At the risk of being hounded from the thread are we losing a sense of perspective here? Compare the IWM now to the museum a decade or more ago.
He and his peers are the future and if when he is older and there is no Shackleton to see at Duxford, but there are elsewhere, how traumatic and how serious will that be?
I would suggest, in the grand scheme of things, not at all.
That shouldn’t happen, all viewpoints are welcome here SH.:)
To your question, my argument is that it just feels wrong that a Shackleton shouldn’t remain (remain as opposed to aquired etc) indoors within a national collection with all the controls that such a set up confers, its importance and relevance to that collection has been well covered in previous posts by various contributors, so won’t go over it again.
Yes youngters will be able to view the Shackleton elsewhere in the future, but bear this in mind, ALL privately owned Shackletons are kept outside (in fact WR960 is the only example indoors anywhere in the world), luckily most are worked on by hardworking volunteers, though the Long Marston Shack serves as an awful reminder of how they can fall victim to lack of care, but we are seeing an argument above that preserved aircraft should be moved and exhibited indoors.
One thing that does seem to be of common consensus through the differing opinions about museum policys and what should be kept etc is that this aircraft is valuable.
In the grand scheme of things all this matters not one jot of course, but I would like to think that we are enthusiasts, historians etc that do care about these things and are able to question what happens to our heritage.
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