Kev also kindly mentions MAM as having duplicate T33’s two airframes that were taken on by previous boards of the museum. Im afraid I wasnt around then so am unable to exxplain the decision there.
We also have duplicate Hunters. Looking at the Hunters one is a genuine RAF one and the other an ex Danish one. We dont own the ex RAF Hunter its on loan from the USAF. What happens if the USAF suddenly changes its museum loan policy and takes her back? we are left with a pretty important airframe type missing in our collection. So yes it may not be ideal but it ensures we will not be left without an important aircraft type. And anyway weren’t some Danish Hunters converted ex RAF ones anyway? Maybe wrong on that.
As someone involved in the acquisition of both of these pairs of aircraft at MAM I will relate how the duplications came about.
The T-33 in the Sir Frank Whittle hangar was one of the trio (T-33, Mystere and F-100) acquired on loan from/courtesy of the USAF/USAFMuseum. They were, perhaps, acquired before a “collecting policy” was established but, anyway, fell into the ‘Story Of The Jet’ criteria once the Museum’s policy was drawn up. For most of the museums/collections acquiring them at the same time they either kick-started a new collection or gave a welcome boost to a small/young collection – often providing increased local public interest and additional working volunteers. They also started/provided an era of cooperation between the groups involved in dismantling and removing the aircraft from (remote) RAF Sculthorpe.
I, personally, had a dream that the Sir Frank Whittle/Story Of The Jet would, eventually, exhibit an example of a first generation jet aircraft from each of the major aircraft producing nations – Meteor/Vampire, Me 262(!), Ouragon, MiG 15, P-80 and most of these were on the ‘acquisition’s list’. The T-33 has stood in to represent a P-80 to accompany the Meteor F.4, Vampire F.1 and SAAB J.29 in the Whittle hangar. There was a plan to ‘de-convert’ a T-33 into a P-80 with the hope that engineering work (to shorten the fuselage) would be carried out by an educational establishment. THAT is why the second T-33 was acquired.
The ex-Danish Hunter F.51 was acquired (£10 from Hawker Siddeley) again, probably, prior to a “collecting policy”. Many Hunters were produced at AWA, a few hundred yards from the Museum, by local people and the F.6a was a, later, ‘targetted’ acquisition. Again acquired via a USAFMuseum loan it joined the Museum’s growing collection of locally-built aircraft. This created a duplication and the F.51 became surplus to requirements and was then kept as a future exchange item.
Hope this goes some way to explain.
Roger Smith.
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