It's often easy for us to forget that, by general museum standards, any aircraft is a large exhibit. Even the likes of, say, a Tiger Moth or a Cessna 172 are far bigger than most objects any collection would ever hold. Given that, how likely is it that the Science Museum's offer - reported in this month's news pages - of putting its L-749 Constellation, Comet 4C and Trident 3B out on loan will meet with any takers, especially given the short deadline for bids to be put in? However, I very much want to be proved wrong. These are significant aeroplanes, and deserve to be on public display rather than stored permanently at Wroughton. The 'Connie' is, of course, the only one in Britain; just five complete Comets survive in this country (though the Science Museum is wrong to claim that its example is "the only one with a full civilian history", given the background of the Duxford Aviation Society's airframe); and Tridents are hardly ten-a-penny these days. And the principle of allowing public access to as many exhibits as possible is a very laudable one indeed.
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