Well done Rob as you know we will give you any help we can,hope you like the odd bits we found (interesting door stop if nothing else.)

Mike E

Many of these wrecks in particular the ones in water are best left where they are unless there is a very cohesive plan in place not only for the recovery but for the treatment and then preservation/restoration of what is recovered.

Please do not misunderstand the above I am all for rescuing and recovering these lost aircraft but without a plan in place and the resources what you recover will just fall apart as you disturb it ,you move it, you open up the surface and let oxygen in and dont do anything to get at the grot you are consigning it to a worse fate than if you left it alone.

There is a certain aircraft on the welsh coast that has been mentioned many times and is supposed to belong to a well known US organisation (I will leave it at that)who have done nothing about it.I for one would be willing to put resources in to recover and restore but it needs others with differeing resources both expertise and financial to ensure we get it right and until this other lot go and play with something else it will continue to sadly rot.

Mike E

Had a quick look at the space available in hangar 4 at Duxford this morning and with the Varsity gone there would be more than enough space for the Ju/Amiot and Storch. I would like to think that had been considered prior to the disposal.

There might seem a lot of space in hangar 4 but as of next week most of the stuff from IWM display in central London is arriving at Duxford for a good twelve months whilst the building work takes place might I suggest application of a cigarette paper might be difficult when they have finished shoe horning everything into that large space you suggest.

Otherwise valuable aircraft might have to be placed outside in storage and I can just imagine the comments that would raise,As has been stated before by others its a sad fact that museums and collections have to strike a balance or at least to try to .There are still a lot of collections that struggle to have all their aircraft undercover and that in itself is a cause for great comment.

Some time ago some of us suggested why not have a national rotation policy around collections and museums.Aircraft would not sit in the same spot in the same museum for years and visitors getting bored because nothing new was to be seen but small and medium sized exhibits where rotated around collections on a shared basis then museums would not be seen or commented on as being stagnant or nothing ever new but would in fact have changes taking place and visitors on a regular basis no matter what part of the country they where in would get the chance to see something different or new.And the collections would not have to spend lots of money on acquiring new exhibits or get slated when because they had no choice the only way to get new stuff in or make changes is to go through a disposal process first.

Or am I perhaps suggesting something to simple or radical ???

And before someone starts jumping up and down on their pogo stick I am not quoting or referring to anyone’s previous quote or comments.I am merely making an observation

well if it does not work out they cant go much further south ??.

They could always move to Jersey I suppose !!.

Oh dear what a coincidence does’nt Mike Collet live in jersey ?.Oh well he wont need to fly over he can just jump out of bed and pop down the airfield:D:D:D:D

I have replica Spitfire seats on the shelf at the minute.They are for Spitfire projects we currently have in the workshop but I can get more without any problem.And before anyone asks no they aint suitable for airworthy projects.

mike E