WIX Archives
Re: Similar arguments??
Posted by Steve T on Tue Nov 25, 2003 07:08:29 PM
In reply top Similar arguments?? posted by Tulio on Tue Nov 25, 2003 06:35:32 PM
Hi Tulio--
: Were there similar arguments back in the day, when the WWII aircraft were plentiful?
There sure were...and not solely as long ago as the 40s and 50s, either. For instance the Mustang that Walt Soplata recovered, iirc, came out of a junkyard in the early 70s. (This was N69X and reportedly went to Brian O'Farrell in Florida a few years later...is it still about?)
And of course there's the still-current discussion on WIX about Lockheed PVs and their intrinsic versus market value...
We all have been there one way or another, when we had the chance (in my case, a TBM for $500) to buy an airplane, but we either did not have the money, or the interest.
Wow. Actually I've never had a chance like that...
Years later, prices shot up, many airframes scrapped later, they became scarce, and we hit ourselves for not having been wiser.
Nostalgia's nasty stuff..."The saddest words of tongue or pen are simply these: It might have been".
: My point was, if an airframe can be saved, why not? Operat
ive word is, can be saved, meaning money, storage space, interest, and so on.
This is the MO of people like Walter, who take whatever's offered--in any condition--so that SOMETHING remains when all's said and done. And some of it will end up desirable and some won't; some will end up rare (even if--perhaps especially if--historically insignificant) and some will still be fairly commonplace. Like baseball cards, Hot Wheels or '65 Ford Mustangs, it's a bit of a lottery...but typically anything that was so common as to be "disposable" will eventually begin to engender nostalgia in the collectors among us.
The case of this MiG, of course, is complicated by two other factors: one, it'll really be just a kit of extra parts (and damaged, to boot) once the current owner gets through with it--like the hacked-up C-54 at Brantford; two, as an "adversary" type it can never draw out the nostalgia the way, say, an F-86 could in the West.
In short, I think this might be a job for Walt!
S.