Warbird Information Exchange

Mark!
Are you trying to tell us, that a bunch of airplane nerds, speculating about something on the internet, is not the cornerstone foundation of fact?

If the collection does get broken up, I can't help but see most of these birds leaving the USA and heading toward Europe.

Especially the German gear. U.S. Collectors might have a chance with the U.S. gear since it is familiar and already in the maintenance pipeline. It is the specialized gear that will be sent away, in my opinion.

Stuka over the U.K. anyone?

If it did get broken up as a collection and sold off, I can't see many items ending up in the UK tbh.

With the IWM publishing a list recently of airframes potentially up for disposal which incudes the sole survivor Fw190A-two seater (that up until the late 80's was in ground running condition at St.Athan) we could possibly see two very original Fw190's on the market in quick succession.....!
Personally I'd love to the ex-IWM/TFC Mosquito T.3 come back to the UK.......but there's not that sort of money floating around here in the UK post Covid me thinks.

I would like to see some of these aircraft donated to major American Museums:

NASM needs Russian WWII a/c, the Rata and Po-2 could go there, the Lancaster forward fuselage would be a good addition to that collection as well, and the P-51 with combat record could go straight to the new WWII display on the Mall.

The USAFM does not have a Fulk-Wulfe in its own collection, so one of the F-Ws could go there, also the Oscar.

Both NASM and USAFM have a Mosquito and Me. 163 and these, plus maybe the Schturmovik or Storch would be fine additions to the Museum of Flight.

These aircraft would be seen by vast numbers of Americans for many years to come. I would rather see these go as above, than risk several of these going overseas. Would be also nice to see the Me.163 tow vehicle go to one of the museums above, to complement a Me.163.

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Kevin McCartney

I thought the USAFM had a Dora?

USAFM has a Dora on display, but that is on loan from NASM. I am sure they would like a FW in the permanent collection.

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Kevin McCartney

The dust hasn't even settled yet and the collection is already being dissolved by the court of public opinion. There's more to the picture than most of us can see from where we sit.

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45+47=Psalm 92:6

Where would one find a list of the disposals of the IWM?

I believe what Firebird was referencing was the RAF Museum (not IWM) list that was recently released which included the 2 seat Fw-190.

This is the list:

Auster Antarctic WE600 Relevance
Avro 707C WZ744 Significance
Bristol Sycamore XJ918 Duplication
DH Devon C.2 VP952 Significance/Interpretative potential
DH Moth G-AAMX Relevance
Fairchild Cornell II 15252 Relevance/Completeness
Focke-Wulf Fw 190F-8/U1 WkNr.584219 Significance/Duplication
Gloster Meteor F.4 EE549 Significance On loan to Tangmere Military Aviation Museum
Gloster Meteor T.7(mod) WA634 Duplication
Gloster Meteor F.8 Prone Pilot WK935 Duplication
Hafner Rotachute III P-5 Relevance On loan to Army Flying Museum
Hang-glider (civil) Relevance
Hawker P.1052 VX272 Significance On loan to Fleet Air Arm Museum
Hawker P.1127 XP831 Significance On loan to the Science Museum
Hawker Hunter F,1 WT619 Relevance
Hawker Hunter Mk.3 WB188 Significance On loan to Tangmere Military Aviation Museum
Lockheed SP-2H Neptune 204 Relevance/Environment
NA B-25J Mitchell 44-29366 Relevance
NA P-51D Mustang 44-73415 Duplication/Completeness
Panavia Tornado XX946 Relevance
SA Jetstream T.1 XX496 Relevance/Environment
Slingsby Sedbergh TX.1 VX275 Relevance
Sopwith Tabloid replica 168 Originality/Significance
Supermarine 517 VV106 Significance On loan to Fleet Air Arm Museum
Vickers Vimy replica F8614 Originality/Significance
Westalnd Dragnfly HR.1 VX595 Relevance/Significance

I can understand the IWM moving on from things that dont fit the collection or are duplicates such as the P-51D and dual control FW-190.
But disposing of the Fairchild Cornell II is simply outrageous,distasteful,offensive and grounds for termination of people who made that decision.

Yes, correct, get easily confused at my age, seeing as I'd just been sending an email to a mate about the IWM transfer of 50 odd exhibits from the Landwarfare Hall at Duxford to Pima, Az., and got thus my P & Q's confused......as had IWM on my mind

Okay, so Mr. Allen didn't have a wife and kids? He has a sister so there must be heirs. Anyway, you guys often approach someone's death like there is a shortage of money and people are eager to get their share. That is the case sometimes. Mr. Allen was a multi-billionaire. The Survivors have a right to trim or modify the collection. I'm okay with them going to the highest bidder or good homes. Often the highest bidder is an excellent caretaker of the airplane in it's next life.
I would dearly love to see the FW-189 fly and so maybe it will be sold off and restored to fly. Same with the Stuka; it flying would be completing MR. Allen's dream of a flyable Stuka in the world. Sometimes. a museum only has to sell a couple of airplanes to raise millions of dollars and remain economically self sufficient for a long time. The USAFM and others are running out of indoor space and budgets are being trimmed. I don't see them buying anything. For example, I would be interested in one of the warbirds. They could sell a few of the ones that have the most eager suitors and keep the rest and still have a world class museum.

edit.

What if the buyer takes say the FW-189 and Stuka and buys them with the intention of a static display...you go from having potential fliers to something sitting in a building. All the work/time/effort that Paul Allen and his team put into them is wasted.

One could imagine that the Mig-29 sale should have given them a nice cushion for a period of time. Vulcan, Inc. is a multi-billion dollar conglomerate, and the museum was under the Arts and Entertainment division.

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"They done it, they done it, damned if they ain't flew." December 17, 1903