a British
entrepeneur just coughed up enough reddies to get the last Vulcan
back in the air
Actually a huge amount of entrpeneursgot involved...every one who bought a lotto ticket At last the lotto did something useful with the money rather than waste it on ..well I wont go there as I would have to be censored
I wish we were more patriotic though... I do love the USA when ever I go over there you are welcomed as a friend and the flag flies high and proud. I think if I were to live in the States then I would be proud of my history from the UK but respect and follow the rules of my new country and support it, not be supported by it.
AMD Phenom II X4 BE 965 @ 3.80GHz
nVidia GTX 560 TI 448 Cores
I can't stay quiet any more. First, airboatr, thanks for voicing exactly my same sentiments. If I had opened my mouth when I read this thread the first time, I'd likely have gotten myself banned from this board. It's probably a good thing that I'm not a moderator here...
Tony, if you do make your way to North Carolina, try to at least get close to the Greensboro area - I'll meet you over a pitcher of ice cold American beer! :partyman:
Without getting involved in the politics here, the Confederated Air Force keeps military aircraft flying, which are a lot less complicated than keeping civil aircraft, especially pressurized jets, flying (Ok, I know the powerplants ona B29 are complicated!) We've still got Dakotas, Tiger Moths, DH Rapides and a few others all flying. We also have the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and Vintage Flight that the RAF keeps airworthy. But the cost of keeping something like a VC10, Comet or Trident airworthy is prohibitive, and even if they were possible, the cost of insurance for passenger flights would make them phenomanally expensive. In fact, having flown recently in 'vintage' (i.e. 30 year) TU 154 and DC10 aircraft, on regular airline service, I must admit to finding the experience a bit unsettling!
With regards to the Duxford airliners, I always visit at a weekend when all of the airliners on the apron are open to the public - certainly the VC10, Britannia, Comet and Trident were. The interiers are all in good order, but I do think that a long term home needs to be found for them. The Airspace exhibition should be exciting, and the USAAF museum was a great innovation. It just shows what can be done, and lets hope that the folk at Duxford keep on improving there displays. ANd don't forget - most of these places rely on volunteers - so if we all care that much maybe we should all give up a few hours a month to make a difference!
Never said anything about keeping the planes flying, only keeping them. I do understand that jets are very complex things to keep flying.
Also, to say that a military aircraft is easier to keep flying than a civil aircraft is a gross over-generalization. If you looked at some of these aircraft or actually tried working on them, they are extremely difficult aircraft to maintain, especially given the rarity of parts for some of them. The B-24, B-17s, C-47/R4D's, and other large aircraft in the CAF's fleet are very time consuming to take care of because 1 jet engine has approximately 1/2 the moving parts of a twin-row radial. Also, most of the jet engines out there still have fairly large stores of spares, so it's relatively easy to replace broken bits or send them out to be overhauled as much of the needed expertise is out there as there are more jet engine mechanics out there than radial engine ones.
At last the lotto did something useful with the money rather than waste it on ..well I wont go there as I would have to be censored 
