quemerford wrote:
Quote:
The warbird scene and preserving historic artifacts do not go together very well.
I will give you a scenario of what can happen ( and has happened on other aircraft )
- the Beaufighter is recovered
- the plane is transferred to a restoration facility
- an existing Beaufighter project is bought by unknown party and disappears
- the Beaufighter from the sea miraculously appears to be restored and emerges from restoration facility with original data plate
- Garbage bins behind the restoration facility is now complete filled with recovered parts minus data plate
- Owner now has flying Beaufighter with proven combat history
Fully agree: I've said similar myself, only to be flamed that, "it's great to see yet another P-51/Spitfire etc in the air". I do hope this artifact gets recovered and placed where it can't be "restored". Much as I love seeing replica P-51s, Spitfires etc, I also like to know that it's not at the expense of our collective heritage.
So what's the alternative?
-A bunch of corroded bits in:
1. The sea.
2. A museum where they may not be seen by many. Both outcomes keeps its precious dataplate intact.
Or
-A flying aircraft...albeit with modern systems, and all the critical parts are new. Downside, not a lot of recognizable bits for display.
But people get to see an aircraft its element...and it will be seen as a tribute to It's designers, builders and crews.
Your seemingly preferred outcome would mean there would be few warbirds flying. (Unless you can talk the FAA, CAA , Transport Canada, etc into allowing "replicas" to fly w/o dataplates. Good luck in today's regulatory and litigious climate).
Don't be too disfainful of "replica" Spitfires and Mustangs.
True, they don't have much WWII period metal in them, but it's better than nothing. Some/many here (I'm tempted to call them old metal snobs) would seem to prefer corroded bits on display somewhere instead the number of airworthy aircraft we enjoy today.
A few weeks back, I made a comment about a friend's Mustang.
Someone here said "It's just
another new Mustang".
True it has a lot of new metal in it, but it's better than
his (nonexistent) Mustang and it, and its owner, does more to support the warbird hobby and the remembrance of history, technology and veterans than some guy at a keyboard griping about the age of the metal out on the ramp.
While I understand your point and am sympathetic to what you're saying...
You can't have it both ways...