jetprov Frank Neal was Derek Eastwoods assistant, the Society has around 60 members a week in so we are quite busy all through the year,

‘Quote’
You have in England with the RAFM one of the great aircraft collections of the world and you should cherish it and nurture it. It isn’t perfect, but then no museum is. Join the Friends of the RAF Museum if you can and lend a hand. That will achieve far more than venting your spleen here.

Keith Gaff

I was a member of the Cosford Museum friends society for many years, from its earliest days ( open one sunday a month in the summer) to the mid eighties. When I first got involved my time and efforts were appreciated and over the next few years I represented the museum at BAPC meetings, ran the society newsletter and finally i/c R&D Hangar.
I noted the changes over the latter years and as the Hendon management team became more involved in the running of the museum, the attitude to both volunteer friends and the museum in general took a negative turn. During my time there we had 3 changes of curator/Manager after the sad and untimely death of Derek (Clint) Eastwood . Over the years the work of the volunteers became one of simply cleaning the hangars and escorting school kids around.
Cosford (and Hendon) could be so much more if only the Management teams would listen to the very people they wish to attract.
Yes Keith we do have an enviable national collection, but it must be presented in its best light (no BoB pun intended) and readily viewable in its entirety
Rant over

Having read through all the posts on this thread I feel I must set the record straight regarding the above post. I was also at Cosford at the start of the 1980s and under no time did members of the Aerospace Museum Society activitys just involve just cleaning the hangars and escorting school partys around, the society would soon have ceased to exist though lack of interest. The Aerospace Museum Society & the Friends Of Hendon have over the years formed a close working relationship with the management of the RAFM with numerous projects being carried out.
Regarding the vulcan B1 that was scraped the Society did look about trying to help save it but the airframe was passed saving due to the time it had spent outside as a RAF instructual Airframe

Lindy’s Lad Cosford are still using Volunteers they have never stopped using them. If you were volunteer at Cosford we possibley Know each other.

Road traffic management is down to the police not the RAF they decide which roads are to be use.

While the future of the base is still unclear now that the goverment has recived its 30 pieces of silver, the future of the Museum is safe.

If there is a ghost on the Lincoln it is a friendly one.

Seafuryfan you like me may be in a minority on here but talking to other visitors around Cosford I would say we are both in the Majority. Cosford like all Museums must sell itself to a wide audience to survive and I for one believe the Cold War Exhibition is the Jewel in Cosfords Crown.

SADSACK don’t give up on the Britannia just yet and the Auster is in the restoration centre so I have been told.