Could we clarify what the debate is about? Is it seriously being suggested that museums shouldn’t have storage areas, or that museums should only have publicly accessable storage?

The bottom line is that we have to be realistic. For most areas of interest (railways, natural history, aviation etc) there is a huge range of ‘stuff’ out there, and museums have to be very selective otherwise they end up knee deep in all sorts of stuff. Even so, museums get stuck between a rock and a hard place. Take The Natural History Museum for example, they have a HUGE store of stuff, much of which hasn’t been seen for decades or even a century. Should they get rid of it? Ofcourse not. The size and diversity of the store is a reflection of the diversity of the subject, and of the importance of that particular establishment within the field. A sensibly kept museum store is a vital asset to any museum, be it for research purposes or simply as a place to keep exhibits between exhibitions.

I think we have to approach the question of public access equally realisticly. If a museum store is accessable then that’s great, but there are always going to be storage areas and archives which cannot be opened to the public for one reason or another. H&S has already been raised above, but there are also other considerations such as security. How secure is the museum store, and does the museum really want the public to know where it keeps things? Is it possible for the staff to work normally in the store at the same time as admitting the public? Are objects in the store displayed securely, eg. would it be too easy for the general public to damage things by being touchy feely with exhibits?

I think it has to be accepted that musuem collections will almost always be larger than the museum’s public areas, and that therefore there will always be storage areas. In addition, it can also be seen that public access to said stores has to be of secondary importance to the primary task of conservation, research and so on.

Apologies, I appear to have waffled on rather longer than I meant to. 😀

In the last few years a number of airframes from Long Marston were moved down to East Midlands Aeropark, including all the Hunters and the Devon. The crunched Nimrod cockpit was from XW666, the R.2 which famously ditched in the Moray Firth after an engine fire. Last I heard, it’s at Aeroventure, Doncaster.

Interesting shots, I’m especially intrigued to see what look like the floats off some sort of flying boat in the foreground of the Shackleton pics?

Great shots Brian, my last efforts at Hendon came out rather differently! 😀 Great shots of the Lightning and the cutaway Brisfit, which appears to have a left-handed prop? Were there right handed and left handed RR Falcons?

She was sold to a new owner in the USA several years ago, and she now wears different markings. She was owned by the Freidkins last I knew, I don’t know if that’s still the case.

Success old boy. Great pic aswell!

That’s Northern Aeroplane Workshop at Batley, Yorks.

I did a bit of Googling, and it turns out the event was Festa al Cel de Barcelona. The warbirds appear to have been the Dijon-based Spitfire 19 PS890 and SeaFury F-AZXJ, and the La Ferte Alais based P51 Nooky Booky. There was also a Skyraider, which appears to have been F-AZHK.

Here’s the Facebook page, you don’t need to log in to view the pics. 🙂

http://www.facebook.com/festaalcel/photos_stream

Great stuff, interesting to see the “before and after” with the two different schemes on G-AWZL.