Awesome video Bob. It brought a tear to my eyes.I spent a number of years in uniform doing historical photographic documentation for the Air Force and I always felt really small around these machines when I thought about the kids who manned them so we could enjoy the freedoms we enjoy now. Makes me sad to see how we have squandered their legacy.
Agree with your sentiments, I also just feel sorry because I am an aeroplane nut.
When I was a kid in the 60s in a place called Townsville, the RAAF was busy dismantling its fleet of Avro Lincoln bombers - these were a post war development of the Lancaster and predictably none have survived anywhere in the world.
Anyway, I used to bicycle halfway across town so I could hang off the fence and watch these beautiful aircraft being wrecked, I was fascinated but also very sad.
I cheered up somewhat a few years ago as not all was lost. The Lincoln was powered by 4 Rolls Royce Merlin engines, RR had done a lot of work so that each engine was in its own self-contained "power egg" which allowed very rapid engine swaps on the flight line. That same facility allowed one of the workers engaged in the wrecking process to spirit an entire "power egg" away, he also managed to make off with a complete instrument panel. Apparently the theft was not noticed.
A number of decades later the "thief" was of advanced years and about to enter a nursing home and the engine and other bits were still in his back yard shed. He contacted the Airforce with a view to coming clean however they were actually overjoyed and no action was taken against him. The instrument panel is now in the Airforce museum and the "power egg" is on display in the Brisbane museum. I can't imagine what he thought he was going to do with a 30 litre 12 cylinder engine and four bladed propeller, but as luck would have it they remained in his shed under oiled rags and survived in perfect condition.
