I have been part of organisations, that have rejected offers of assistance from people who they consider as not having the right background. IMHO any offer of assistance should be gratefully received, whether it be from a retired tradesman or from an ‘enthusiastic amateur’. In todays world with so many distractions, it is a delight to see people with real enthusiasm offering their time and expertise, whether it be cleaning corrosion, managing websites or assisting with cataloguing and research.

😀 John

For me, it’s the challenge of (re)learning old skills, overcoming obstacles and bringing back to life previously extinct items of our aviation heritage. I love the smell of old aircraft and trying to get into the minds of the original designers and craftsmen (& women) who made them.

Like all hobbies, some may see us as anoraks, but one man’s meat is…….;)

John

Mossie
Hornet
Stirling (of course):D
York
Swift
Wellington
Manchester (failure I know but it would be nice for completeness)
Halifax
Javelin
Defiant

best regards

John

Thankyou Ewan for the reality check. It is easy for emotions to come into the equation, but for the RAF it is all down to economies of scale. I used to work on the Jaguar Engineering desk at Wyton, and pressure was always placed to reduce the current stock holding of spares. This is true for all aircraft fleets and the individual aircraft project team is charged a percentage of the spares value for storing the spares, therefore someone would have to pay for keeping items whether they were used or not. This explains why spares are even more of an issue now than they ever were.:eek:
In addition, current RAF aircraft are worked much harder, having to stay in service for much longer than originally envisaged. IIRC the Jaguar was originally due to be retired c1991 when they were getting close to their original fatigue life. With much work this was increased to 6000 hrs then 7000 hrs resulting in an aircraft that was in service 34 years. Imagine a Spitfire still flying operationally in 1970!

Noratlas?

The last pictures look like a pilots escape hatch from a Stirling

regards

John

Are they the ones going to the bottom of the guns?

John

Already posted on the Cockpitfest 2007 thread, but this is a better repository for these.

John