The Science Museum website is not great in the least. Do I really have to pay a small fortune and join a large tour in the summer to view these aircraft?
Has anyone been?

Thanks.

Seems an odd way to run a museum, these aircraft have virtually disappeared.

Sadly so. Worth it though as there are quite a few aircraft and other goodies there. I guess they wouldn't get sufficient visitors through the door to make it pay if they opened it more regularly. The only reason I've been is because of the several PFA rallies held there around 1990.

My wife and I have been. I can't recall the cost but it wasn't much. It's a brilliant museum and as there will probably only be a few other visitors with you, you get very personal service. The Trident and Comet are there plus the wonderful Connie.... and many other very interesting aircraft - Dak, Gugnunc, Dragon to name but a few.

Give it a whirl. Guess you realise that you have to book in advance..

check before you book that the hanger that has the comet and trident in is open,i went this summer and the hanger these two are in was closed and according to a museum aid was likely to stay that way as it is falling apart elf and safety you know,need i say any more.

Sadly the Science Museum is spending all its time on panicking about the myth that is Global Warming/Climate Change/Carbon footprints!

Science Museum - Home - PROVE IT! (http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/proveit.aspx)

If one googles "science museum proveit numbers"

a whole series of vote rigging appears as the climate deniers/skeptics were
winning at about 6:1 and that is when the rigging began........however as of Fri 6th Nov 07:53 the count is..."1880 counted in so far, 6445 counted out so far"...

Sorry, thread jump........

Wroughton has quite an atmosphere to it. The Wiltshire countryside/sky around as one approaches and the state of the airfield makes you feel like a time warp has happened.
Well it did when I visited back in the late 90's. The Science Museum needs funds to repair the hangars.

Some of the waste of money wind farm grants would do nicely! :rolleyes:

Wroughton is a large store of items they cannot display elsewhere hence it has only limited display information.
The site is an airfield and the hangers are well spread out.

Pre arranged tours only

Science Museum - About us - Science Museum at Wroughton (http://tinyurl.com/yk3o26s)

Two old 360 degree images to give you a taster.
www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/content/panoramas/nmsi_1_360.shtml (http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/content/panoramas/nmsi_1_360.shtml)


Photos and registrations
Science Museum - Wroughton (http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/mus/uk/u-z/wroughton.htm)

A great place to visit

Seriously guys, more time reading scientific journals and less time reading Richard Littlejohn.

It's a shame that the hangar is in need of repairs, so maybe we should think about some kind of fund if one doesn't already exist?

£275 to visit what is an annex to the Science Museum, which has free admission is outrageous! I don't know how long they have been doing this, but as far as I knew you could visit there at any time when staff were on site without charge. Suggest you wait until they have an event on there, like a vintage car or bus rally, which charges a nominal £5 entrance fee and then all the museum hangars are open for free.

This guide was only updated in July and admission was free then:

Science Museum - Wroughton (http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/mus/uk/u-z/wroughton.htm)

Different curators have different ideas.
Way back in 1992, GATCO (Guild of Air Traffic Contol Officers) arranged a private visit, and visitors were invited to fly in. We did this in a Cherokee from Fairoaks.
Ross Sharp, the curator at the time, told us he would like to open the airfield and collection to visitors at weekends and invited any of us with FISO licences to help out. Sadly Ross was replaced within 2 years and this policy went out of the window with him.

I know Ross Sharp well and he was the only museum curator who knew how to run Wroughton. At my request, he had an open day where he got all the aircraft that were moveable, pulled outside and lined up for photography. Today even if you asked them to push the Gnat outside for photography, they would want a small fortune to do that! :* Alas, draconian attitudes, coupled with beauracracy, red tape and the dreaded Health & Safety, have completely destroyed the previous museums' policy of encouraging the public to visit and interact with museums. Whatever happened to public relations, publicity and goodwill. Museums are for educating and the public should be encouraged to visit, not put off by large fees for Group visits only.

