Like I said, I have nothing against the Pima museum (apart from the fine weather and the crazy amount of land they have available, envy envy!) but I suppose I am trying to establish what the criteria was for ‘borrowing’ an airframe from a national museum. And I have been to Pima (in 2008 or 2009) and I was impressed with the amount of American aviation history to be seen there – I am guessing that the vast majority is donated, otherwise would it be putting the cat amongst the pigeons to ask, if they needed a Spitfire so badly, why they couldn’t buy one? It is just a question, no offence intended.
The RAFM does seem to do a bit of loaning out: the Typhoon (that I have to admit I forgot about) loaned to Canada is utterly unique, being the last complete example of the type in existence, so wherever it goes it would not be ‘duplicating’ an existing display – unlike, for example, a Spitfire in America. I guess the Typhoon has been loaned so that friends and relatives of Canadian pilots, as well as those gentlemen who flew one and are still with us, have the opportunity to see an actual Tiffy in the flesh, so to speak. There are no examples (that I am aware of, anyway) of Spitfires in Kuwait or Dubai before or after that recent loaner; of course, the US did use Spitfires, unlike Kuwait, Dubai or their predecessors.
Trying to think what items of US aviation history we might borrow, hypothetically, and I come up with little. Some of the sole surviving examples of German aircraft might be interesting to see (most were unaccessible when I was there) but it strikes me that the one historical aviation item that the US should proudly revere was so unregarded that it spent twenty years in Britain! Other than during World War Two, when it was at Corsham, the original Wright Flyer was on display at the Science Museum, London from 1928 to 1948, after Orville Wright fell out with the Smithsonian Museum over whether the brothers made the first powered, controlled flight, and sent it where it would be respected.
We have a replica now.
Likewise, it strikes me that a historical aviation item the Brits should proudly revere, the one surviving Hawker Typhoon (“…utterly unique, being the last complete example of the type in existence…”), was so unregarded that it required the Smithsonian to respect, preserve, and display it until offered to Blimey.
Sign In
