Hi David,

Sorry about the ‘so called aircraft enthusiasts’ comment. I do realise and know there are far more experianced people on here than me and having thought about it and reread the comment I retract the statement. We are all enthusiasts no matter what our interest or experiance.

As for doing what the comet was designed for. Well you are right it will probably not operate at 100% of what it was designed for but at a guess….. Speed- maybe 75% of the designed specification will be used. As for range well I aint got a clue but given the race was to Australia it may well do about 1% at any given time. With the collection it is not really about that though is it. Its to give people the sight and sounds of the past.

As for your argument about raising the risks to the airframe. Well its a risk everytime you start the engine as we saw with the Dragon at Duxford a few years ago now. Its also a risk to store aircraft in a hangar close to each other. How many aircraft and indeed rare cars and motorbikes have we lost in hangar/storage fires and collapses? I think everyday we have these aircraft it is a risk so why not fly them and have some fun with them.

As for combat aircraft a lot of these are scrapped or used for spares long before the life of the airframe or engines are completely up. True or not?

It would be possible to keep all of these aircraft flying for a lot longer than they actually do but for reasons either political or economical they are grounded and scrapped/used for spares/sold. Is this not just the way of goverment.

There are those people around that want to fly Jaguars/Tornadoes/Harriers etc some may eventually be succesful or not only time will tell.

As for the Gull sold by the collection I dont know all the history on that particular aircraft but a couple of things spring to mind. Was it a collection aircraft or privately owned but OW based. Was it sold to fund other projects so for the greater good so to speak. Was it a replica. Was the history of the aircraft correct. Was the aircraft complete having never been crashed/repaired etc. I must admit I dont know much about this one but there must have been reasons for them to sell the aircraft.

And for the record nobody is scared by the fact that an aircraft may be grounded one day. When that day comes it will come. I am sure there will be many tears on the very day the BBMF finally retire the Lancaster but I am sure it will be the right decision at that point. Doesnt scare me one little bit. But it does annoy the hell out of me when people ground airframes that have a good long life on them for little or no reason. But it is their aircraft to do what they will with them I just dont have to like it though.

We are all different and we all have our own points of view.

Merlin -The Comet was designed for a specific purpose -the 1934 air race.

I am sure their are quite a few unique aircraft that have been built and that still exist and are flying that were made to fly as racers. We dont keep them under oil cloth with their hearts cold as stone forever do we?

It a collection aircraft and unfortunately for you they want to fly the aircraft again its not up to us what they do with it. Until such time as the airtime is completely run dry for this aircraft I think there will always be a collection pilot who will want to fly this aircraft.

Let me ask you a question. What use is all your work on combat aircraft if not to ready them for flying. What happens to your combat aircraft on the ground? Spares? Scrapping? What use is a combat aircraft on the ground?

Then ask yourself what use is an aircraft that was built to fly fast when it is permanently on the ground?

If this is the feeling of so called aircraft enthusiasts then the future or our aviation industry and aviation pleasure is going to be limited and I am fairly sure there are at least a few hundred or more aircraft with very good provenance that should be grounded with immediate effect.

Can I leave it up to you David to call the owners and let them know. 😉

We are all entitled to our own thoughts and opinions but grounding flyable aircraft to me is just nuts especially if someone who owns them want to fly them. I hate thinking of the aircraft that we have had and let slip through our fingers due to politics of the situation. Not just in this country but in others too.

So will you be writing to the Smithsonian to suggest that they make both the Spirit of St Louis and the Wright Flyer airworthy?

Well not really what the Smithsonian is about is it. OW exists for the most part to have fully functioning items in their collection. Or at least thats what their aims were laid out to be. They clearly had the foresight to see that one day we would have none or very little of these items left in working order.

I wouldnt dream of trying to tell a collection what to do with their items because it doesnt matter what I think unless they ask my opinion of course which changes everything.

Take the Bolingbroke at East Fortune for example. I was once quite friendly with the curator at the time and one of the head assistants. I had heard that the museum or the volunteers were talking about the paint scheme for her once complete. The general idea was that she was to painted in typical camo scheme to represent one of the WWII squadrons based at EF but the decision lay with the head guy of the project and him alone. My vote was for camo and was asked what I thought and I related my feelings to the curator only to be told the head of the team was talking about putting her in a distict yellow target tug scheme. Imagine my horror. Dont know if Beaufighters at EF ever served as a TT but it was that moment that I relly knew it was never going to matter what I thought of a particular project as it wasnt mine to play with.

So I guess the answer lies in this little bit of truth. It will never matter what you think until your invited in to play with the toys or indeed can afford your own toys.

Personally I would love to see at least one of each type of aircraft airworthy but that is too big of an ask I know. But while we can why not fly the things.

Here we go again. What a bunch of old women you lot really are.

If the collection want to fly, drive or ride any of their collection then they indeed should be doing exactly that. That is what the collection is all about after all isnt it.

Why the hell would we need a replica when we have the real deal right here in this country and pilots with the skills to fly them.

They belong in the air and thats where they should be until they no longer work or can no longer be repaired to fly.

I will let you all get back to your knitting in peace.

BOBMF have no official connection with this project, no increased budget to run the new beast and no experience on wooden airframes. So not sure how it is such a good idea. Sorry if that sounds negative but just stating the facts.

If we are to believe the website and the band of 13 that is being talked about then it would seem that the BBMF are involved. Some clarification required I think. I can only take the people listed as at face value nothing more nothing less.

As for budget. They have no budget in official terms anyhow. Or isnt that what the MOD were meaning by saying they have to exist without resources from the overstretched funds available. I am sure they would soon gain funds to fly the beast as well as the experiance required to fly a wooden wonder.

And thinking about it a little further your wooden statement is a little untrue because Hurricanes are at least a little part wooden arent they?

I only picked up the story on here and in news elsewhere but here is a wiki article about the chimp we are talking about.

Cheeta, a male chimpanzee born about 1960, formerly owned by Tony Gentry and now residing at the C.H.E.E.T.A. Primate Sanctuary (Creative Habitats and Enrichment for Endangered and Threatened Apes) in Palm Springs, California. Claimed by Gentry to have been born in 1932 or later in the 1930s and to have portrayed Cheeta in most of the Johnny Weismuller and Lex Barker Tarzan films, and for that reason long celebrated as the longest-lived chimpanzee. Both claims were debunked by journalist R. D. Rosen in 2008 in an article that settled the animal’s true age and established that he had not appeared in any movies, let alone in the role of Cheeta.

If its on wiki it must be true lol.

Well at least there is one thing we do know. The real Cheetah will be sitting up there on his great big banana tree in the sky.

RIP Cheetah

I cant believe no one has commented on the passing of the legend that was Cheetah.

Gone to the big banana tree in the sky.