National Museum of Flight

Coordinates: 56°00′N 2°43′W / 56°N 2.717°W / 56; -2.717

The entrance to the Museum of Flight

RAF-era buildings at the museum airfield

The National Museum of Flight is Scotland's national aviation museum at East Fortune Airfield, just south of the village of East Fortune, in East Lothian. It is one of the museums within National Museums Scotland. The museum is housed in the original wartime buildings of RAF East Fortune which comprises one of the best preserved wartime airfields in the UK. As a result of this the entire site is a scheduled ancient monument with no permanent structures added by the museum. The hangars, control tower and stores are designated as Category B listed buildings by Historic Scotland.

The museum received 104,240 visitors in 2006.^[1]

Museum history

The collections date back to 1909 when the Royal Scottish Museum acquired Percy Pilcher's Hawk glider. This was the first aircraft collected by any museum in the UK. The same year the museum acquired models of the Wright Model A and Blériot XI. During the early 1920s several aero engines were added to the collection, including a 1910 33hp Wright engine donated by Orville Wright. In 1968 a Slingsby Gull sailplane was acquired. In 1971 the museum was given a Supermarine Spitfire XVI by the Ministry of Defence. This could not be displayed in Edinburgh and was stored in a hangar at East Fortune. The following year a Hawker Sea Hawk, de Havilland Sea Vampire and de Havilland Sea Venom were received from RNAS Lossiemouth. The growth in the aircraft collection led to the decision to open a Museum of Flight at East Fortune, with the public admitted for the first time on 7 July 1975. ^[2] The displays included several aircraft on loan, including de Havilland Dragon Rapide (G-ADAH), BA Swallow (G-AEVZ) and Fairey Delta 2 WG774.^[3] In 1979 a temporary exhibition about the R34 airship was mounted, followed by Fighters of the RFC and RAF, 1914 to 1940 the following year. The 1981 temporary exhibition was The Flight of Rudolf Hess 1941.^[4]

The museum expanded significantly in 1981 as a result of the sale by auction of much of the Strathallan Collection of aircraft. The museum purchased five aircraft (Bristol Fairchild Bolingbroke, de Havilland Dragon, de Havilland Puss Moth, General Aircraft Cygnet and Percival Provost). Of these, the Cygnet and Provost were the first aircraft to make their final flights to join the museum. That same year, the de Havilland Comet also flew in to the museum,^[5] as did the Avro Vulcan in 1984. Another significant expansion took place with the donation of much of the British Airways Collection of aircraft in 2006. This collection was previously displayed at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford. The museum acquired the BAC 1-11, Vickers Viscount, Boeing 707 forward fuselage and Hawker Siddeley Trident cockpit. Visitors are able to walk through the 1-11 and 707 and look into the flight deck of the Trident. This is in addition to walking through the de Havilland Comet and Jetstream 31 fuselage which were already in the museum collections.

Collections

The museum collections have expanded into one of the most important in the UK, covering all aspects of aviation including military, civil and recreational. The museum is significant in that it is the only UK national museum still collecting the history of commercial aviation. This resulted in the museum putting their Boeing 707 fuselage section on display from April 2010, with a collection of BOAC crew and passenger artefacts, including a 1960s stewardess uniform.

A list of the aircraft in the collection is available to download from the museum website. ^[6] The aircraft on display are:

• Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde G-BOAA. This is displayed as "Scotland's Concorde" and is the focus of "The Concorde Experience" which opened on 16 March 2005
• Air and Space 18A (G-BVWK)
• Armstrong Whitworth Meteor NF.14 (G-ARCX), operated by the Ferranti Flying Unit at Edinburgh Airport
• Avro Anson C.19 (G-APHV), under restoration
• Avro Vulcan B.2A (XM597) which carried out two of the Operation Black Buck missions during the Falklands War
• BAC 1-11 (G-AVMO) in British Airways livery
• Beagle Bulldog (G-AXEH)
• Beech 18 (G-ASUG), in Loganair livery
• Blackburn Buccaneer (XT288)
• Boeing 707 (G-APFJ) forward fuselage in BOAC livery, the centrepiece of "The Jet Age" exhibition
• Bristol Beaufighter TF.X (RD220), under restoration
• Bristol Fairchild Bolingbroke (9940), under restoration
• British Aerospace Jetstream 31 (G-JSSD)
• Britten-Norman Islander (G-BELF)
• de Havilland Comet 4C (G-BDIX) in Dan-Air livery
• de Havilland Dove (G-ANOV) in Civil Aviation Authority Flying Unit livery.
• de Havilland Dragon (VH-SNB)
• de Havilland Puss Moth (VH-UQB)
• de Havilland Sea Venom (WW145)
• de Havilland Tiger Moth (G-AOEL)
• Druine Turbulent (G-AVPC)
• English Electric Canberra (VX185) forward fuselage
• English Electric Lightning F.2A (XN776)
• Ferranti Phoenix UAV
• General Aircraft Cygnet (G-AGBN), flown twice by Guy Gibson, leader of the Dambusters Raid
• Hawker Siddeley Harrier (XV277), the oldest surviving Harrier
• Hawker Siddeley Nimrod MR2 (XV241) forward fuselage
• Hawker Siddeley Trident 1C (G-ARPH) cockpit section
• Hawker Sea Hawk (WF259)
• Ikarus C42 G-SJEN
• Letov S-103 (613677), Czechoslovakian licence-built version of the MiG 15
• McDonnell Douglas Phantom (155848)
• Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet rocket fighter (191659), the fastest aircraft of World War II
• Miles M.18 (G-AHKY)
• Morane-Saulnier MS-505 Criquet (G-BIRW)
• Panavia Tornado F.3 (ZE934)
• Percival Provost (WV493)
• Piper Comanche G-ATOY Myth Too, flown round the world twice by Sheila Scott
• Saunders Roe Skeeter (XL762)
• Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer (G-BBVF)
• SEPECAT Jaguar (XZ119) Katrina Jane
• Spartan Cruiser III (G-ACYK) forward fuselage
• Supermarine Spitfire XVI (TE462)
• Vickers Viscount (G-AMOG), in British European Airways livery

In addition the museum has a large collection of hang-gliders, microlights and sailplanes, but none of these are currently on display.

