Basic formats such as .tiff (and .tif) will always be supported but media will constantly change. Re the museums, we are asking too much from them. The private sector will provide the solution as it always has. Not many Museums actually publish books in any field and none publish in a way that is anywhere near commensurate with the depth of their collections. Digital publications are just another form of publishing and instead of paper, the medium is a CD, DVD or Blu-Ray or even the internet itself.

I think the future is bigger than just scanned documents: Engineers will do work in CAD for restorations and a by product will be the sharing of the work (publishing and distribution) for a comparatively small fee. Comparatively small because CAD work is notoriously time consuming and the cost is best spread over several customer’s needs. Over time there will be a growing data base of “off-the-shelf CAD research” with each contributing engineer well known and documented for their contribution(s).

I believe we are beginning to see the future take shape here…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKeZ9_-Bp-k

Why use scale drawings?

There are some excellent factroy blueprint sets and not least for the Fw 190 including the later long nosed versions. They can be found here and come from various partners in the industry including Claus Colling at Flug Werk GmbH (the 1:1 aluminium replica) in Germany.

http://stores.ebay.com/Flug-archiv-20_Blueprint-Multi-CD_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ13QQftidZ2QQsclZ1QQtZkm

don’t know about the dig, but do know that the RR Merlin Mk II Overhaul Manual also contains updates to 1940 Mk III engine and the back section contains approx. 20 pages of prop and gear specifications with illustrations in answer to your 2nd question.