My main suggestions would be to ensure that it is possible to open all the exhibition halls all day every day (except for times when maintanance may make this impossible) and encourage the staff to be approachable and get them to interact with the visitors and answer their questions.
I wrote in another post about my last visit to the Science Museum when a young lad was asking his dad which was a Spitfire and which was a Hurricane. The staff showed no inclination to help. A couple of minutes explaining that a basic and very obvious difference was that the Spitfire had pointy wings led to a few other questions and at the end of our conversation Dad thanked me and they both walked away happy and hopefully with a little more knowledge that added to their enjoyment of the day.
There is much made of the need for museums to educate and a few knowledgable and approachable staff will go a long way towards acheiving this aim and at far less cost than an “iconic” building with aircraft hung at crazy angles.

Glad to see she is on her way back. If anyone wants a price for moving a similar sized aircraft then the gent in the short sleeved shirt in the first pic is a friend of mine and I will gladly put you in touch. He has moved both of Mike’s Proctors now and if Mike let him loose a second time he can’t be bad at the job.

Will it be at L……..:D

No Rumour has it there are paperwork issues with the CAA (who regard it as a new type) and it may never be allowed to fly in the UK again.

Most likely Motorcycle and Light Car Club as many motorcyclists progressed to three wheelers and it would originally have covered 3 wheelers like the Morgan and BSA although later motorcyclists “progressed” – or was it regressed- to Reliant Regals and Robins. Don’t get me wrong they did exactly what it said on the tin (or was it fibreglass) but a Reliant was never going to be as much fun as a motorcycle.

I don’t know quite how we should classify individual aircraft in terms of describing them as an artefact but there is one significant factor that no one has mentioned.
When we talk about preserving artefacts such as a roman statue or vase we can achieve this quite easily by keeping them in a suitable controlled climate to minimise deterioration but in the case of aircraft particularly large airframes the situation is rather different.
My understanding is that an aircraft simply sitting on the ground is subject to significant stress in various areas due to loads placed on the airframe by the weight of the structure and engines etc. Given sufficient time these loads will cause fatigue and the airframe or parts of it will fail unless it is maintained.
The first thing that springs to mind is the problems with oleos and flat spotted tyres on aircraft which have stood for long periods and I have even heard of the possibility of wing spars and longerons becoming bowed given sufficient time.
I also read that the Halifax at Hendon has decayed significantly while on display simply because it has been impossible to completely arrest the problems caused by such a long period immersed in water and it various methods have been tried to arrest this process all of which inevitably affect the originality of the artefact to some extent.
For these reasons I don’t think we can apply the same rules to aircraft (or even to other mechanical objects such as cars and railway engines) as we would apply to many other artefacts because at some point any aircraft cars etc will need significant intervention to ensure their continued existence and this intervention is sure to take away some of the originality.
I am not saying that any particular approach is right or wrong but simply that this is a problem which has no simple answer and I think that all individual museums and owners can do is work to preserve in the way that they think is best.

Incidentally CADman I should think that the reason for changing the rivets on the Spitfire was to prevent dissimilar metals corrosion between the magnesium and the alloy skin. I wouldn’t be surprised if many statics have also had rivets replaced with alloy ones when skin sections have needed replacement or reattachment as I would think that the reaction between magnesium and other metals must be very corrosive particularly if an airframe spends long periods outside. Perhaps someone with more knowledge can confirm this or shoot my theory to bits.

Hope this helps

http://www.sflorg.com/aviation_gallery/historical/historical_05

Apart from serving in the RCAF and selling aircraft, didn’t Hughie Green own a Grumman Mallard?

Not sure about a Mallard but Hughie Green was supposedly the owner of Catalina G-APZA that was broken up at Southend as has been mentioned on other threads here.