[Bewolf]

Originally Posted by Sternjaeger II

You probably have never been around or tinkered with a genuine wartime machine. We are not talking about some empty shell that has been repainted and they chucked in original components. This is the plane as it was in wartime, it's a time capsule, and should be preserved as such.

Sorry, but that is nonsense. Even static aircraft get repaints and maintance. You also have to constantly work on them to keep them in the condition they are for unless you put them into an airtight room and elimiate any sources of corrosion. Ultimately they decay the same way an active aircraft does, just at a much slower pace and with less work attached, but that's it.

Besides construction techniques of the time were unique and many construction details and adaptations (like field modifications etc) are not present on blueprints, so you would lose on historical information, which might no be interesting to you, but surely is to others.

What about ...

Added to that, there is nothing stopping you from taking these old parts and storing them for future reference or putting them into the aircraft again should it ever lose airworthyness again for whatever reason? "

...was so hard to understand?
And are you actually trying to say that when you restore an aircraft, you are not doing a vast documention of the parts involved and the restoriation process in general? So that each generation will have to assemble and disassamble the aircraft anew when they want to know what's in it? Or that the viewer in a museum will apreciate these details when looking at the aircraft?

One of my first restoration jobs was on a Spad VII, which was in remarkably good shape for its age and for some time we thought about having the engine running again. As we removed the canvas we found so many details that weren't reported anywhere on drawings but which were testimony of the incredible craftsmanship behind these machines, details that were of use to make a flying replica that has been made to original specs but with modern materials and components. The original Spad VII of an ace is an extremely rare machine, and thinking of flying it is insane to say the least.

Congrats to that work and nice to see you having worked on that. However, I never heared of that original Spad, which should be telling you something. And I can just imagine the original mechaincs, when working on that one, thinking to themselves "oh yeah, great, lets make this a marvel so that future generations can appreciate our work". I am sure they did not have in mind to get the plane into the air to fight the germans, did not see it as a mere tool for a purpose and they were really looking forward to see it on static display one day.

I completely agree, that's why we have airshows. To a child, seeing a T-6 or a Do335 it makes little or no difference. Seeing exotic and rare birds taking back to the air is more the pleasure of aviation philanthropists than the average people. Heck, I took my girlfriend to countless airshows, and she can barely tell the difference between a Mustang and a Spit! She loves it and think it's all very cool, but to her it's not about what plane is flying, but the spirit of this kind of aviation that matters.

You are making a girl friend the reference here? So she was more exited to go to museums and see those aircraft on static display? Or what do you want to prove with that example? An interest in aviation is a prequisite, but awakening this interest is the key in the first place. Saying that flying aircraft are the joy of only aviation philanthropists while static aircraft get the attention is.....bold, to say the least. That's like saying a Ferrari will only get attention when it is taken from the road and put into a museum. I doubt, however, that ole Enzo build his cars for display.

The Do335 and Ho229 are not rotting away. The gate guardians or external exhibits all around the world are

thinking of taking a Pfeil or a Ho229 to the air is crazy to say the least. They should be cleaned, given a preservation work, reassembled and exposed to the public. But flying them again is simply impossible and irresponsible.

uhm....you may want to do a little google search and then come back.
just as an example:



That said, the Go229 has no future as a flyable simply because even if fully restored, it would never fullfill safety standarts and thus is bound to stick to the ground anyways.

All in all, listening to you makes the impression of you having a typical collectors mindset, rather preferring to see a closed box with a toy on the shelf instead of playing with it. This is a philosophical debate that won't find a solution as it is putting practical minded folks against those putting an artificial worth to an object that was created with an entirely different purpose in mind.