Unless people make some individual provision for the continuity of their website I don’t think there is much that can be done (unfortunately) and preservation of the information from these sites will be left to those who care and are prepared to put their time and effort into preserving the information. There must be huge amounts of really good information that is constantly disappearing from the web.
I was fortunate enough to come across another forum where a member managed to provide me with information I had sought on and off for 30 plus years on the Le Vier Cosmic Winds. I made sure I recorded it all in a word document so that I still have the details if the site or posts go down.
And before someone says anything – You are quite right I will still be well and truly up — creek if the computer throws a major wobbly.
We could go for lottery funding for a National Museum of Aviation Websites but I don’t think the chances of success would be very high.
On a similar subject my other half gets very worried about what she would do with my car and motorcycle resto projects and how she could sort my ebay and website accounts if the unthinkable happened. I should think many others here have far more of what our women call junk than I do so it must be a pretty widespread problem with no way of giving her values for things when they can change quite drastically on a fairly regualr basis..

Have only had a chance to briefly skim the posts here but I thought the programme was very good and conveyed the stress of being a fighter pilot at that time very well.
I liked the fact that it was a dramatisation mixed with comments by the actual pilot involved and being a dramatisation I thought there was more chance of the non aviation minded public watching it than there would have been of them watching a documentary.
I think it should be compulsory viewing for all secondary school children as part of their history syllabus as it really brought the Battle of Britain period to life and gave a far deeper insight than any book could hope to give and might just make some of them think what others gave up so that they could live today.

Prior to the Hornby takeover Corgi had always been very helpful with spare parts. If Hornby can’t help you directly it might be worth approaching the dealer where you buy your aviation models. Assuming that you buy fairly regularly from one dealer they may well be able to get the parts for you as manufacturers / importers are often more inclined to help their stockists than they are to help individual collectors.
I

[QUOTE=Bob;1636159]Every time you climb aboard a commercial passenger flight, be it short or long haul, that risk exists. I think a small outfit like Thunder City could probably be trusted more than some commercial outfits……

That is true but the Lightning has many flight characteristics and some maintenance problems which were regarded as acceptable at the time which would never have been accepted on an airliner. There was never any intention of implying that Thunder City were anything less than exemplary when it came to maintenance but I am not aware of any civil airliner where a pilot regarded the best of his landings as a semi controlled crash – a statement which I remember being attributed to a Lightning pilot.
We all take risks every time we fly in any aircraft. In some ways the risks in a vintage aeroplane are possibly greater than in a modern airliner because of the age of some components regardless of how well the aircraft is looked after. Most enthusiasts like myself accept that risk on the basis that it is extremely unlikely that we will come to any harm but I was simply trying to point out that the accident may have made some think again about the risks involved in flying in a high performance jet fighter particularly one which is around 50 years old and has operating systems that stretched the technology available at that time to pretty close to its limits.
The Lightning is a great aeroplane and was a fantastic achievement for it’s time but it has always been said that several hours maintenance went into every hour airborne ( particularly as the aircraft got older)- something that would neither be acceptable or financially viable in an airliner.

Could this be an early attempt at a flying boat?

I think Avion Ancien has about summed it up.
One view is that a one off is unique and therefore desirable and presumerably expensive articularly if it is a well known airframe with an interesting history.
On the other hand there is still a lot to do to get the Bluetit into the air and I would imagine that its flying qualities and abilities must be a bit of an unknown so this must count against it when determining a price.

WJ244 – you are confusing your Mosquito’s!

TW117 was the T3 at RAFM, and was exported to Norway. A comprehensive inspection was carried out on the aircraft; the upshot being that if you put fuel in it, you could fly it out (almost!!)

Its replacement, TJ138, came to the RAFM via St Athan and Swinderby. It was broken in two at Swinderby when being moved to St Athan.

Bruce

Thanks Bruce. I checked an old Wrecks and Relics before I posted and that listed TW117 at Hendon. Obviously it had moved on before my visit. Pleased to know that I was right about the repair and the reasons behind it though as I recalled it very vividly and didn’t think the memory banks were quite that bad – yet!

Having read the other posts it is a shame that TW117 wasn’t returned to airworthy status and the ex IWM Mosquito (TV959 I think) which I last heard of with Stephen Grey could have been passed on to Norway. The cut spar would have been less of a problem to repair for static and we could have had the pleasure of a flying mossie here. I know it is all very easy to say wiith the benefit of hindsight but it does seem a shame that the opportunity was missed.