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Old 23rd Oct 2012, 14:50
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603DX
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Garden of England
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Seems that access for the public to the hangars full of fascinating aircraft has been a rather variable thing, for many years. Back in the 1950's it was still RAF Wroughton, a serving station with various duties, including maintenance work. In about 1955 my school CCF RAF section was on our annual camp at RAF Andover, not too far away, and our officer arranged for us to visit Wroughton by truck to see their aviation collection in the hangars.

There were at that time a number of WW2 warplanes in storage, some intact, others semi-dismantled, and we cadets were allowed free rein to clamber into several of them. I recall sitting in an intact German Fieseler Storch, a Fw190, and an Me109. There was also an Me163 rocket powered example, and a Japanese 'Ohka' kamikaze rocket powered suicide attack aircraft. There was a Vickers Wellington fuselage, and a much more up-to-date Canberra fuselage, possibly from the station's maintenance activities on Canberras. I imagine that several of the more 'exotic' aircraft have found their way into various museums around the UK over the years, and what photos I have seen of the current Science Museum collection do not appear to include them.
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