to be honest, i’m really suprised that the whole are wasn’t fenced off to keep people well back. we’ve had a couple of aircraft scrapped in work, and once those JCB’s get going you can get fastners and other bits flying everywhere. we had a bloke hurt by a flying fastner (nothing serious), and another fastner embedded in one of the hagar doors! and they were a good hundred yards away…..so i can understand the scrapmen getting a bit worried with people trying to scavenge bits whilst its being chopped up.

there’s some rather sad pics over on piston heads…..

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=234566&f=141&h=0

Obviously, yes they could do that. But it would not be correct for that version. The significance of the VC10 at Cosford is that it is the last remaining civil Standard VC10 in an airliner guise. Once we scrap that we’re never getting that back.

The Comet is in a similar position, but apparently nobody is doubting that this airframe should be saved. So why then scrap the VC10? The Trident is a Trident 1 I think, similarly scarce. So why scrap that one then? Same goes for the Viscount, also an early model. The 707 is Conway powered, rare variant that was produced specifically for BOAC, probably also a single or rare survivor. And even without the individual merits, having those aircraft on the same location makes it a priceless collection!

I need to go and type an e-mail to BA and the RAFM me thinks… 😡

aren’t you jumping the gun a bit?….there’s no mention of scrapping them yet…and you never know, BA might take them away and set them up in their own museum.

May i point out that British Airways has only ever had one major crash where fatalities have occured and this was in the 1970s. It has had its fair share of incidents in the past but that is to be expected given the size of its fleet and age. Comparing it to other airlines of a similar size e.g. Air France it is quite obvious that BA has maintained a very high safety record. This can only reflect the high quality and techniques of its engineering department.

so i take it the british airtours accident at manchester doesn’t count then?….even though they were part of british airways.

slightly off topic…….back in the late 80’s i had a back seat jolly in a tornado, and on our way back from wales after a bit of low level, and buzzing of my parents home, the pilot pointed out an attacker in a back garden in the midlands. it was quite near a low level flying corridor, and most of the pilots used it as a landmark.

it definately wasn’t a museum, and i was just wondering if anyone had any info on it.

in some respects history has never been more accurately recorded, or written. by which i’m reffering to past history. a lot of WWII accounts were written at the time, or shortly afterward, and were either coloured by the propaganda paint brush, or by the official secrets act.
you only have to look at the media of the time, it wasn’t really independant, and if asked to put less emphasis on a less favourable event, it would.
so i have no problem with, say, a modern biography of douglas bader mentioning his maybe less than nice personality, to me that gives you a more accurate picture of the man, and doesn’t detract from his achievements.
as for going back and judging bomber harris for his actions, you cant really, as todays standards are different, and he did was was thought appropriate at the time. (it would be like calling someone awful for dealing in slaves, when it was perfectly acceptable at the time)

just imagine how many of current events regarding our involvememnt in the middle east are going to be re-written when we get all the facts, because we certainly aren’t getting them all at the moment.

i’ve got an old valiant nosewheel spanner stashed in the spare room, it was getting chucked out in work, and it seemed a shame to see it thrown away.