 | KB882 - A NATIONAL DISGRACE |
| KB882 - A NATIONAL DISGRACE |
To begin, if you had taken any amount of time to read the content of my website then you will have recognized that there has been more progress made in the past five years than in the previous forty with regards to the initial steps for a restoration plan for this historically significant airframe.
I have been directly responsible for making City Council aware of the fact that they have a National Treasure that needed their attention desperately. I have personally taken the Mayor and members of council through the aircraft and provided them with the complete history of KB882, yes, something they were not aware of. It has been frustrating to say the least but now more than ever there is an excitement within City Hall that prior to my dedication, simply did not exist. I have cleaned the airframe inside from nose to tail, removed, cleaned, inventoried and stored all remaining equipment, purchased many missing parts with my own resources, contacted hundreds of Lancaster crew members to secure their written experiences for future reference and established an International network of museums, experts and enthusiasts to assist with the task at hand.
As a clown, I find your comments typical of someone who takes the time to look in from the outside, then reacts based on their self worth and importance without doing any real research. That of course takes time, resources, persistance and most importantly, an awareness for the greater cause.
If you actually want to know what is being done, by whom and for what reasons then I invite you to reply to this message - I more than welcome the communication.
Thanks for the mail. But you have completely missed the point of my posting.
Might I just remind you that when the aeroplane arrived at the airfield, it flew in. It was then parked up in the corner of a field and abandoned - which is a national disgrace. It was then effectively looted - which is a scandal. And then totally ignored.
And despite your doubtless well-meaning intentions, you clearly don't have the first understanding of the task that you are undertaking. To restore that machine into flying condition as it was when it arrived will cost you the best part of half a million dollars. You are going to need a pretty big collection box.
Do you have the resources for this?
Do you have the experience for this?
Do you have the facilities for this?
Do you have the expertise for this?
I suspect not.
And if the answer is "no", then what are your intentions for the machine? If they are any less than to return it to full flying condition, then I stand on my comments.
That aeroplane needs to be in the hands of someone who knows exactly what they are doing - like the Imperial War Museum for example. Not a bunch of rank amateurs (no matter how well-meaning) on a provincial airfield somewhere deep in the sticks.
But I tell you what. I wrote my page in January 2001 when I returned from Canada. That's 6 years ago. Keep hold of my e-mail address and mail me regularly to let me know where you are up to with the restoration. And if within another 6 years (that's Easter 2013) you get the machine to fly, I'll come over to the inaugural flight and publicly apologise to you in front of everyone who is attending the gathering.
I encourage people to write to me, and I post their comments (and my replies) to my site. And I shall do the same with your mail. Believe me when I say that you will always have space on my web site to post your comments
But I'm eager to know if the excitement you say that you have managed to generate is equal to the excitement that was generated all those years ago when the Lancaster came in to land under its own steam.
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