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They really should make new ones just for airshows, not to mention races. The majority of those airframes are way beyond their intended lifespan (measured in flying hours, that is) and the cost of keeping them flyable is getting unreasonably high.RubberLegs":28xasu6w said:Since the supply of gate guardians, instructional and stored airframes, etc. has dried up they've been recovering wrecks from Russian forests, lake beds, holes in the ground, whatever they can trace. Even the provenance of such airframes becomes 'thin', especially if they can't find the manufacturers ID plate.
I don't mind all that, they still look and sound great at airshows!
If the plans of a certain plane aren't available anymore, they can always reverse-engineer one and scan every single part with a 3D scanner.
Why fly a 40 year old historically significant plane with the risk of crashing it when you can put it in a museum and build an exact replica?