Y2K Spitfire sold for $1...

[Jiggersfromsphilly]

Doe's anyone remember the story of Tom Sawyer painting the fence?


http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/ ... s_tom.html


What are you obliged to do, and what are you not?

Last edited by Jiggersfromsphilly on Mon May 25, 2009 12:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Dave Cheeseman]

Regimes come and regimes go.

...and when Michael Potter or his estate come to sell or part with TE294 at some time in the future, what happens to the £250k or so equity, pro rata, he was gifted for just $1.00 Canadian Dollar?

Just intrigued.

Mark brings up a good point that I did not think of until now. What would happen to the Spitfire if for some reasons VWoC decided to close up shop and liquidate its fleet of aircraft? Would it be protected by any of Canada's heritage laws ? or are thoses laws only for museums and not private collectors? In other words could it be sold and moved outside of Canada?

Now I can not see this happening in the near future or ever for that matter, but in todays bad world economy I guess anything is possible

Cheers Dave C

[daveymac82c]

The Ministry of Defence ( Spit owner) has not revealed the price. There is no hard evidence of what was paid for the a/c ..just rumours

Like mentioned before, I'd be interested to know where the $1 figure came from. I bet someone probably said it was sold for "Next to nothing" and $1 is pretty close to that and it stuck... then the media ran with it.

Wrong...this is pretty much a standard museum transaction. If a Museum can no longer support the restoration or storage of an artifact., it has an obligation to find an new home for the item. In this case they were able to attract a very capable organization that can do the restoration justice. Sorry but a cold hard fact: VWC is the most capable group inside Canada at this time. That is a bold statement but sorry it is a fact

I will certainly not argue with you that the VWC is the best possible place for this Spit to end up if it had to go somewhere in Canada. That being said, a source you recently contacted me said that the volunteer group, was lied to about the sale of the airplane, that in fact the restoration funding was actually at very high levels, in fact at practically the highest they'd seen in the history of the project. Whether that can be backed up with evidence, I'm not sure, but I'm throwing it out there as what was passed on to me.

Davey think about it, putting on the market could have resulted to it leaving Canada. it would have also opened up more controversy like the Mossie/ hurricane issue in Alberta.
In it's present state the project is not even worth 1 mil and VWC will have to spend 2-3 mil to get in airworthy.
As for a cold shoulder , well if you read between the lines it seems like there were issues between the volunteers and the Military.

Regarding the idea of putting it on the market doesn't seem to be too relevant to me. It appeared that VWC wanted the airplane. Other views make it sound like they were lending a hand and "bailing out" the guys in Comox. Either way, they stepped in to keep the airplane in Canada (I appreciate that move), but wouldn't it then make sense to sell the airframe to VWC at the appraised value of what they would be receiving? Then again, you mentioned that the military has not actually disclosed the selling price. Maybe it wasn't $1. None-the-less, it seems like it would have made sense that if the airframe was worth $300,000 or $500,000 or whatever the number was, a rational selling price would be just that. I suppose we'll have to wait and see what it actually went for.

At the present rate it would have taken 20 years. IF they could find people to continue. 20 yrs was well beyond the lifetime of the active volunteers.

Again, I don't see the project taking 20 years to be that much of a crime. It is too bad the military didn't find the project any longer feasable.

As I have said in other Forums. Lets be thankful that a Canadian organisation has come along and will bring her back to flying condition.
And lets all look forward to the days she flys in Canada as a tribute to all the veterans past and present.
Long may she fly

I too am glad she'll be staying in Canada, but call it my "Western Inferiority Complex" but it's annoying to see such a hot-bed of warbirds out east, and not much to speak of out here in BC. Just look at the Toronto area; from what I know there's 3 Lancasters within an hour or so of Toronto. Our nearest Lanc is.... a province over and one heck of a long drive. Anyways, I digress... warbirds always end up where the money is, and where the money is... is where the population is. And there's a lot of people in Toronto. I digress again.

I hope I haven't seemed argumentative. I thank you fleet16b for filling in holes and sharing your opinion. I enjoy your insight.

Cheers,

David

[Tom H]

Dave Cheeseman

Canada's Heritage Laws apply to both Museums and Private collectors. With the recent toughening of enforcement it will be safe.

Tom H

[Dave Cheeseman]

Canada's Heritage Laws apply to both Museums and Private collectors. With the recent toughening of enforcement it will be safe.

Thanks Tom for the info.

Cheers dave C

[peter]

I came across this video on the Spit at Comox and thought it might be of relevance...?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAVibDCKRhQ