"Jim Atkins" wrote in message . net...
Being a true lover of the sound of old airplanes flying, it pains me to say
this but isn't it time to stop flying irreplaceable and one-of-a-kind
planes? Every one lost is lost forever. Maybe it's time to face up to the
reality that aviation is fundamentally dangerous, and there is a risk
involved in flying the old birds. At some point we have to retire the old
beauties to a museum because if we don't, a history-making piece of
craftsmanship will be lost forever.

The article seemed to imply that this was the last *flying* He-111,
not the last one in existence. Putting it in a museum would just as
surely have reduced the number of flying He-111s to zero as augering
it into a cornfield did.

Two more people would be alive today, but I'm quite sure that they
knew the risks of flying a 60 year old aircraft and so I am not
willing to tell them that they made a mistake.

I say keep them flying.

-jake