Diving conditions in the Firth of Forth are treacherous – strong currents and abysmal visibility. There are tons of interesting “prospects” down there from medieval times onwards.

East Fortune used to clash with Yeovilton, they changed and clash with Duxford… it’s actually pretty hard to find a plum midsummer weekend when there isn’t some kind of major air show on. And that’s before you start trying to avoid major sporting events like the Open Golf.

Well my vote goes to the Wright Brothers, because their 1903 Flyer had contra-rotating props.

MSIM

I was quite impressed when I first went to Manchester – maybe ’95. The collection is a good reflection of Manchester’s contribution to aviation.

However last time I went (02) I was quite struck by how far downhill it seemed to have gone in such a short space of time – the place had an air of neglect about it that wasn’t there the first time I went.

RE: Free entry to air museums.

Scott

This is quite a complex one so bear with me…

It was a manifesto pledge of the Labour Party to remove admission charges at UK National Museums – that is, those museums funded by national government. It took them a little time to get going, but, by and large, the government have delivered on that promise – charges have been removed at most of the big national museums. These include the National History Museum, the Science Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Imperial War Museum (Lambeth), the National Maritime Museum, the Royal Armouries in Leeds, the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, the National Railway Museum in York, the NMS Royal Museum of Scotland and the NMS Museum of Scotland.

The government provided extra funding to the Museums to make up for lost visitor revenues. As expected, visitor figures have rocketed across this part of the Museum sector. Wonderful!

So far, so good – Government delivers on promise; Museums happy; punters happy.

So you may ask (and, Scott, I think you are asking) why does it still cost me to get into IWM Duxford and the NMS Museum of Flight? Are these not government funded museums like those listed above? Has our government not made a pledge to allow free admission to such museums?

It looks like someone is being duped somewhere. Either the Government is failing to deliver on its manifesto pledge, or the museums concerned have pocketed the extra funding and are continuing to charge. It is clear that neither party is doing much about this issue, and this leads me to think that maybe both parties are happy for things to breeze along as they currently are. Certainly the government has “fixed” the big high profile museums, but is happy to turn a blind eye to fixing the smaller and less controversial ones. The government will definitely not fork out extra money if it thinks it can avoid so doing. And I do sometimes wonder if the museum administrations themselves are not overly concerned to mention the inconsistency because they can make a few extra bob charging at their outstations.

So could it be that the tax-paying public is being duped? You have a government that has very clearly promised to remove admission charges at IWM Duxford, and has very clearly promised to remove admission charges at NMS Museum of Flight. But you are still paying to get in these places (and there are others, this is not JUST aviation museums).

By the way, the RAF Museum is a slightly different situation as they are funded through military budgets. It is to the lasting credit of all involved at the RAFM that the extra money was found to remove charges in line with government policy. Let’s hope the Fleet Air Arm Museum can do the same some day.