Agreed, amazing job. That looks like it would be a handful!

If we’re talking about Phantom FG.1 XT597 then there may be some special circumstances. As she was the test airframe and used exclusively for trails and test work she was never formally taken on charge by the RAF and I believe she is therefore not subject to any of the issues surrounding the arms limitation treaties etc that have been used as an excuse to prevent private ownership of other UK phantoms. I am not sure of the exact details as this info comes from a conversation I had with a senior officer at Boscombe years ago. It may however explain how this might just indeed be possible.

Dawlish airshow today.

I don’t care 🙂 I just appreciate the time, effort and huge sums of money that some people put into the rebuilding or reproduction of these aircraft so that we in the younger generations get an opportunity to see hear and smell them in action. If someone announced tomorrow that they had been secretly building a typhoon using a bit of old mangled cockpit as a start point and had rebuilt the rest to manufacturers spec and it would be flying this summer I would be frankly extatic.

As long as people don’t try to claim provenance in order to fraudulently increase the value of the item I don’t see what the issue is. If you want to see originality then go to a museum like the RAFM. There are examples sat right there to go and look at. If you want to see them in the air doing what they were designed to do, take off your anorak, put down the notepad and biro, shut up, smile, and just watch.

I think a major issue is that the collection was never given the green light to be housed where it is in any fashion in the first place. I would love to see planning granted but just because we are sympathetic to the issue shouldn’t allow our judgement to become clouded. I couldn’t buy the field behind my house and fill it full of aircraft or cars etc. Nor can gypsies buy green belt land and set up camp (yes I know they do but they do eventually get evicted at great expense!) legally.
I think Mr Vallance has spent far too long pi**ing far too many local planners off to ever get planning for a development like that. It would also be interesting to know how they plan to raise £6-8M. One would guess if he had that kind of cash in his back pocket a few very special handshakes would have had his museum approved years ago.

Anyone know which hurricane that is?

Apologies.

Actually I think finger pointing is ok. In an organisation such as TVOC working with a complex type they should have procedures in place to ensure this can never happen. Check list and procedures not being followed isn’t going to go down well with the CAA.