Royal Air Force Museum London
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The Royal Air Force Museum London (also commonly known as the RAF Museum) is located on the former
Hendon Aerodrome Hendon Aerodrome was an aerodrome in London, England, that was an important centre for aviation from 1908 to 1968. It was situated in Colindale, north west of Charing Cross. It nearly became a central hub of civil aviation ("the Charing Cros ...
. It includes five buildings and hangars showing the history of
aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...
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 ...
. It 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: * ...
. There is another site at
Royal Air Force Museum Cosford The Royal Air Force Museum Cosford, located in Cosford in Shropshire, is a free (currently, 2022) museum dedicated to the history of aviation and the Royal Air Force in particular. The museum is part of the Royal Air Force Museum, a non-departme ...
at
RAF Cosford Royal Air Force Cosford or RAF Cosford (formerly DCAE Cosford) is a Royal Air Force station in Cosford, Shropshire, Cosford, Shropshire, just to the northwest of Wolverhampton and next to Albrighton, Bridgnorth, Albrighton. History Origins RA ...
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 ...
.


History

The Museum site at Colindale was once part of the RAF Hendon station and prior to that, one of the first civilian airfields, acquired by
Claude Grahame-White Claude Grahame-White (21 August 1879 – 19 August 1959) was an English pioneer of aviation, and the first to make a night flight, during the ''Daily Mail''-sponsored 1910 London to Manchester air race. Early life Claude Grahame-White was born ...
in 1911. In 1914, the aerodrome was requisitioned for Home Defence during the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
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 ...
became a Royal Naval Air Station, training new pilots in the flying schools on site. Operations ceased after the end of the Great War. From 1927 to 1939 Hendon housed No. 601 Squadron, nicknamed the 'Millionaires' Squadron' due to the wealth and upper social class of its volunteers. In 1939, the outbreak of war saw Hendon once again become an operational RAF station, home to No. 24 Transport and Communications Squadron. RAF Hendon also served briefly as a fighter station during the
Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...
. The last flight to Hendon by a fixed-wing aircraft took place on 19 June 1968, when the last operational
Blackburn Beverley The Blackburn B-101 Beverley was a heavy transport aircraft produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Blackburn Aircraft. It was notably the only land-based transport airplane built by Blackburn, a company that otherwise specialised in pr ...
was delivered to the Museum prior to its royal opening in 1972. Soon afterwards, the runways were removed to make way for the
Grahame Park Grahame Park, located on the site of the old Hendon Aerodrome in North West London, is a north London housing estate in the London Borough of Barnet, including 1,777 council homes built in the 1970s. History The estate is named in honour of ...
Housing Estate. The official closure of
RAF 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 ...
took place on 1 April 1987. The museum was officially opened at the
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 ...
(then part of
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 ...
) 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 36
aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines ...
at opening. Over the years, the collection has increased in size substantially, and aircraft not on display at Hendon were stored or displayed at smaller local RAF station museums. 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 The London Transport Museum (often abbreviated as the LTM) is a transport museum based in Covent Garden, London. The museum predominantly hosts exhibits relating to the heritage of London's transport, as well as conserving and explaining the h ...
) was appointed director general of all three sites (London, Cosford and Stafford) operated by the museum. Retired Air Vice-Marshal Peter Dye replaced Fopp as director general on 9 June 2010. In October 2014, it was announced that
Maggie Appleton Margaret Mary Appleton (born 21 August 1965) is an English museum director. She has been the Chief Executive Officer of the RAF Museum since 2015.https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/documents/press_releases/cosford/CEO_RAF_Museum_Press_Release.pdf Ear ...
was to be appointed as CEO of the museum. The Battle of Britain Museum (later Hall) was opened by
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was the l ...
in November 1978. On 3 October 2016 the Battle of Britain Hall was permanently closed and refurbished. The London site has been regularly expanded. For example, in recent years landscaping had taking place to illustrate what the former Hendon airfield was like, in what has become a heavily urbanised area. As of 2012, it had over 100 aircraft, including the
Avro Lancaster The Avro Lancaster is a British Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the Short Stirlin ...
S-Sugar, which flew 137 night sorties. It also includes the only complete
Hawker Typhoon The Hawker Typhoon is a British single-seat fighter-bomber, produced by Hawker Aircraft. It was intended to be a medium-high altitude interceptor, as a replacement for the Hawker Hurricane, but several design problems were encountered and i ...
. Added in 2018, as part of the RAF Centenary exhibitions, were a
Westland Sea King The Westland WS-61 Sea King is a British licence-built version of the American Sikorsky S-61 helicopter of the same name, built by Westland Helicopters. The aircraft differs considerably from the American version, with Rolls-Royce Gnome engin ...
helicopter (once flown by Prince William, Duke of Cambridge), a
Gnat A gnat () is any of many species of tiny flying insects in the dipterid suborder Nematocera, especially those in the families Mycetophilidae, Anisopodidae and Sciaridae. They can be both biting and non-biting. Most often they fly in large num ...
jet trainer of the
Red Arrows The Red Arrows, officially known as the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, is the aerobatics display team of the Royal Air Force based at RAF Waddington. The team was formed in late 1964 as an all-RAF team, replacing a number of unofficial teams ...
, and a full-scale mock-up of the
F-35 Lightning II The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole combat aircraft that is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. It is also able to provide ele ...
stealth fighter.


