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Saturday morning and we were ready for two days of aviation museums. After breakfast we packed our spotter mobile and headed a few miles up the road to the RAF Museum at Hendon in northwest London. We arrived just in time for the 10 am opening and our “battle plan” was as follows:

  • 15 minutes at the shop (Our apprentice entertained high hopes that would be able to change a wall clock he had bought a couple of months earlier – a clock that work according to its own time. His hopes were shattered by someone whose attitude to customer service was that this department was at Cosford. We did our shopping at Duxford)
  • 30 minutes in the Milestones of Flight
  • 45 minutes in the Bomber Hall and Historic Hangars
  • 25 minutes lunch break
  • 30 minutes in the Battle of Britain Hall
  • another 25 minutes at the shop

Below are some photos from the visit. It could have been many more, but the Bomber Hall and at the Historic Hangars were filled with a lot of high-priced collector cars parked in between the aircraft this Saturday. Are the finances so poor for RAF Museum that they need to do this?

  


Sopwith Camel - the highest scoring fighter of the World War One
       
 


Blériot XI - the first aircraft to cross the English Channel on 25 July 1909


Light fighter Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2 Trop "Gustav" in North Africa colours. This "Gustav" variant was first reported seen during the second half of 1942 and had the upgraded Daimler-Benz DB605A 1,475 hp engine. Until October 1943 the engine power was restricted to around 1,300 hp due to reliability problems of the DB605.


Messerschmitt Me 262A-2a "Schwalbe" was the world's first operational jet fighter aircraft.


North American P-51D-5-NA Mustang SN: 44-13317


A close up of a "Fighting Donald Duck" - the aircraft was flown of Captain Donald R. Emerson. Capt. Emerson lost his life on Christmas Day 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge when his aircraft was struck by flak as he crossed enemy lines and crashed in British-occupied territory in Belgium.
 

 
Two fellow aviation enthusiasts studying the aircraft in the Milestones of Flight exhibition
 		  
Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer S2B - interesting enough the third name it has is after my
favorite whisky "The Macallan"
 
Noorduyn AT-16 Harvard Mk2B marked FE905 -this same aircraft flew by Fjellfly in Norway in the 1960s and had the registration LN-BNM. Our apprentice’s uncle has many hours on this particular aircraft.		  
Another aircraft with Norwegian connections. This Gloster Gladiator Mk II was one of many other of 263 Sqd’s Gladiators that were caught by Luftwaffe He. 111s on the frozen Lake Lesjaskogsvatnet in Norway on 24 April 1940. Our driver’s grandfather was one of several Norwegians who salvaged what could be salvaged from the Gladiator in June 1940. The price for the permit was a bottle of very strong Norwegian drink consumed by the commanding Hauptmann. One wonders about the shape of his head the day after…
 
Heinkel He 162A-2 "Spatz" 		 
Alvis fire truck
 


Short S-25 Sunderland V in the Battle of Britain collection. This aircraft served for a while with 330 (Norwegian) Sqd at Sullom Voe.

  


Under wing bomb rack on a Short Sunderland
   
 

The light conditions in the Battle of Britain Hall prohibits good photograpy. The Sunderland being the only exception. We also found an error in a photo caption of a 263 Sqd Gladiator supposedly taken at Lake Lesjaskogsvatnet. But that is in the mountains whereas this photo is taken on the valley floor close to Åndalsnes with steep mountain sides as backdrop.

I have now visited both the RAF Museums at Hendon and at Cosford. In my opinion, Cosford ranks higher than Hendon from a service and exhibition point of view. In other words, Hendon was a disappointment.

  

After a disappointing lunch, we loaded up our KIA and headed for – the North Weald Airfield Museum. However, first we just had to make a quick stop at the hobby shop up the road from the RAF Museum. More money was spent here than at the RAF Museum shop for some strange reason…

The next hour was spent wondering why on earth we had listened to local advice to go on the North Circular instead of the M25!
 
       
  2007-07-07