The rest of the collections, only some of which are on display, include:

• a large number of aero engines (including piston engines, turboprops, turbojets and turbofans)
• aircraft parts (including S.E.5a wings and Sopwith Cuckoo wings)
• avionics (including radars built by Ferranti in Edinburgh, such as the AI.23 AIRPASS and AI.24 Foxhunter)
• uniforms (military and civil)
• medals and decorations
• weapons (including bombs, missiles and cannons)
• models (including a wind tunnel model of the Beardmore W.B.XXVI displayed in the National Museum of Scotland)
• ephemera
• photographs
• documents

Displays

Hangar 1: Military Aviation

Aircraft on display include the Spitfire, Meteor, Tornado and Jaguar. Other objects on display include one of the Daimler-Benz DB 601 engines from the Messerschmitt Bf 110 flown to Scotland by Rudolf Hess, a Bristol Hercules engine, a Bristol Pegasus engine displayed alongside a Harrier jump jet, a Rolls-Royce Avon turbojet displayed next to a Lightning, a jeep, several Hispano-Suiza 20mm cannons, Martin-Baker ejection seats, air-to-air missiles including the AIM-7 Sparrow, and a reconstruction of a 1950s shop with displays of model kits manufactured by Airfix, Frog, Matchbox, Revell and others. Also on display is the nose undercarriage leg of the Bristol Brabazon airliner.

Hangar 2: Civil Aviation

Aircraft on display include many built by Scottish Aviation at Prestwick, including the Twin Pioneer and Jetstream 31. Other objects on display include various engines such as the Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah and de Havilland Gipsy, a Scottish Aviation Scamp electric car, and a Jetstream fuselage open for visitors to walk through.

Hangar 3: Storage and Restoration

This is the storage hangar, so aircraft here are not fully interpreted but those on display include a Beaufighter and Bolingbroke, both under restoration, as well as a Bulldog, Viscount and Tiger Moth. Other exhibits include a Blue Streak IRBM; and a Polaris SLBM.

Hangar 4: Concorde

This is the main display hangar and contains "The Concorde Experience"^[7] and "The Jet Age"^[8] exhibitions. "The Concorde Experience" includes a walk-through and around the aircraft (with an accompanying audio guide available), an audio-visual presentation about the history of G-BOAA, and an exhibition about the history of Concorde with prototype and production Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 engines, aircraft seats and numerous small objects. "The Jet Age" includes a stack of engines, showing the development of the jet engine and how this drove the growth of commercial aviation. The engines displayed here are a de Havilland Ghost turbojet, a Rolls-Royce Avon turbojet, a Rolls-Royce Conway turbofan, a Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan, a Rolls-Royce RB211 turbofan and a General Electric CF6 turbofan.

Other exhibitions

Additional permanent exhibitions were opened in recent years in other wartime buildings on the site, with a hands-on interactive gallery about flight called "Fantastic Flight" ^[9] and another dealing with the history of the site called "Fortunes of War".^[10] There is also a restored parachute packing building, called "The Parachute Store". ^[11] Other buildings house various exhibits including a Green Goddess, and an AEC Matador used by the RAF in Malta.

Events

The museum holds an annual air show every July, with other events run throughout the year. These include World War Two Weekend, held in May, and Magnificent Machines, a transport event held in September with monster trucks and steam traction engines. A new event held in June 2010 was Into the Future with performances by Robots Live and other activities showcasing various technologies. The 2011 airshow was held on Saturday 23rd July.

References

1. ^ Museums & Galleries Yearbook 2008, Museums Association.
2. ^ Storer, JD (1983). "The Founding of the Museum of Flight", in Bunyan, IT, Storer, JD and Thompson, CL (1983). East Fortune: Museum of Flight and History of the Airfield, Royal Scottish Museum.
3. ^ Benzies, AR (1975). Scotland Scanned 75, Central Scotland Aviation Group.
4. ^ Storer, (1983).
5. ^ Storer, (1983).
6. ^ http://www.nms.ac.uk/pdf/National%20Museum%20of%20Flight%20collections.pdf
7. ^ http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_museums/museum_of_flight/concorde.aspx
8. ^ http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_museums/museum_of_flight/things_to_see_and_do/jet_age.aspx
9. ^ http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_museums/museum_of_flight/fantastic_flight.aspx
10. ^ http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_museums/museum_of_flight/things_to_see_and_do/fortunes_of_war.aspx
11. ^ http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_museums/museum_of_flight/things_to_see_and_do/parachute_store.aspx

External links

• Official website
• National Museums Scotland
• 360° views of inside some of the museum's aircraft
• National Museum of Flight Flickr page
• Photos taken at East Fortune
• Concorde G-BOAA