Description

The Royal Air Force Museum is a National Museum, a Government non-departmental public body (NDPB) and also is a registered charity. The Royal Air Force Museum London is displayed over six hangars.


Hangar 1, RAF Stories and First to the Future

Two exhibitions, RAF Stories and RAF First to the Future, opened in 2018 to commemorate the RAF centenary: RAF Stories, The First 100 years 1918–2018 of the RAF. This exhibition observes the RAF's first 100 years, from its creation in 1918 as the world's first independent air force. It explores the different roles of the people of the RAF, alongside the changes in technology. Hangar 1 forms the main point of entry to the Museum.


Hangar 2, the Grahame-White Factory

Also known as the
Grahame-White Grahame-White was an early British aircraft manufacturer, flying school and later manufacturer of cyclecars. The company was established as ''Grahame-White Aviation Company'' by Claude Grahame-White at Hendon in 1911. The firm built mostly aircr ...
Factory shows the earliest days of flight on the site of The London Aerodrome, through to the formation of the independent Royal Air Force in 1918.


Hangars 3 and 4, The Historic Hangars

These hangars focus on the aircraft of the Second World War and the Cold War. It includes original Battle of Britain fighter aircraft: the
Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...
,
Messerschmitt Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War an ...
and
Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...
; helicopters, and some Cold War jet aircraft.


Hangar 5, the Bomber Hall

Battle of Britain: shows the German
Junkers Ju 87 Stuka The Junkers Ju 87 or Stuka (from ''Sturzkampfflugzeug'', "dive bomber") was a German dive bomber and ground-attack aircraft. Designed by Hermann Pohlmann, it first flew in 1935. The Ju 87 made its combat debut in 1937 with the Luftwaffe's Cond ...
and
Heinkel He 111 The Heinkel He 111 is a German airliner and bomber designed by Siegfried and Walter Günter at Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in 1934. Through development, it was described as a "wolf in sheep's clothing". Due to restrictions placed on Germany after th ...
bombers which were types used during the Battle of Britain.


Hangar 6, RAF in an Age of Uncertainty

The RAF from 1980 to the 21st century.


Other facilities

The Museum contains a public restaurant built within a 1930s mess store building. Next to it is a children's play area with mini RAF aircraft, vehicles and buildings. A volunteer centre has been created within Building 69, originally a parachute packing RAF building. The Museum's archives, containing thousands of paper documents, books and photographs are situated on the top floor of Hangars 3/4/5.


Aircraft on display


See also

*
Hendon Aerodrome Hendon Aerodrome was an aerodrome in London, England, that was an important centre for aviation from 1908 to 1968. It was situated in Colindale, north west of Charing Cross. It nearly became a central hub of civil aviation ("the Charing Cros ...
*
List of aerospace museums This is a list of aviation museums and museums that contain significant aerospace-related exhibits throughout the world. The aviation museums are listed alphabetically by country and their article name. Afghanistan * OMAR Mine Museum, Kabul - inc ...


References


External links

*
Churchill: Never in the field of human conflict - UK Parliament Living HeritageRAF Museum Photo websitePhoto galleries of aircraft at the RAF Museum and a virtual tour of RAF CosfordImages taken at RAF Museum LondonUnit History: RAF HendonMarking 100 years in style: The RAF Museum’s Centenary Transformation ProgrammeFinal touches made to RAF Museum ahead of reopeningMuseum reports: RAF Museum Hendonon site at the royal air force museum hendonFunding will help Royal Air Force Museum celebrate First World War centenaryRAF Museum Hendon Update December 2017Flypast Spitfire Anniversary IssueRAF Museum looks to the future after revampVisit to RAF Museum Archives and Library, Hendon"S-Sugar", the Oldest Surviving RAF Lancaster Heavy Bomber
{{Coord, 51, 35, 56, N, 0, 14, 19, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title History of the Royal Air Force Military aviation museums in London Museums established in 1972 National museums of England Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom) Museums in the London Borough of Barnet Charities based in London