The Royal Air Force Museum Cosford, located in Cosford in

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

, is a free (currently, 2022) museum dedicated to the history of aviation and the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

in particular. The museum is part of the

Royal Air Force Museum The Royal Air Force Museum is a museum dedicated to the Royal Air Force in the United Kingdom. The museum is a non-departmental public body of the Ministry of Defence and is a registered charity. The museum is split into two separate sites: * ...

, a

non-departmental public body In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process of n ...

sponsored by the Ministry of Defence and also a registered charity. The museum is spread over two sites in England; the other site is at the

Royal Air Force Museum London The Royal Air Force Museum London (also commonly known as the RAF Museum) is located on the former Hendon Aerodrome. It includes five buildings and hangars showing the history of aviation and the Royal Air Force. It is part of the Royal Air Fo ...

Colindale Colindale is a district in the London Borough of Barnet; its main shopping street on the A5 forming the borough boundary with neighbouring Brent. Colindale is a suburban area, and in recent years has had many new apartments built. It's also th ...

(near

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Great ...

) in north London.

History

The London museum was officially opened at the

(then part of

) London site on 15 November 1972 by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

. The hangars housed just 36 aircraft at opening. Over the years, the collection increased and aircraft were stored at

RAF station The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

s around the country when they were not on display to the public. On 1 May 1979, the Cosford site was opened at

RAF Cosford Royal Air Force Cosford or RAF Cosford (formerly DCAE Cosford) is a Royal Air Force station in Cosford, Shropshire, just to the northwest of Wolverhampton and next to Albrighton. History Origins RAF Cosford opened in 1938 as a joint aircraf ...

, one of the RAF stations which had been used to store the museum's collection of aircraft. On opening, the museum initially exhibited airframes which had been used for technical training at RAF Cosford. In the following years additional aircraft were added to the collection, and in 1980 it was agreed that the

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a populati ...

Collection be displayed at Cosford. On 21 June 1998 four additional galleries were opened, housing art, temporary exhibitions and other aviation subjects. 13 May 2002 saw the relocation of the RAF Museum Conservation Centre from Cardington, Bedfordshire to Cosford. The centre, costing £2.4 million, was opened by

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Marshal of the Royal Air Force (MRAF) is the highest rank in the Royal Air Force (RAF). In peacetime it was granted to RAF officers in the appointment of Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), and to retired Chiefs of the Air Staff (CAS), who were ...

Sir

Michael Beetham Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Michael James Beetham, (17 May 1923 – 24 October 2015) was a Second World War bomber pilot and a high-ranking commander in the Royal Air Force from the 1960s to the 1980s. As Chief of the Air Staff during t ...

.Ellis 2004, p. 179. The Cosford site includes several developmental aircraft such as those that led to the

English Electric Lightning The English Electric Lightning is a British fighter aircraft that served as an interceptor during the 1960s, the 1970s and into the late 1980s. It was capable of a top speed of above Mach 2. The Lightning was designed, developed, and manufa ...

and the second prototype of the

BAC TSR-2 The British Aircraft Corporation TSR-2 is a cancelled Cold War strike and reconnaissance aircraft developed by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC), for the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The TSR-2 was designed ...

. A lot of the aircraft are very rare, such as the only

Boulton Paul Defiant The Boulton Paul Defiant is a British interceptor aircraft that served with the Royal Air Force (RAF) during World War II. The Defiant was designed and built by Boulton Paul Aircraft as a "turret fighter", without any fixed forward-firing guns ...

in the world and one of only two surviving

Vickers Wellington The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson; a key feature of the aircraft is its g ...

s left in the world. The first director of the museum was Dr John Tanner who retired in 1987. In 1988

Dr Michael A Fopp Michael A. Fopp is a retired National Museum Director. Michael Fopp is the son of an Australian Battle of Britain fighter pilot. He grew up surrounded by aeroplanes, but left the Reading Blue Coat School to follow a childhood dream of riding hor ...

(who had previously directed the London Transport Museum) was appointed and was Director General of all three sites covered by the museum until his retirement in 2010. The site can be reached by public transport via the neighbouring

Cosford railway station Cosford railway station is a railway station which serves the village of Cosford, Shropshire, Cosford in Shropshire, England. It also serves RAF Cosford which is also home to a branch of the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford, Royal Air Force Museum. ...

on the

Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury Line Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...

