Moggy-Your development ideas are interesting, and I especially like the idea of turning Milestones into a “Today” kind of exhibit; a permanent exhibition justifying and explaining the role of the RAF to the public is sorely needed against the current background of global instability and unilateral interventions in the Middle East.
I can’t however agree about getting rid of the Vulcan. If they’re going to maintain two centres for the Museum then surely it makes sense to duplicate some particularly iconic aircraft so more people can see them? Surely you wouldn’t also suggest getting rid of all but one example of the Museum’s Lightnings, Spitfires, Hunters and Hurricanes? Hendon’s Vulcan may tell the same story as Cosford’s, but it tells it to a different group of visitors – how many people visiting Hendon will immediately dash off to Cosford? Lastly, from the standpoint of national preservation of a type, XL318 has to be one of the most intact and best looked-after examples out there-having been carefully dismantled and reassembled by the RAF directly after finishing service with no lengthy period of corroding outdoors.
As to the role of the Museum and the question of preservation versus education, to me we have to accept that a modern museum should seek to actively improve its visitors’ understanding of the historical events in question. If your aim is solely to preserve or conserve aircraft, dinosaurs, feathers, books, umbrellas or whatever for the sake of having them retained somewhere, then surely there’s no need to open your museum to the public at all? Learning need not be limited to schoolchildren running around with worksheets-which of us can honestly say we’ve been to Hendon and not learnt something that we didn’t know before, or not seen something that changed our understanding of an event?
The challenge for Hendon to me is not to decide whether it should preserve or educate/entertain, but to balance those aspects of its remit in a way that keeps it relevant to the modern world of instant mass communication.
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