Frustrating, 😡
A fine contender to increase the worlds population of Wellingtons with another veteran.
Who does he think he is kidding?

Cees

Hi Phil,

You can try Mike Henninger or Turretboy on this forum as they have visited Tenton regularly and especially Mike has some very nice photo’s of the restoration work over the years. If you look at webshots you will find them there.

Cheers

Cees

Pander EC11

Gr

Cees

I still think it’s a pity the remains of the Beverwijk Whirlwind were scrapped after recovery by the Dutch after the war, oh well…. 😮 .

About time Steve Vizard starts making his dream come true as I understand he has a lot of wreckage and his pet project is to be reconstructing a Whirlwind.

Cees

Definitely a case of the wrong tree to bark up there. Any museum, particularly a National museum, that sold any of its collection to the general public would be breaking the public trust as well as numerous ethical guidelines.

🙂 Don’t worry I had not intentions to act like that.

I fully understand the reason why such an object isn’t released to private projects. But of course it is frustrating to know that two pristine throttle boxes are gathering dust in storage while a certain project can do something very sensible with one of them, and that is also what I explained in my written request.

As a footnote I know that over the years it has happened several times that objects have been released to private persons from the RAFM stores. Even if you read issues of FlyPast there are several instances where persons were very happy to obtain much needed items from the RAFM. I offered to exchange it for something they would need but to no avail. I asked through 57Rescue as a plan B but that was turned down as well. The search continues…… 😉

Cheers

Cees

I have only a very limited experience of this, but I’ll try to give an example of how the restoration shop I worked with do things.

We were involved in a restoration to flight of a very rare type, of which none are currently airworthy, and only around a dozen examples survive worldwide, in any condition. Parts therefore were, and I would imagine still are, very hard to come by. This being compounded by the fact that the standards required for airworthy parts are understandably much higher than for statics.

Before I became involved in the project, the shop were fortunate enough to be tipped off about the existence of some buried cowl gill rings which may or may not ‘go again’; the rings were found, retrieved, and my job was to dismantle, clean, inspect, and then restore the bits which we thought would go airworthy. I would estimate that, of the total number of assemblies and parts that I worked on, maybe 10% were able to be re-worked and prepared to go onto the aeroplane. Most of the rest were either bagged or boxed, and then stored, with the exceptions of parts of steel tubing or mag alloy which had corroded so far that they just flaked away when you touched them; these bits went in the bin.

At first, I was quite surprised by the idea that we would keep non-airworthy bits, as I couldn’t see what benefit there would be to keeping them boxed up on a shelf when we clearly couldn’t use them as flyers. But then one night I was asked to sort through the box of cowl gill nut plates, and seperate a quantity of good static ones out. We then cleaned them, packed them, and off they went, to help with another restoration in another country. We wouldn’t have been able to do that if we’d just binned the non-airworthy bits, and the guys doing a very important static restoration would have found themselves either having to fabricate non-original parts, or looking elsewhere, or even stalling on their project.

Conversely, we had a marvellous find of our own. A UK-based museum traded a badly corroded cockpit frame to us. At first glance, it was fit only for the knackers yard, but the boss had other ideas. Mounted on the frame, was a gunsight mounting arm, of the correct type for our aeroplane, and in what seemed to be good condition. A few weeks later, that arm had been dismantled, cleaned, inspected, found to be potentially airworthy, restored, and fitted to the aeroplane. And it’s historically accurate for this type.

Moral of the story? Never scrap anything. One man’s crap is another man’s gold nugget.

Steve,

Thanks on behalf of NA337, she owes you a lot. Although a lot of original skins etc were binned during the restoration of her as well.

Cheers

Cees

Sounds about right.

Anna, maybe we should get rid of the Spitfire and Hurricane FSM’s outside while we’re at it? And perhaps strip the non-original bits off the Bulldog and return it to how it looked post-Farnborough 1963? And bin the Tristar simulator because that’s not a real aeroplane? How about the interactive learning zone, which mine and Seafuryfan’s kids had a huge amount of fun in a couple of months ago, should we bin that too, because it’s not a genuine historical artifact?

Sorry guys, but I really don’t get the point of some postings. Complaining about the RAF Museum’s choice of exhibits? Let’s take a look at some of what they have in there:

Typhoon (real one, with a Napier Sabre in it)
Stranraer
Defiant
Valiant
Ki100
Bulldog

Cor. Six UNIQUE (!) surviving aircraft types there alone.

Ju88
Stuka
Me110
Beaufighter
Halifax

Don’t get many of each of these to the pound either, do we?

Themed displays showing First World War aircraft in a relevant, and ORIGINAL setting, and another display hall housing the primary protagonists of the Battle of Britain all under one roof, and with an explanatory film showing the story behind the Battle, how it was fought and what it meant, and highlighting the aeroplanes themselves.

Sections of the museum highlighting the contributions made by the Air Sea Rescue guys, the role of the helicopter, the way bombing and strike roles have evolved, how the RAF fulfilled maritime roles…

Presenting exhibits in a thoughtful and informative way – my son was intrigued to see what aeroplanes first flew in the year of his birth, or the year of my birth, or the year of Grandad’s birth. He learned what happens when you move a control column left, right, forward or back. He saw how aeroplanes manage to refuel in the sky.

But that’s because he was looking, and learning.

Anna – did you see the annual timeline in Milestones building? Because that’s where Haydn saw what flew in what year.

Did you see the interactive learning zone? Because that’s where the next generation of pilots will come from.

Did you walk round the back of the aeroplanes and see the displays that are round there? Because that’s where Haydn learned about inflight refuelling.

Hendon isn’t perfect. But that’s because it’s in a constant state of change, and that’s a good thing. Without change, we all stagnate. And stagnation is no good for an establishment that seeks not only to preserve, but to educate.

So what if the Eurofighter model is plastic? It still gives kids that WOW! factor, and gives them the image of something that maybe one day, they will grow up to fly.

So what if the silver Spitfire on the wall of Milestones is plastic? It’s another striking image – the iconic, eliptical wing of the Spitfire, the most famous aeroplane ever to have flown with the Royal Air Force.

Maybe instead of constantly complaining about the RAFM, we ought occasionally to congratulate them on what they are trying to do?

And don’t forget the Battle and Fiat CR42.

Cheers

Cees

Bedankt Martin

Cees