"gregg" wrote in message
...
Value of things can change with time. It's not impossible to take
something
that was throwaway at one point and have it's value redefined at another
point. Especially if it became historically important and there are only a
veyr few left.

If and when the P-51 actually becomes so valuable that it is "historically
important" for them to cease flying, then they will cease. This will happen
because those who deem it so "historically important" will buy all of the
flyable ones and ground them.

Until then, they obviously are not so precious that we cannot afford to have
them flying, even in air races (as if that were somehow more hazardous to
the fleet than other types of flying).

[...]
Very few things were built to last forever. That doesn't mean that when
there are only a few left, they shouldn't increase in value. civil War
swords were made by the thousands. They are more valuable now than they
were then.

Only to people who irrationally place such a high value on them. Many
people wouldn't pay even a fraction of the time-adjusted cost of production
of a Civil War era sword.

To those people who think the P-51 shouldn't be flying: buy your own and
ground it, if you think it's so important.

Pete