Why wouldn’t it be the contractorised S-92s from Humberside?

Guess we will have to wait and see what the new system will produce. The ‘Contract’ will have been written is a way that allows the ‘Contractor’ to provide aircraft and aircrew to a minimum required standard. Whether or not that standard is adequate is for debate, but expect bad news if it goes wrong. When you look at the map of new SAR locations there seem to be some gaps in cover, the Contractors will argue that the new equipment is better than the old, but time will tell.

What ‘public’ ie none aircrew access will be available at Sywell on Saturday. Have attended Sywell in the past and been frustrated by rather limited viewing / photograph areas available.

Always amazed to see how few fixing bolts hold the wings on.

Hopefully that idea is dead and buried !!!! Shame so much time, effort and money was wasted on the idea.

Time is right for the “Milestones” building to be rebranded, indeed no branding is required it simply needs connecting properly to the main building and the original main entrance reusing. A good idea would be better information / direction to the other buildings, BoB hangar and Graham White hangar always have seemed remote. Could the space between Milestones and GW be used as some kind of external / covered display. Thinking a WW1 canvas hanger, WW2 revetment, a cold war HAS with appropriate ground equipment ?

Not sure how suitable the old workshop buildings would be for the new cafe ? If space can be found on the site a better solution would be a new build cafe with assocatied play area, ect. I do not know the local Hendon area so have no idea if this would work but if the cafe were run by at external contractor could it be open outside of museum opening times ? Could it become a destination / meeting point in its own right ? Maybe sounds a bit kitsch but there are many examples of such theme restaurants in the USA.

“The museum’s plans include re-landscaping the site to create a sense of the original London Aerodrome”

What !!!!! Correct me if I am wrong but airfields tend to be flat, wide open spaces, without any major landscaping. Exactly what space is left within the confines of Hendon museum that can be landscaped ?

Money to be spent on new a new cafe, shop, visitors centre is a good idea, as it will ultimately repay for itself in sales. It will hopefully mean they will remove the small cafe / seating area from the main hangar.
If money allows hopefully the new building will be bigger enough to house conferences and small events, again this could prove a money spinner if marketed correctly. Book fairs, car auctions and the much missed Barnet model show have all taken place at Hendon before, but the current management appear not to want them. But if a suitable external building were available it might be different as a seperate admission charge could be applied for special events. The existing Hendon theatre / conference room is not suitable any more.

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Looks good to me. OK its not a war time bomber ready to go on a mission, but how much original material would be left if the Hendon airframe where rebuilt.

I agree with that, a very significant and long-serving type in Royal Air Force history; though I doubt whether IWM would have been offered a free C-130 in these cash-strapped times.

DD

If I remember correctly IWM were offered a RAF C-130 and Marshalls were going to be involved in as well, Marshalls having a long association with the C-130 and being local to Duxford.
IWM were offered a Nimrod as around the same time, but the current management seem unable to look beyond the next quilt show, and turned the offer down simply because they could not provide hangar space.