Ross always seemed to have great ideas for the development of Wroughton as a more accessible museum. Many of the hangars were air-conditioned in order to ensure a moisture free atmosphere to preserve the exhibits. We didn't visit more than half the hangars, but were told they had an extensive collection of cars in one of them (not saying which one though) and Ross had recently acquired some rail exhibits as well as some old radar equipment.
Did he just leave or was he pushed? Couldn't believe it when he walked into Farnborough Tower a couple of years later apparently working for SBAC.

There were several open days at Wroughton in the 80s. I recall going to one which had a replica of Stevenson's Rocket running up and down on a track and there were all sorts of other exhibits, such as cider apple pressing.

I have photos of the Comet and the Gugnunc somewhere, I'll see if I can dig them out.

Museums are for educating and the public should be encouraged to visit, not put off by large fees for Group visits only.

Surely a nominal entry fee and some willing volunteers would start to allow some money to trickle in. These aircraft and exhibits might as well have been scrapped for all the use they are to the world in this situation.
A bloody scandal. I am awaitng a reply from my email. BTW the website is utterly useless.

Very amateurish business model, quite sad.
Thanks for all the replies guys, much appreciated.

£275 entry fee? What, for one person? That's a) outrageous and b) crazy! Really sorry to hear that things have changed so much as we had a really good time.

It was 2005 when my wife and I visited. The hangars looked in good condition; in fact the whole place looked clean and smart. I took these piccies there:
Science Museum Wroughton :: Fotopic.Net (http://www.brendan-mccartney.fotopic.net/c1777442.html)

HD.........

Good news, you can take up to 50 people for that price !!!

Bad news, it is "plus VAT", that will be £ 323.12 from Jan next year.

The last time I was there, was for the last PFA rally, 1991 ??? Hangars appeared to be in a fairly good state of repair.

One suspects that raising H&S issues and having exorbitant charges may have something to do with the the fact the Science Museum wants to discourage visitors. The collection was much more accessible in the 80's.

Pity, because there are some treasures in there. Where can you see a deH 84 and deH 89 together?

Planemike

Why would a museum with such a fantastic collection of this country,s engineering achievements want to hide them away for most of the year is beyond me.
Anyone from the Science museum reading? i would love to read your views please .

Wroughton is, sadly, only a store for the huge collection of items that the Science Museum has accumulated over the years. It simply has no facilities (or staff) to handle large numbers of visitors on a regular basis. I've been fortunate enough to visit several times over the years and the slow deterioration over those years is very evident. What little money they manage to squeeze out of this useless government has to be balanced between patching up the buildings and preserving priceless artifacts for future generations. And they do have some truly fascinating stuff.
They were competing (in the last six) for an award of lottery funding (£50 Million) to turn the place into a world-beating facility, to inspire our kids and hopefully encourage them to follow in the footsteps of all the great scientists that made this nation what it once was. But the ITV sponsors, together with the Lottery admin morons decided that they were certain winners and so pulled them out of the competition at a late stage. Some cycle path or woodland glade in the Midlands got the money instead. And, sadly, the 'elf n safety idiots have squashed any hope of allowing visitors to some areas unless big money is spent. And we wonder why this nation is becoming a backwater of the United States of Europe !!
But whatever the cost, DO GO VISIT if you can find a way. It really is well worth it. Before Gordon sells it off.

I hadn't realised things had changed that much. Last I heard they were having 3 or 4 open days a year, which I suppose shows how much notice I've been taking.

I went to an airshow there in the very late 80s and it was great, a real 50s atmosphere and most of the hangars open. It's a shame to think that doesn't happen now.

I went to their Open Day in September, the last this year, and was told that the Comet (and presumably the Groundgripper too) was in an adjacent hangar , which was in such a poor state of repair that it was closed to the public. Just as post 4 above says.

But the ITV sponsors, together with the Lottery admin morons decided that they were certain winners and so pulled them out of the competition at a late stage. Some cycle path or woodland glade in the Midlands got the money instead.

