Personally I think that the Halifax looks pretty damn spectacular in those photos posted by Papa Lima. It serves as a fabulous reminder for future generations of the thousands of men who flew in the type, and those crews did include Brits, Aussies, Canadians, French, New Zealanders, and no doubt men from many other nations. At least one Lancaster has been kept by museums and enthusiasts in each of the Empire countries as a reminder of their contributions to Bomber Command. Sadly the same consideration was not given to the other types such as Halifax, Stirling and Wellington, etc. Each type had their merits.
I’ve never intended to knock the Lanc at all, it was a fantastic aircraft and the best heavy bomber in the war, I just feel that the other types also need to be remembered and celebrated too. Three or four generations from now, when the real veterans are long gone to that great big aerial battle in the sky, school kids may think the Lancaster was the only British bomber in the war. They’ll probably also think the CASA-built HE111 was the only German bomber too for that matter… I pity the future generations as they won’t have the benefit we’ve had to talk with real veterans and find out what it was really like.
Although I don’t want to argue about this because I do see the point of what’s being said here, I wonder that if the one in the RAF Museum was rebuilt to as-new standard, would it require around the same amount of new build material to replace all the corroded and damaged parts? If restored properly I would think it’d definately come close. If so, would we still maintain it was a genuine Halifax, or would it too become a replica? Where do we make the distinction – the YAM one IS built round the remains of a genuine airframe, even if it’s not too substantial – much like the BBMF Hurricane and several ex-Russian crashed aircraft, etc., that have been rebuilt to fly – and they are still called genuine!
I concede that the Halifax is not completely original, but from where I’m standing their achievements are fantastic, especially in the short amount of time it took to complete for such a big project.
As one last thought… With what was acheived on the YAM project considering all the donated parts and work by the likes of BAe, did the RAF Museum realy miss the boat in not restoring their example? I’m certain they too would have had such generosity and support granted to such an undertaking rather than having to foot the bill themselves. Maybe not now though.
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