British Airways collection

In 1980, the Cosford site agreed to house the British Airways Museum collection. In 2006

withdrew funding from the collection, after which the RAF Museum did not take on the costs of maintaining the aircraft. Several of the jet airliners were subsequently broken up, including the only

Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December 20, ...

that was preserved in the UK, a

Vickers VC10 The Vickers VC10 is a mid-sized, narrow-body long-range British jet airliner designed and built by Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd and first flown at Brooklands, Surrey, in 1962. The airliner was designed to operate on long-distance route ...

and a

Hawker Siddeley Trident The Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident (originally the de Havilland DH.121 and briefly the Airco DH.121) is a British airliner produced by Hawker Siddeley. In 1957, de Havilland proposed its DH.121 trijet design to a British European Airways (BEA ...

National Cold War Exhibition

The National Cold War Exhibition opened at Cosford in February 2007. The exhibition houses the museum's

V bomber The "V bombers" were the Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft during the 1950s and 1960s that comprised the United Kingdom's strategic nuclear strike force known officially as the V force or Bomber Command Main Force. The three models of strategic ...

s and other

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

aircraft in a newly constructed 8,000m² exhibition building designed by architects Fielden Clegg Bradley. The exhibition concept and design was developed by Neal Potter and includes 'silo theatres' which depict, in a variety of media, the key tensions of the Cold War period.

Aircraft on display

Engines on display

The Cosford museum houses a large collection of aero engines; the majority are located in Hangar 1, and a small side room of this hangar contains a display of rocket engines. *

Alvis Leonides The Alvis Leonides was a British air-cooled nine-cylinder radial aero engine first developed by Alvis Car and Engineering Company in 1936. Design and development Development of the nine-cylinder engine was led by Capt. George Thomas Smith-Cla ...

* Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah XV * Armstrong Siddeley Civet * Armstrong Siddeley Mamba *

Armstrong Siddeley Stentor The Armstrong Siddeley Stentor, latterly Bristol Siddeley BSSt.1 Stentor, was a two-chamber High-test_peroxide#Applications, HTP rocket engine used to power the Blue Steel missile, Blue Steel stand-off missile carried by Britain's V bomber for ...

Bentley BR2 The Bentley B.R.2 was a nine-cylinder British rotary aircraft engine developed during the First World War by the motor car engine designer W. O. Bentley from his earlier Bentley BR.1. Coming as it did near the end of the war, the BR.2 was built ...

Blackburn Cirrus Major The Blackburn Cirrus Major is a British, inline-four aircraft engine that was developed in the late 1930s. Design and development The Blackburn Cirrus Major started life as a continued evolution of the original Cirrus and Hermes series of air ...

Bristol Thor The Bristol Thor, latterly Bristol Siddeley BS.1009 Thor, was a diameter ramjet engine developed by Bristol Aero Engines (later Bristol Siddeley Engines) for the Bristol Bloodhound anti-aircraft missile. Although Bristol Aero Engines acquire ...

Bristol Siddeley 605 The Bristol Siddeley BS.605 was a British take off assist rocket engine of the mid-1960s that used hydrogen peroxide and kerosene propellant. Design and development The BS.605 design was based on the smaller of two combustion chambers of ...

* Bristol Stentor *

Daimler-Benz DB 610 The Daimler-Benz DB 605 is a German aircraft engine built during World War II. Developed from the DB 601, the DB 605 was used from 1942 to 1945 in the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter, and the Bf 110 and Me 210C heavy fighters. The DB 610, a pa ...

de Havilland Gipsy The de Havilland Gipsy is a British air-cooled four-cylinder in-line aircraft engine designed by Frank Halford in 1927 to replace the ADC Cirrus in the de Havilland DH.60 Moth light biplane. Initially developed as an upright 5 litre (3 ...

* de Havilland Gipsy Queen *

de Havilland Spectre The de Havilland Spectre is a rocket engine that was built by the de Havilland Engine Company in the 1950s. It was one element of the intended mixed power-plant for combination rocket-jet interceptor aircraft of the Royal Air Force, such as t ...

* de Havilland Double Spectre * de Havilland Super Sprite *

General Electric T700 The General Electric T700 and CT7 are a family of turboshaft and turboprop engines in the class. Design and development In 1967, General Electric began work on a new turboshaft engine demonstrator designated the "GE12" in response to US Army i ...

* Junkers Jumo 004 *

Junkers Jumo 205 The Jumo 205 aircraft engine was the most famous of a series of aircraft diesel engines produced by Junkers. The Jumo 204 first entered service in 1932. Later engines of this type comprised the experimental Jumo 206 and Jumo 208, with the Jumo 2 ...

