Why do we fly old planes?

So the airshow season is well underway on both sides of the Atlantic, and just as with any year, there will be some mishaps. A French pilot upended his Spitfire in the last few weeks, and more will follow.

Other summer pastimes will also have their ups and downs. A cricketer will break his hand being hit by an errant ball. Lance Stroll had to dip out of action in F1 when an old injury reared its head. Jorge Martin, current MotoGP World Champion hasn't ridden for months after injuring himself.

Someone, somewhere, will hurt themselves in a warbird or a vintage plane, which will once again see cries from some people that we should stop flying museum pieces. The tabloids will be up in arms with graphic descriptions of the insanity of flying ’80 year old aircraft’.

Which we didn't, and which aren't.

Let me explain. Across the world, there are thousands of vintage aircraft in museums. These planes will have been untouched since they last flew, perhaps are full of corrosion, damage, rot and 50-100 years of deterioration. They are museum pieces and should be left alone. If they were rolled out of the museums, somehow had their engines started and took to the air, chances are they would fold up like a cheap umbrella in the first hour of flight.

No one is flying them. Nor are the aircraft you see on the airshow circuit museum pieces. Indeed that's a popular discussion, not to say argument, amongst aviation enthusiasts.

A friend of mine has a Mustang. Authentic 1946-7 plane, from the factory. It has of course, a rebuilt recent engine. The wings were totally new when it returned to flight a decade ago, likewise the empennage, the fuselage has been stripped and rebuilt, the undercarriage is in effect new, it had a new, long, new late model canopy and screen, plus the radio equipment and fuselage tank removed and replaced with a second seat. The prop is new. Instruments are overhauled items with an additional Garmin panel, and radios of course are modern. The electrical loom is all new. Of course every piece of piping and hydraulics on the aircraft were renewed.

The above description is true of probably 95% of all flying warbirds and vintage aircraft. They simply are not museum pieces, and are in essence, just not that old. 

There’s a very well known Hurricane currently for sale, a genuine 1942 aircraft. 500 flight hours on the airframe, 300 on the engine. That nice Airbus that took you on holiday this year is likely to have 5000 hours on it if it’s pretty new, 30,000 hours if it’s in the middle of its life.

The greatest way we can honour those who designed, created and flew the aircraft from our past is to carefully preserve and maintain them, repair and replace the parts that are needed to keep them airworthy and have them flown and maintained by talented, dedicated teams.

As for museum pieces, keep them dusted and cleaned. 

So the next time you hear the cry, ‘we shouldn't be flying museum pieces’ you can safely reply ‘we aren't’.