From: chance wolf (chance_wolf@shaw.ca)
Date: Sat Nov 22 2003 - 12:59:39 PST
----- Original Message -----
From: <bolton8@juno.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2003 9:26 AM
Subject: [MV] Memphis Belle
> In June of this year the Heinkel was flying to an exhibition in
> Colorado when one of the engines malfunctioned and the plane went down.
> Both pilots were killed in the crash, and the plane destroyed. The CAF
> held a memorial service for the two pilots at Falcon Field this past
> August.
I made a trip out especially to see that Heinkel when it came to visit us
here at the Vancouver Airport, and got my chance to "run [my] hand down the
fuselage". I never thought I'd ever see one outside of a museum, and felt
the same way when I did the Arlington, WA airshow and saw TBF Avengers,
Hellcats, Wildcats and other things I thought only existed in reruns of
"Midway". I honestly walked around with my jaw around my ankles and forgot
to breathe.
I was really sad to hear of the Heinkel thundering in, both for the loss of
the pilots and plane. CAF brought history in live form to thousands of
people who would never get the chance to be anywhere near the sorts of
museums located in far-flung lands or the Wrong Coast of their own country,
and I don't think the CAF nor the Heinkel crew realized(d) how important
that was.
> Do we want last of a species aircraft to be seen in their most
> magnificent of all presentations, FLYING ?? And in so doing run the
> risk of losing this aircraft for all eternity. Or do we want to make
> it a dust collecting static model for future generations ?? The upside
> being you are providing future generations with an experience that all
> the colour photos, and all the movie clips in the world can never
> provide. Being able to run your hand down the fuselage and feel the
> rivets.
Ask any kid. Of any age. We go on and on about history being ignored in
schools and, therefore, liable to be repeated - yet that's because we make
history a dull, dusty, preserved-in-fromaldehyde chore. Dump three "Battle
of Britain" textbooks on a desk and ask some Grade 8 to interpret the
material and create a report as to why the Battle of Britain was pivotal to
the War and you'll get the same groan you get when you ask them to take out
the garbage every week. Take that same brat to an airshow with Heinkels,
Dorniers, Focke-Wulfs Messerschmitts and Spitfires taking to the skies and
you're going to get the guy cranking out 300 pages with illustrations.
That's one of the key things with the MV hobby, and one that the Governments
of Canada, the U.S. and Britain should keep in mind while they're cutting
everything up as opposed to making things available to collectors of all
stripes. If, in thirty years, they find themselves pondering why history
repeated itself - it's not going to be much of a surprise to the rest of us
because current Government policies prevent the willing from preserving that
history in a way that people *want* to learn from it, and preserving it
beyond the confines of some concrete pedestal or rope-and-stanchion Ottawa
museum ghetto.
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