Lycoming O-360 The Lycoming O-360 is a family of four-cylinder, direct-drive, horizontally opposed, air-cooled, piston aircraft engines. Engines in the O-360 series produce between 145 and 225 horsepower (109 to 168 kW), with the basic O-360 produc ...

Nakajima Sakae The was a two-row, 14-cylinder air-cooled radial engine used in a number of combat aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army before and during World War II. Design and development The engine was designed by Nakajima Air ...

Napier Lion The Napier Lion is a 12-cylinder, petrol-fueled 'broad arrow' W12 configuration aircraft engine built by D. Napier & Son from 1917 until the 1930s. A number of advanced features made it the most powerful engine of its day and kept it in prod ...

* Power Jets W.2 * Pratt & Whitney R-985 RRKestrelXVI

* Pratt & Whitney R-1830 *

Renault 70 hp The Renault 70 hp or Type WB was a French V-8 aero engine that first ran circa 1907. It was also manufactured under license by Renault Limited of West Brompton, London between August 1914 and December 1918, three other companies, includin ...

Rolls-Royce Avon The Rolls-Royce Avon was the first axial flow jet engine designed and produced by Rolls-Royce. Introduced in 1950, the engine went on to become one of their most successful post-World War II engine designs. It was used in a wide variety of ...

Rolls-Royce Dart The Rolls-Royce RB.53 Dart is a turboprop engine designed and manufactured by Rolls-Royce Limited. First run in 1946, it powered the Vickers Viscount on its maiden flight in 1948. A flight on July 29 of that year, which carried 14 paying passe ...

Rolls-Royce Conway The Rolls-Royce RB.80 Conway was the first turbofan engine to enter service. Development started at Rolls-Royce in the 1940s, but the design was used only briefly, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, before other turbofan designs replaced it. ...

Rolls-Royce Derwent The Rolls-Royce RB.37 Derwent is a 1940s British centrifugal compressor turbojet engine, the second Rolls-Royce jet engine to enter production. It was an improved version of the Rolls-Royce Welland, which itself was a renamed version of Fran ...

Rolls-Royce Olympus The Rolls-Royce Olympus (originally the Bristol B.E.10 Olympus) was the world's second two- spool axial-flow turbojet aircraft engine design, first run in May 1950 and preceded only by the Pratt & Whitney J57, first-run in January 1950. It is ...

Rolls-Royce Viper The Armstrong Siddeley Viper is a British turbojet engine developed and produced by Armstrong Siddeley and then by its successor companies Bristol Siddeley and Rolls-Royce Limited. It entered service in 1953 and remained in use with the Royal ...

Rolls-Royce Spey The Rolls-Royce Spey (company designations RB.163 and RB.168 and RB.183) is a low-bypass turbofan engine originally designed and manufactured by Rolls-Royce that has been in widespread service for over 40 years. A co-development version of th ...

Rolls-Royce Tyne The Rolls-Royce RB.109 Tyne is a twin-shaft turboprop engine developed in the mid to late 1950s by Rolls-Royce Limited to a requirement for the Vickers Vanguard airliner. It was first test flown during 1956 in the nose of a modified Avro Linc ...

Rolls-Royce RB108 The Rolls-Royce RB.108 was a British jet engine designed in the mid-1950s by Rolls-Royce specifically for use as a VTOL lift engine. It was also used to provide horizontal thrust in the Short SC.1. Design and development The RB.108 was the ...

Rolls-Royce RB162 The Rolls-Royce RB.162 is a lightweight British turbojet engine produced by Rolls-Royce Limited. Developed in the early 1960s, it was specially designed for use as a lift engine for VTOL aircraft but was also used in a later variant of the Ha ...

* Rolls-Royce RB.211 * Rolls-Royce Kestrel XVI * Packard Merlin 28 *

Rolls-Royce/SNECMA M45H The Rolls-Royce/SNECMA M45H is an Anglo-French medium bypass ratio turbofan produced specifically for the twin-engined VFW-Fokker 614 aircraft in the early 1970s. The design was started as a collaborative effort between Bristol Siddeley and ...

Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour The Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour is a two-shaft low bypass turbofan aircraft engine developed by Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Limited, a joint venture between Rolls-Royce (UK) and Turbomeca (France). The engine is named after the Adour, a river in so ...

Turbo-Union RB199 The Turbo-Union RB199 is a turbofan jet engine designed and built in the early 1970s by Turbo-Union, a joint venture between Rolls-Royce, MTU and Aeritalia. The only production application was the Panavia Tornado. Design and development The ...

