FROM THE EDITOR

摘要

If there's an underlying theme running through some of the pages of this issue, it's the difficulty inherent in making vintage jet operations pay. It came up in my 'Aeroplane meets...' interview with former Hunter One and Jet Heritage leading light Adrian Gjertsen - by the mid-1990s, he said, "Airshow revenue was really diminishing. The sort of revenue that we'd got from the aeroplanes back in the early '80s would have been fine... but the money just to break even now wasn't forthcoming." Two basic truths need stating. Firstly, ex-military jet aircraft are very expensive to operate. Secondly, a; much as you or I may be well aware of the necessity to preserve airworthy Meteors, Canberras et al as a part of our national aviation heritage, they have never enjoyed the widespread public appeal of, say, a Spitfire or a Lancaster. The sole exception is the Vulcan, and keeping XH558 flying has hardly been a walk in the park financially. Will the end of the Vulcan's time on the airshow circuit give other classic jets greater chances to shine, as organisers -with fewer current military jet assets now at their disposal - seek to fill the gap? Possibly. But it will not magically make operating those classic jets any cheaper. Nor, it must be said, will other post-war types suddenly assume the Vulcan's high level of public recognisability.