, forlorn, hopeless, death nail…

And on that happy note lets all look forward to the UK’s future in world aviation…

Wow Stu. – Thank you very very much – I have another iamge soemewhere on my hard drive – it may be same one – But I will have a look for it!

Paul

My Pleasure…;)

Let me tell you a story…

As you probably already know, I for my sins have been a “researcher” for a certain British built aircraft that was produced at the start of WWII down here in the Southwest…

As there is very little left of the 4000 drawing’s that were produced to make said aircraft, we have had to use any available material that has survived to help us with our reconstruction.

We knew of some photo’s showing interior shot’s of the aircraft’s structure that were taken by a War Dept. and that they all had War Dept. negative numbers sequentially shown on each image…

We contacted the Museum who had the original glass negative’s and thought they would be able to let us have copies of the 30 odd photo’s we needed… But they told us they had donated a case containing them and many others to another Museum in London some 10 years before.

So we contacted that museum and asked if they could look for the negatives we were after so we could order copies…

Time passed…

Eventually we were told that ‘Yes’ the museum did have the case of negative’s, but ‘if’ it was opened it would then have to be ‘catalogued’ and because of ‘staff shortage’s’ and lack of time it would ‘not’ be opened for the foreseeable future…

More time passes…

After which we were allowed to view certain albums that were also donated by the other museum. Looking through them turned up one, very dark photo showing a near completed prototype, but they did not contain any of the photo’s that we specifically needed…

Later we were told that the photo’s we were looking for were very probably in the case containing the ‘glass negatives’ but as the museum couldn’t spare anyone to look for them, the ‘case’ would stay closed for the foreseeable future…

And this is not just the preserve of the museums. Certain magazines have tucked away in their archives, material over 70 years old that would again be invaluable, but will not allow any access for research purposes, but rather keep it all locked away in the dark till God knows when…

What ever is the point of having any of it, if it is never shown the light of day and God forgive to make bloody use of it to recreate a real aircraft…