* Walter 109-500 * Walter 109–509 * Walter 109-739 *

Wright R-3350 The Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone is an American twin-row, supercharged, air-cooled, radial aircraft engine with 18 cylinders displacing nearly . Power ranged from 2,200 to over 3,700 hp (1,640 to 2,760 kW), depending on the model. ...

Missile collection

The museum holds a large collection of missiles and rocket-powered weapons, including several rare German World War II types. The majority are located in the National Cold War Exhibition, with the German collection on display in Hangar 1. * Australian Government Aircraft Factories Malkara * Blohm & Voss BV 246 * British Aerospace Rapier * Hawker Siddeley SRAAM * British Aircraft Corporation Bloodhound * British Aerospace Sea Skua * British Aircraft Corporation Swingfire * British Aircraft Corporation Thunderbird *

Douglas Thor ''Douglas'' Verner Thor (born 11 December 1997) is a Swedish politician of the Moderate Party. He has been national chairman of the Moderate Youth League since 2022. Life and career Thor was born on 11 December 1997 in Nävelsjö (outside Ve ...

* Douglas Skybolt * Engins Matra AS37 AR Martel *

Fairey Fireflash Fireflash was the United Kingdom's first air-to-air guided missile to see service with the Royal Air Force. Constructed by Fairey Aviation, the missile utilised radar beam riding guidance. Fireflash had relatively limited performance and requ ...

* Fairey Separation Test Vehicle * Fieseler Fi103 (V-1 flying bomb) * German Army V-2 * Hai Ying 2G Silkworm * Hawker Siddeley Blue Steel * Hawker Siddeley Firestreak * Hawker Siddeley Martel AJ-168 EEThunderbird

Hawker Siddeley Red Top The Hawker Siddeley (later British Aerospace) Red Top was the third indigenous British air-to-air missile to enter service, following the de Havilland Firestreak and limited-service Fireflash. It was used to replace the Firestreak on the de Havill ...

* Henschel Hs 117 'Schmetterling' * Henschel Hs 293 *

Henschel Hs 298 __NOTOC__ The Henschel Hs 298 was a 1940s German rocket-powered air-to-air missile designed by Professor Herbert Wagner of Henschel. Design and development The Hs 298 was designed specifically to attack Allied bomber aircraft and was the first ...

* Holzbrau Enzian * Lockheed Polaris * Nord AS11 * Philco-Ford AIM-9B Sidewinder * RAF Lightweight Torpedo Mk30 * Raytheon AIM-7 Sparrow * Rheinmetall Borsig Feuerlilie * Rheinmetall Borsig Rheinbote * Rheinmetall Borsig Rheintochter * Ruhrstahl Kramer X-4 * Ruhrstahl AG Fritz X * Scheufeln Taifun * USA Lightweight Torpedo Mk43 * USA Lightweight Torpedo Mk44 * Vickers Red Dean

Michael Beetham Conservation Centre

Also on the museum site is the Michael Beetham Conservation Centre. The centre restores aircraft and artefacts for display at both Cosford and London. It is named in honour of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Michael James Beetham and it was opened by him on 13 May 2002. Aircraft currently in storage or long-term restoration include: *

Handley Page Hampden The Handley Page HP.52 Hampden is a British twin-engine medium bomber that was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was part of the trio of large twin-engine bombers procured for the RAF, joining the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley and Vickers ...

LVG C.VI The LVG C.VI was a German two-seat reconnaissance and artillery spotting aircraft used during World War I. Development The aircraft was designed by Willy Sabersky-Müssigbrodt and developed by Luft-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (LVG) in 1917. The C.VI ...

Dornier Do 17 The Dornier Do 17 is a twin-engined light bomber produced by Dornier Flugzeugwerke for the German Luftwaffe during World War II. Designed in the early 1930s as a '' Schnellbomber'' ("fast bomber") intended to be fast enough to outrun opposing a ...

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Ellis, Ken. ''Wrecks and Relics – 19th Edition'', Midland Publishing, Hinckley, Leicestershire. 2004.

External links

RAF Museum websiteRAF Museum photo websiteRoyal Air Force websitePhoto galleries of aircraft at the RAF Museum and a virtual tour of RAF CosfordThe National Cold War ExhibitionChurchill: Never in the field of human conflict - UK Parliament Living Heritage
{{Coord, 52.644, -2.3115, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Royal Air Force Military aviation museums in England Museums in Shropshire Museums established in 1979 National museums of England Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom) Charities based in London 1979 establishments in England Cold War museums in the United Kingdom