Museum of Flight

The Museum of Flight opened to the public in 1975.  The site occupies part of a former RAF airfield now scheduled as a historic monument.  It was the departure point of the airship R34 which made the first east to west crossing of the Atlantic by air in July 1919;  the collection includes a number of R34 relics.  The aviation collections comprise aircraft, engines, rockets, photographs, a reference library, archives, models, flying clothing, instruments and propellers.

On our arrival we easily found the Museum of flight area, Comprising of 4 Aircraft Hangers, a well stocked shop and reception and an excellent Cafe serving meals and snacks.  The entry fee for Adults £4, Concessions £3 and childern 12 and under FREE, the visit will not break the bank.

It seemed somewhat strange that you purchased the tickets from a very friendly lass in the shop and you were then free to wander around as you wanted.  In fact if you didn't buy a ticket, you could still have wandered around the exhibits (Strange - Perhaps they need a re-think on this).

The Hanger are numbred 1 to 4 .. With 4 being the nearest to the shop/Cafe and also home to The Concorde.  Currently they are still rebuilding the aircraft, So entry to the hanger means that you have to view the great ship from behind perspex screens.

In Spring of 2005 the museum of flight hope to have Concorde re-assembled and offer tours on board  (Can't wait).  Here is some Phoptgraphs of work in progress  (Note camera flash from the perspex screen)

  

  

  

In pictures 1 - 4 you can clearly see various parts of the aircraft lying around, namely the tailfin and engine cowling.  What the pictures don't show if the height and length of Concorde, something that all visitors seemed to pass comment upon  (It is Massive).

The final two Photo's in this set show the Concorde engines in cradles in the hanger.  I would imagine these will eventually be mounted for display beside the "Great bird".  Why Mounted beside it?  Well "Wee Jonny" might flick the wrong switch and the next thing you know is your doing mach 3 at 300,000 feet.  Actually most of the aircraft on display seemed to have been disabled in this way.

Having left the Concorde hanger we headed off to see what else we could find.  I should point out that you can actually drive from one area to another, plenty perking available, although as it was a nice day WE decided to walk.

Ann and I stepped into the next hanger, and stopped dead in our tracks!    Well Come on it's not every day you come face to face with a flaming POLARIS Missile.  There was quite a crowd around the Missile display, However they all seemed to disappear when I gave the Polaris nosecone a hard slap  (Well they wouldn't leave a Nuclear warhead in there    Would they?)

  

The above Photos show not only the Polaris Missile but also a Booster rocket from a Space probe ... The last photo indicates the size compared to a man viewing the display.

A lot of the aircraft in this hanger, were items that the museum were still rebuilding, but still a facinating time seeing all the older planes.

The above photos show a WW2 Bomber still under re-construction and an old german Biplane used as a scout ship.

Moving swiftly on to the Next hanger.  This contained mostly Civil Aviation aircraft with a wide range of passinger planes.  One slight surprise was a blue painted aircraft supposedly owned by Comedian Dick Emery.

It is reported that he used this aircraft to gate crash a friends wedding.  After landing Dick stepped out of the plane and removed his flying suit to reveal he was also wearing a full wedding out fit underneath.

Another small surprise in this hanger, and nothing at all to do with aircraft.  A small electric car ... One of the first ever developed.

Supposedly this little jem could reach speed of 30 MPH and travel for 6 hours on a single charge.  Sadly it never reached the public production stage.

And so on to the final hanger.  The War planes.  Even outside the actual hanger there is plenty to see.  A comet passinger Jet.  Surface to air missile launcher and a VULCAN Bomber.

This Vulcan bomber saw action in the falklands war, and had 2 Argentine flags painted on it to show its missions flown.  Curiously it also had a Brazil flag painted on it?   This bomber, broke its refuelling nozzle while on flight and had to land in Brazil, where both plane and crew were held for several days.  The brazilian government released both crew and bomber on the understanding that it would take no further part in the war.

The final Hanger visited had plenty to offer.  From the Submarine Spitfire  (Sadly this aircraft was built at the end of the war and never saw action).

A Harrier jump jet, A tornado and many other German and American plane were on View.  Although you could walk around most planes on display, The Harrier jump jet had a stair and platform built so you could view the cockpit and controls.

Also on display was a fairly large selection of weapons, including an inside view of the circuits for a laser guided bomb  (You think your computer Mobo looks complicated!)

The photo below shows some of the weapons carried by the Harrier.  The long thin missiles  (Bottom of the photo)  are loaded into the pod.  This in turn is connected to the jet wing, allowing the pilot to fire a single missile or a fearsome salvo of 28.

Having spent the best part of 3 hours looking at the exhibits, We headed to the  "Paracute Cafe"  and enjoyed a reasonable priced lunch of Chilli and Baked Potato  (£3.50),  Before finally Heading home.

All in all a reasonably priced and enjoyable day that is well worth a visit.  Ann and I will certainly be returning in the summer of next year and hopefully tour the Concorde.