[Milsurplus] More Moron-ities.

[Mike Morrow]

> ...they do quite a lot and i'm sure keeping these warbirds airworthy in no
> simple task.

The ideal *goal* of military aircraft restoration would be represented by the
following:

"A resurrected original flight crew and maintenance crew coming on board the
restored aircraft should see no significant configuration differences from what
they experienced during wartime service (outside the obviously required simulation
of the weapons load, plus whatever is needed to meet FAA requirements)."

If the aircraft won't be flying, of course the FAA part doesn't exist.

Only that philosophy does service to the history of that type of aircraft.

Today it would be simple to configure a small and portable civil air avionics
package that could be completely removed (or at least covered) for aircraft
ground display.

This would require heroic effort, but most (not all) of the vintage aircraft
organizations seem to have little interest other than making only the *outside*
of an aircraft look "kinda-like" what old pictures show.  Not making the effort
now only means that it will never be done, because it won't get easier in the 
future.

I do not believe there is much value to making the original avionics *operable* in
these aircraft.  It is impossible to operate old aircraft electronics without
experiencing episodic component failure.  That happened even when equipment was new.
I doubt even the most conscientious of vintage aircraft restorers and operators have
a process that monitors the "display" equipment for failure (while a shorted bypass
capacitor slows the dynamotor and cooks a voltage drop resistor inside), immediately
removes it from service for repairs, and then uses exact replacements of failed
components so that the equipment doesn't become a mix of 2011 components next to 1944
components.  Lacking a program to, at minimum, monitor and quickly shutdown failed
display equipment ensures that the usage period of any operating installation will
be short.  It might as well be zero to preserve the originality of the equipment. 

Mike / KK5F