The winners of the £50m tv vote competition were Sustrans with 79 walking/cycling projects nationwide, Connect2 (http://www.sustransconnect2.org.uk/).

Difficult to see how the Wroughton site would have been more popular in a public vote than 79 schemes which in many cases are town changing improvements directly relevant to everyone in each of the 79 neighbourhoods.

It just sounds like the Wroughton site should be more volunteer friendly to facilitate many more set dates in the calender at limited expense. More public involvement in the site would almost definitely increase goodwill in the form of donations for the upkeep of the site and exhibits.

DeepC

What little money they manage to squeeze out of this useless government has to be balanced between patching up the buildings and preserving priceless artifacts for future generations.

The same "useless" government that introduced free museum entry and therefore made many museums much more accessible to many more people.

Move the a/c to Duxford ,appreciate some are the wrong genre for the IWM but at least they could be seen by the general public,& looked after by people who care. :ugh:

Move to Duxford
Better still go to Duxford and ask them how its done!

Better still go to Duxford and ask them how its done!

Simple...

Charge a load of money to get in and you get a superb museum!

They already try to charge a load of money to get in,incidentally the arranged tour only lets you into the one hanger deemed safe enough for the general public,on the plus side this is the one with most of the aircraft in but sadly not the comet or trident.
It does have N7777G a rarther beautiful connie in it though.
Even though i have done nothing but gripe about Wroughton i have no axe to grind with the Science museum they are afterall preserving our heritage i just find it hard to accept this fantastic collection is hidden away.

£275 for any Group to visit one hangar is extortion in anyones language!

So only one hangar is safe enough for the public to visit, whilst the rest are liable to collapse at any minute destroying all those transport treasures?

The Goverment needs to do something here, but if they can't even get enough helicopters and equipment for Afghanistan, what hope is there?:rolleyes:

Move the a/c to Duxford ,appreciate some are the wrong genre for the IWM but at least they could be seen by the general public,& looked after by people who care.

UZZY..... Can I ask you why the a/c at Wroughton should be moved to Duxford? There is already a goodly selection aircraft there on site. Surely it would be better to make the Wroughton site more accessible.

Planemike

At present the Wroughton collection is a collection of unrestored aircraft housed in hangars of which only one is accessable. Moving them to Duxford would not only make them all accessable and viewable, but also ensure they are restored and maintained. The DC-3 at Wroughton is a case in point. This particular aircraft is, I believe, one of the oldest survivors of its type and was the fifth aircraft delivered to United Airlines.
Together with the "Friends of the DC-3", an offer was made to fully restore this aircraft and repaint it in its original United Airlines colours, without any charge to the Science Museum whatsoever, other than the cost of the paint. They wouldn't even fund that!!! Their excuse was ' it's present livery is part of its history and that's how we want to keep it'.
I believe due to corrosion in the tail wheel mounting, this aircraft can't be moved anyway...so much for 'preservation'. :ugh:

Yes fully understand what you are saying, just querying why the a/c need to go to Duxford, already have a good selection of a/c there. My feeling is that there should be a reasonable geographic distribution of a/c museums across the country.

Planemike

I thought I had already explained that in my previous post? :confused: Simply because (a) all aircraft, including the airliners have been lovingly restored and repainted there and there are few museums that can say that.
(b) they have large undercover viewing facilities and are well organised, with regular air shows, daily takings and shops inside all helping to fund aircraft restoration.
(c) The American Air Museum there was built with the help of a £6.5 million lottery grant, so is recognised by all as a major and important collection.

On the other hand, the Science Museum in London is free, yet their Wroughton storage facility has no facilities for making money, but tries to extort exorbitant amounts for groups to visit one hangar to compensate!
The so-called 'state of the art' Museum that was slated for Wroughton has come to nothing as the lottery grant allocation was withdrawn.The government won't put any money into it, so those aircraft will just sit there til they rot!
Okay, I agree spread museums around the country, but let's have some consistency here. We have a museum that 'can' and a museum that 'can't!

