So just find a dozen or so people to put up £10k each for a museum static or 20 people £50k for a flying project? Shouldn’t be a problem.

In my experience there is a Spitfire ‘food chain’ and ‘below par’ material passes down the chain including, from the middle to the bottom.

Well that put me in my place Mark!! I sit r ight at the bumend of the Spit world! My use of the word wolves was not meant as derogatory…having said that even you must admit that if I found a lump of Spitty, someone would gazump me (with unfair tactics)….its happened with hurri lumps etc. I was purely offering advice to Ali to suggest that location should be kept quiet and careful choice of who is involved. The efforts of Peter Wood (and latterly Tim Manna) in providing us all with the lovely Seafire and Peter Monk with TA805 are to be applauded as well as you sterling work rescuing loads of Spit stuff. All I say is that finding a lump is one thing, keeping it is the whole rest of it!!!

This looks like a thread to jump into “headfirst” (no pun intended), I think both Alison and Steve are right (in their own ways) I don’t think there is much point in leaving A/C remains out there for future generations, if they are likely to degenerate substantially , but on the other hand the current trend of making everything “a flyer” by removing the majority of the structure, and “binning” it ,rather than let it be used in static projects , (and in so doing expose the original as a “new build” ),has no place in preservation. There is big money out there for spitfire recovery ,and you can’t buck the trend; if this A/C is there, and isn’t recovered by enthusiastic amateurs, then hard nosed professionals will get it,and they won’t donate it to any museum.

Indeed you are right, when I started my Hurri in the late 70s/early 80s the restorers were far more helpful in providing cast offs to a static project like mine (granted for swaps). But then again, I did not take their parts and claim to have their aircraft! Nowadays, the Spit and Hurri world will not generally provide cast offs to the like of me or Stuart as I suppose they fear that it will detract from the completeness and originality of their aircraft.

The end result is the same, pull a historic aircraft out of a lake, restore it to fly you replace X% of it (which is not insignificant), but it is a flying machine. Now if you were to incorporate the throw offs in to several static aircraft everyone would benefit. I am delighted to have original parts in my projects and do not always want to say which airframe donated them, i.e. I can be discrete if the owner wants. Anyway, Alison I would love to see this Spitty recovered (if it is there) and would help in everyway I can, however, the best way to keep out the wolves would be to form a share scheme/trust so that if anyone wanted to sell their share it would not cause the aircraft to be sold for a profit. By that method, we could actually restore, sympathetically, a very historic and original aircraft.

Anyway, it is late now and I am blathering..sorry!!

She is at Aeroventure in the ownership of Bill Fern

And I am so please he bought it!!! 😉 😀

Very sad news…Syd’s presence lived on through ‘newer’ Pink Floyd work. There would be no PF without Syd. His stuff was very good indeed, so I strongly disagree with Grey Area (but each to his own)….The band always maintained a place for Syd…how many bands would do that now?

He was responsible for Jugband Blues, Bike (my young daughters love that one!), SeeEmily Play, Arnold Lane (which went to No.1) and of course the exceptional Astronomy Domine…amongst others

AH Mr Pot, and I think you should do the same before accusing someone of not having a genuine love/interest in the subject.

The Snapper that I know, is important, and rightfully so.

Now now!! Mr Willow has not had the pleasure of meeting Mr Snapper so does not know what he is really like. Chaps, we need to realise that new comers do not know the old lags and how cheeky they can be and how much they can and do do for aviation heritage/memory of heros etc. Furthermore, it is very very easy to misconstrue/misunderstand comments made on a forum like this. We all need to calm down and be happier.

To get back onto the thread….

I loved Flying Legends and the Spitfires brought a tear to my eye as they always do. I believe that the admission is well worth it and the flightline walk is worth another £4. Yes it is more expensive than some US shows but it is a unique and fantastic experience.

We are very blase in the UK, we moan and bitch and whinge (yep the Aussies are right on that one) and we do not know when we have a good thing going.

Thankyou Mr Grey and all the volunteers, pilots Groundcrew etc who brought that show and many memories to us again. The world would be a sadder place without Legends.

Snapper, loved the shorts!!!! Great book well done…Gary is well pleased with it!

Chaps, like everything in preservation, it would be great if the people who are really interested in one of these cockpits contact the seller instead of a public discussion. Speculation on prices etc will only get the price to increase and the vendor to think he has something gold. A bit like what happened with the Blackpool Vulcan cockpit perchance? Feel free to PM me.

Incredibly sad….lovely chap, condolescences to the family