SA'S AIRCRAFT HERITAGE IN HANDS OF PUBLIC, PRIVATE SECTOR:.

(From SAPA (South African Press Association))

HISTORIAN (SUBS: PICS AVAILABLE AT www.sapapics.co.za) South Africa has the second oldest air force in the world, but a lack of finance and space is threatening to scupper efforts to preserve the country's flight history. "Because we have the second oldest air force, it should be logical we'd have the second best recorded history, but this is not the case," says the historical adviser to the SA Aviation Foundation, Steven McLean. He says the museum should be a flagship of the South African Air Force (SAAF), but preservation has taken a back seat. "From a developing-nation perspective with vastly differing socio-economic priorities, we are probably all right, but from a first world perspective we are very far behind," he says. The SA Aviation Foundation is a Section 21 company that looks to preserve historic aviation, and at the same time use aviation as an …