There are at least half a dozen aircraft sitting outside at Duxford looking neglected, some more so than others. There is nowhere near enough room to keep all the current exhibits undercover, without lumbering them with several more large airframes.

There are at least half a dozen aircraft sitting outside at Duxford looking neglected, some more so than others. There is nowhere near enough room to keep all the current exhibits undercover, without lumbering them with several more large airframes.

Yes, exactly, Duxford is an excellent museum and they do a great job. Without further building I cannot envision anywhere at Duxford that would accomodate the Constellation, Trident and Comet <anyway the latter would be duplication as there is already a Comet there> and that is without taking into account the other substantial number of exhibits at Wroughton.

The so-called 'state of the art' Museum that was slated for Wroughton has come to nothing as the lottery grant allocation was withdrawn.The government won't put any money into it, so those aircraft will just sit there til they rot!


IMHO it was a massive "over kill" that was costed in millions of £sss. It would have yielded another "theme park" museum. The hangars at Wroughton are fundamentally sound structures. What is required is a much lower budget project that will allow essential maintainace <not something driven by an unnecessary H&S adgenda>. Obviously there would be costs invovled in staffing the site while visitors were there. Part time opening would be acceptable, say 2 or 3 days a week. A number of successful volunteer run museums operate this way.

One suspects that the Science Museum is run by a management that has "mind set" which believes unless it can provide a "gold plated" service, nothing can or should be done. As pointed out in earlier threads quite good levels of accessibliity were achieved in the 80s and early 90s. It is a question having the will and desire to do it.

By comparision look at what has been achieved at Newark on what will undoubtly have been a relatively modest budget.

Planemike

PS...... [quote] £275 for any Group to visit one hangar is extortion in anyones language! [quote]

Amos, certainly agree with you on this. A charge of this type comes from the "mind set" referred to above.

Apart from Concorde, how many airliners in UK museums are under cover? the Dan Air Comet at Duxford (plus another Dan Air Comet at Wroughton).
I realise the size of the a/c involvedis a factor, but we do need a national airliner collection established to keep these treasures in good condition in under cover environmentally controlled conditions or it may be the Cosford massacre all over again.

The Viscount (most of the time) and York are under cover at Duxford. However, as has been said, some of the other airliners are starting to look very "tired", the 1-11 in particular. I believe DAS were offered an ATP but declined it as they have enough on their plate with the existing airframes.

Depends if you count a Hermes without wings and undercarriage, and a Ju52 as airliners. Wroughton probably has the best count of airliners under cover, in addition to those mentioned in previous posts there is the DC3, Boeing 247, Rapide and Dove. A national airliner museum (indoors) would be truly wonderful.

Planemike

Yup, after a JU52 and a Hermes without wings...there ain't many more under cover are there...

First off I must stand up for the Guys and Gals that work at Wroughton. Having meet a bunch of them when the PFA rally was held on the site and also when I was on a stand for the Wiltshire Flyers at the centenary of flight event.
The problem is Kensington who for years have treated Wroughton like a gulag archipelago.
Have a search for Creative planet that's when NMSI suddenly started to take interest in green matters and thence Wroughton or rather the grant money for going green.
It's a disgrace that so many of the items there which are real gems cannot be exhibited properly. There are plans afoot to increase the display area but there are issues with the lack of funding to carry it through.
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m201/Peter_Anthony/Wroughton.jpg
Ross Sharp's a real character, an oppo and myself had a memorable lift airside to the tower in his Granada. It was the year of the really wet rally and the part of the trip going sideways over the grass was fascinating!

They should let me look after G-AWZM.......she would get the care and attention she deserves,my CV for G-AWZK should do the trick? even though i was made redundant at the AVP in Feb 09 and not allowed on site to check on my baby!!!:rolleyes: