WIX Archives

Re: The truth

Posted by Warbird Owner on Wed Nov 06, 2002 01:41:27 PM

In reply top Re: The truth posted by david j burke on Wed Nov 06, 2002 01:32:26 PM

: Joe - the fact that BM597 destroyed a 'priceless' 109 as y
: ou put it is irrelevant. The 109 wasn't 'priceless' then s
: o what bearing does it have? The facts are that this aircr
: aft has been destroyed - the can be no debate over that. W
: e are not talking about 'enthusiast's' deciding the
: fate of machines - simply what is feasible and what isn't.
:
: The facts are that the percentage of this wreck that
: could ever fly again do not represent enough for it to be
: called TE566. For that matter the percentage of parts fro
: m the wings that are usable are probably very small.
: The debate on what is real and what isn't is of grea
: t importance. I don't believe that any enthusiasts want to
: stop an aircraft from flying - they just believe that the
: provenace of an aircraft is important. This might not be
: important to a potential owner but lets face it would any
: of us buy a house without a survey or indeed buy a car
: without a log book ?
:

This debate just keeps going around and around. The fact is, I don't know anyone who actually owns a warbird that cares. I know a couple of Mustang rebuilds, including one that has combat history that probably contain very little of the original structure or skin, but no one questions their originality. We can either stuff them in museums or we can rebuild them so that we can see them where they belong in the air.

The feasability of whether something can be rebuilt should be left to those with the restoration skills and the money to have it done. Not the enthusiast reading this board and making the determination.

The suggestion that we allow the government to legislate the registration or determine what is the original airplane or not is tantamount to the destruction of the warbird movement. We have enought problems dealing with the civil aviation authorities as warbird owners and enough battles to fight without some enthusiast making the suggestion that their needs to be clear traceability for the lineage of an airplane.

Follow Ups: