Aircraft Museums
 

Having just returned from a most enjoyable trip to Brussels air museum, can anyone recommend their favourite aviation museums?British or worldwide.

Yes, Shuttleworth at Old Warden where the exhibits FLY! :eek: :D

VA

I've visited only a limited number of air museums. Here is my complete list:

First rank-
Duxford, Shuttleworth, RAF Hendon, Air & Space at Le Bourget, USAF Museum at Dayton, Natl Air & Space at Washington [NASM], also the restoration faciility of NASM which is being replaced by the new museum at IAD Dec 2003 and I hope it's as good.

Second rank-
Brussels, air section of Science Museum London, air section of Reichs Museum Munich.

Third rank-
Naval Air Museum Pensacola, Florida.

Ditto that, Shuttleworth is a must see.

Duxford is also good but doesnt quite match the atmosphere.

In Florida, the Reilly Aviation museum at Kissimmee and Fantasy of Flight at Polk City are also very good, completely different in their ethos but both very good.

Agree all those above, also Old Rhinebeck in NY State, which is a bit like Shuttleworth on speed...! A few other interesting museums I've been to in the US are Planes of Fame and the Yankee Air Force Museum at Chino (YAF is moving though - or perhaps has), The Hiller Museum at San Francisco (at a small airport a few miles south of SFO), a helicopter museum at Brandywine in PA, and of course the EAA Museum at OSH.

Just a couple more, gentlemen, - well worth a mention.
1) The Fleet Air Arm Museum at RNAS Yeovilton.
2) The Army Air Corps Museum at Middle Wallop.

I can recommend them both.

Sleeve. :ok:

Lone Star, Galveston
 

I particularly liked the Lone Star Museum at Galveston. One of the most impressive exhibits was the Convair B58, so enormous close-up! They have a mixture of static and flying, and put on several displays each year, the next one being November 8-9!

As well as the above, Cosford is well worth a visit.

SSD

Well most people seem to like 'fantasy of fight' in polk city, Florida. But I was most unimpressed. A hanger with a spotless painted floor, housing a dozen or so highly polished aircraft, plus a shorts flying boat outside. That was about it.
No resoration shops open for viewing ala Duxford.

Fleet Air arm at Yeovil is ok, but used to be better. The carrier expereince is great for the kids. But it means you can't look over the planes on the deck at your leisure or in the light.

As for freindly places, I can recommend Elvington in Yorkshire. Was up there on business with a few hours to kill, so popped in for a look round. Found everyone helpful and very imformative.
And not a polished floor or plane in site.

If your in Florida (Thankfully I'm off there for Christmas) The Warbirds museum in Kissemee is the best thing since sliced bread. You get a guided tour on the Hangar and then a look aroung at your leisure. It's full of B25's P51's etc etc, under restoration to fly. If you've got some bucks and the time, you can get a front seat ride in a Harvard next door also. (or even a P51 I'm told if you've got a lotta bucks to spare).

Aircraft are living things, designed and built to fly. Not sit around like prize tarts.:8

I agree with Shaggy. Cosford is the place for the true 'anorak' as it houses a real oddball collection of aircraft - HP115, Avro 707, Bristol 188 to name but a few.

Three of my 'locals':
Seattle Museum of Flight - very good collection, well presented.

Evergreen Museum, McMinnville Oregon - famous for the Spruce Goose of course, which is alone worth the visit. They also have a few warbirds and transports.

Tillamook Oregon. Go just for the ambience. The museum is in one of the surviving blimp hangars, a huge gloomy building. Leave the camera it home though, it's simply too dark. Guppy Strat outside.

Mike

They still do.

Although Kissimmee is more down and dirty (and wonderful for it) as it were FoF is a top place to visit.

Museums
 

Canada has a National aviation museum in Ottawa, well worth a visit. They even have a Fox Moth on floats .
There is also the Canadian Warplane Heritage collection at Hamilton, if you can afford it you can get a ride in their Lancaster. They are currently restoring to flying condition a Lysander and a Bolingbroke, when they are finished they have an Anson which they say will only cost about 100k $Cdn to restore to flying condition.
At Sault St Marie there is an excellent float plane museum

Museum of flight at Seattle is superb, but the restoration centre at Paine field, Everett is great. The Comet 4C is slowly being restored, one day it will have to travel down the interstate through Seattle to the museum, that'll be interesting.

There is a nice museum at Pearson field, Vancouver, Washington. Housed in the original US Army Air Force buildings

Tillamook is good, quite a spectacular site. A wooden building capable of holding six airships, with doors 180 ft high. The only time I have ever seen a Martin Mauler.

Nobody has mentioned East Fortune or the Helicopter museum at Weston super mare, both worth a visit.



Time to spare. Go by air.
HD

Just thought of another two

The National Warplane Museum and the National Soaring Museum sit on opposite sides of the airfield at Elmira NY.
A visit could easily be combined with a trip to Old Rhinebeck.

Time to spare. Go by air.

HD

Can't really put these into order because they all had a different appeal but my favourites so far are:
- The RNZAF museum at Wigram
- Champlin Fighter Museum in Mesa(?) Arizona
- PIMA in Phoenix. The bus ride through the AMARC storage/graveyard was a real eye opener for a kiwi boy who had never seen more than a handful of A-4's parked together.

MAPt

If in Oz - try Wangaratta on the edge of Vic/NSW. Not vast or very modern - but a nice little tucked-away gem.

Helicopter Museums:

Weston-Super-Mare http://www.helicoptermuseum.co.uk/index.html


Buckeburg Germany
www.hubschraubermuseum.de

Can't believe nobody's mentioned the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre at East Kirkby yet.

There's something incredibly moving about the night time taxi runs performed by the resident Lancaster NX611; East Kirkby is not so much a museum as a living, breathing time capsule.

Has anybody visited the Technisches museum in Berlin lately?
(easily spotted by the DC3 hanging in front of the roof).
I visited last year, but the aviation section was not yet open.
It would be interesting to know what is happening.

As for my vote - a calm summer evening at Old Warden with even the most frail antiques flying is pretty well un-beatable.

Last month I visited the Luftwaffe Museum in Berlin. Based at the former RAF Gatow it has an impressive assortment of aircraft and some good indoor displays in the former AAC Hangar as well as the main Station Headquarters. Entrance is free but not easy to find as the old station entrance which leads to the still active part of the base is guarded and you cannot get in this way. To get to the museum you turn off the main road in Gatow village and head off through the woods aiming for one of the old airfield crash gates opposite the tower.
As the visit was mainly an opportunity for me look around a station I used to serve on I did I noticed a few interesting small touches, like the sign on the back of the main station entrance informing everyone to “Save Energy and close the door. By order of Gp Capt, Station Commander.”
Even my old car parking sign was still on the wall outside SHQ, where I fixed it in 1991.

Get sent to Coventry
 

Another interesting museum is the Midlands Air Museum at Coventry Airport/Baginton.

At weekend during the summer, many of the aircraft are open. It's not many places where you can sit in the cockpit of a Lighning, Phantom, Starfighter or Vulcan - real Top Gun stuff!

Well worth a couple of hours and reasonable entry too.

A visit could also be combined with an Air Atlantique open day, where you can have a tour around the hangars and a flight in one of their Historic Flight aircraft like the DC3, Twin Pin or Prentice.

RD :ok: