It might not have been mentioned above, but what about the NAC Freelance (Britten-Norman BN-3). I read in, ahhhhhhhh…

…some magazine or other that there were plans to restart production, using unfinished airframes. I also heard a rumour that the Slingsby T-67 Firefly was going back into production.

[SNIP] But what of the implications for a few decades time?

It was around 50 years ago that the the last Whitley and Dornier 215 were ejected from hangarage and destroyed by the then totally justifiable argument on grounds of what was then put forward as being reasonable and practical by those involved : that they were taking up much needed space.

Concerned that Comet XK699 (RAF Lyneham) might be scrapped due to lack of funds, I wrote to those who run the Science Museum, asking if they could give this aircraft a temporary home. Their outstation at Wroughton is only eight or nine miles from Lyneham and would have been a morning’s work to move her. The idea was that she would be kept at Wroughton in a dismantled state until the funds were forthcoming to restore her. It matters not if this takes six months or twenty years.

I was told that there wasn’t the space available UNLESS I had the funds to commercially store her in one of their many hangars at Wroughton. I understand that someone at RAF Museum is undertaking a study to see if it is viable to restore her. If not…

Sometimes what is lacking is common sense, which is only equalled by the knowledge that we’ve been here before and that, yes in ten or another fifty years time, a lot of people will be muttering the same old mantra: “if only we’d…”

Many messages ago, I argued the case for extending the Northern Line (underground) to the RAF Museum, in the mistaken belief that the line would easily arc towards the site. Accordingly, I was corrected by another poster and the matter was closed.

I’ve just looked at Hendon on Google Earth and was immediately made aware that approximately 1.1 miles north of the RAF Museum on the East Midland mainline is Mill Hill Broadway (station) and that Hendon (station) is 1.2 miles to the south of the museum. It takes 17/18 minutes to travel by train from London St Pancras to Mill Hill Broadway and 14 minutes to Hendon railway station. This railway line is right on the verge of the RAF Museum, as those of us who have visited the Bomber Hall will know (by the sound of trains passing by).

Using the underground it takes 25 minutes to get to Collingdale plus another five minute (?) walk to the museum itself (depending on traffic, or if, like me, you you turn right instead of left, oops). It costs (on the tube) £4 for a single or £10 for an all-day travel card (zone 1 to 4). By train it costs £3.70 for a single or £6.20 for a return, so it would be quicker and cheaper to visit the RAFM by train. I would imagine that to build a simple, single platform with access would be very cost effective and perhaps paid for by National Rail, as it could be used by the locals too.

Just a suggestion.

I think we are missing the point; person or persons unknown within the RAFM have proposed a 350ft tower costing £80m (or more), dedicated to those who flew during the Battle of Britain (or to house the ego/s of those who propose or fund such a carbuncle). The problem is that funds are limited and I doubt if additional monies would be forthcoming thereafter to finance what really needs to be done.

Thing is, this tower should be at the bottom of a “to do list”. We have museum galleries closed or in need of refurbishment. We have valuable aircraft in need of restoration, while £80m would go a long way towards filling gaps and in providing a better service for both researcher and visitor alike.

We need to make it known to one and all that this is the wrong way forward. There are enough memorials dedicated to 1940, and not enough funds to finance the last of the few (aircraft and buildings) that survive. Oh, a first class stamp is 39p. GET WRITING!!!

Designing display halls and arranging aircraft so that they can quickly be moved in an emergency is a non-starter. The only times when aircraft have been saved by moving them from destruction was due to them being being active airframes, located near hangar doors that were moveable. The best way to save aircraft and other exhibits is to have an active and pro-active fire-fighting service on site. This means training museum staff in the use of fire-fighting equipment more robust than your average 9 litre fire extinguisher. I would imagine that fire sprinklers are the best option.

[SNIP] Ideally you keep aircraft indoors. Does it really cost that amount to build a new T2 hangar (or similar) that could comfortably contain loads of airframes and an educational centre[?].

Yes, but your average T2 doesn’t induce a stiffy in your average middle-management, middle-England, Guardian reading, Lottery Heritage Fund employed [place rude word here], who has no connection to the real world, nor has served in UK armed forces or knows anyone who fought for this fragmented country. They speak in code and think they have to go one better than the next guy (to justify there existence).

At RAF Lyneham Comet C3 XK699 might be scrapped. It’s owned by the RAF Museum (or so I’m told), yet they don’t have the funds (?) to preserve this aircraft – or at least place her in a safe environment. If the RAFM allow this aircraft to be scrapped while insisting on building this ego-tower at Hendon, then they have seriously got their priorities wrong and should be shown the errors of their way – to the point that heads should roll.

Yes, I know that XK699 is in a very poor condition, but if less than 1% of the £80m was used to restore her, then we might be able to save one of only six Comets left in the UK, and the only surviving C2 to have served in the RAF.

I’d also rip down the Battle of Britain display hall and replace it with an endangered original hangar (Type A, perhaps), while I’d also move onto the site an original control tower and officer’s mess (used as a new archive centre). That lot would probably cost around £10m. Oh, I’ve got £70m left to play with. How about digitising the RAFM’s entire paper and image based archive (every AP, photograph and document), available FREE and online.

Then again, for £80m you could uproot most of Hendon’s collection to the centre of London, where they’d increase visitor numbers TEN FOLD!!!

[SNIP] I’m guessing the arguement they’ll use is to say it’ll inspire the next generation of aviation-minded young people.

Inspire to do what? We no longer have an aerospace industry, while the RAF might not reach it’s 100th anniversary (to be divided between AAC/FAA/PFI). Air travel is no longer pioneering nor the pull that it once was.

This pretentious carbuncle is about ticking the right boxes or “thinking out of the box” or “blue Skies thinking” undertaken to please those those who dish out the dosh. Hate them. But please them and you get your money, JUST FOR THE SAKE OF GETTING THE MONEY. They simply don’t get it. They see this and other projects as being conceptually and artisticly mission one, while what needs to be done doesn’t because the funds aren’t available.

Just talk to some of the staff at Hendon about that metal thing outside the Milestones of Flight can. What is it? What does it do? And how much did it cost to build? They could have used the money to repair some of the buildings at Hendon or elsewhere. No one likes it and it does nothing other than soak up much needed funding.

RAF MUSEUM – GET REAL!!!

Thought I’d some of my reworkings of original 1950s packaging (pre-Roy Cross).

Please check out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29578774@N05/sets/72157623865842441/detail/