WIX Archives
Re: with these prices, the future? - 1960/70's
Posted by Ron Henry on Tue Oct 29, 2002 02:33:44 PM
In reply top Re: with these prices, the future? - 1960/70's posted by PeterA on Mon Oct 28, 2002 02:02:55 PM
: In the early 1960's an airworthy Mk IX Spitfire was about
: ?4,000. With the build up to the BoB film in the mid 1960'
: s that was ?6,000 and post the epic, 1970, ?12,000. By 197
: 4 it had risen to ?35,000 and we couldn't believe it. The
: BoB film did for Spitfires what the James Bond film did fo
: r the Aston Martin DB5.
.... and I guess you really do also know a lot about DB5s, Peter ! ;-)
A UK warbird price that seems to have stuck in my mind is the Mustang that Charles Masefield had. I seem to remember Keegan's (a used aircraft dealer) advertising it in "Flight" magazine (before Masefield bought it) for ?10000. That would probably have been c 1965.
:
: : : Cees,
: : : I?m not qualified to to even speculate what wealthy pe
: op
: : le
: : : might want to do with their money. I think that it wi
: ll
: : b
: : : e more difficult to convince someone of the good cause
: f
: : or
: : : sponsorship in the future. It will probably take some
: g
: : en
: : : uine warbird interest to prompt these investments or h
: ea
: : vy
: : : expenses, whichever way they are regarded.
: : :
: : : In one of his posts Peter pointed out that if the valu
: e
: : of
: : : the warbirds actually equalled the expenses for rebui
: ld
: : ,
: : : then that would be a motivator for investors.
: : :
: : : If I?m not totally wrong, Sea Furies sell at $500,000
: or
: : b
: : : elow. Should you find a project somewhere and haul it
: to
: : a
: : : rebuilder you?d be looking at over $1M.
: : : In the light of that it doesn?t surprise me that there
: ?s
: : n
: : : o hurry with the Tempests!?
: : :
: : : I know one thing for sure though, in the sixties, had
: I
: : kn
: : : own what I know today and had my weekly allowance been
: s
: : li
: : : ghtly higher, then I wouldn?t have collected plastic s
: ca
: : le
: : : models!
: : :
: : : Christer
: :
: : Yes, Christer, had you known what you know today...... !
: !
: :
: : Way back in the early 1960s interest in old aircraft was
: m
: : uch less, and the pool of enthusiasts was much smaller.
: Ho
: : wever, amongst us enthusiasts it was well known that the
: re
: : were nearly 20 (IIRC, it was 18) Sea Furys in outside s
: to
: : rage at the Royal Navy's Air Station at Lossiemouth in S
: co
: : tland. They really were there - I saw them myself. By 19
: 65
: : , they had all been sold for scrap.
: :
: : Then came the 1970s and 1980s and the warbird thing real
: ly
: : took off in UK. A friend of mine who'd also seen the Se
: a
: : Furys used to reflect on them and say "If only I'd had t
: he
: : money to buy the SFs and store them - I knew they would
: b
: : e worth a fortune." I think he was kidding himself - Br
: it
: : s with his alleged foresight then were extremely rare in
: de
: : ed. It's always astounded me how the UK warbird scene ha
: s
: : grown during the last 30 years - in the 1960s, I was con
: vi
: : nced that the dead hand of the CAA would never allow it.
: