Ta, that’s exactly what I needed to know.

The real Harriers made of tin had only one, below the knee.

I’m impressed, the responses have been good and stayed more or less within the thread, many thanks.

I wasn’t thinking of just military shows, there are others, wings and wheels, events at major historical sites, car shows, the sorts of events where our presence could be mutually beneficial but they don’t know about us. All it would take would be to plant the idea in their minds, if done in the right way we could see a lot more interest in historic aviation and ultimately even more cockpit collectors.

Re the difficulty in moving cockpits, this is an issue but far less of an issue than for many of the large military vehicles and as for tanks, and boats come to that, there’s just no comparison. At the IPMS Nationals in Telford they have had a cockpit and I believe they will have a helicopter or two this year but why not a cockpit or three every year?

I wasn’t talking about Damyns Hall specifically and I don’t know if they want cockpits but they did two or three years ago and put a request on this very forum. I was the only person to reply, my response was maybe next year because of the location and condition of the cockpit but the level of assistance they offered was outstanding.

Shoreham isn’t too far from Folkestone and Paddock Wood but they attract lots of very large vehicles from all over Europe so why not cockpits to Shoreham, although it will still be almost an aviation only event? There’s enough cheap entertainment in the area, and some very expensive entertainment. There’s even a naturist beach if you’re that way inclined, although March is probably a bit cold for that.

I’m told that the small flying display at Damyns Hall lasted two hours, not bad and very expensive for a military show. The lack of a flying display last year was due to the airfield being in the Olympics exclusion zone.

Headcorn is good and has a flying display but on the occasions I’ve been, nothing much on the ground other than the museum.

What I’s like to see is us as a hobby/obsession be more outward looking, attend more events that aren’t solely aviation, even offering to attend. Then maybe if we did dry up and disappear people would miss us.