Solent Sky is an

aviation museum An aviation museum, air museum, or air and space museum is a museum exhibiting the history and cultural artifacts, artifacts of aviation. In addition to actual, replica or accurate reproduction aircraft, exhibits can include photographs, maps, P ...

in Southampton, Hampshire, previously known as Southampton Hall of Aviation. It depicts the history of aviation in Southampton, the Solent area and Hampshire. There is special focus on the Supermarine aircraft company, based in Southampton, and its most famous products, the

Supermarine S.6 The Supermarine S.6 is a 1920s British single-engined single-seat racing seaplane built by Supermarine. The S.6 continued the line of Supermarine seaplane racers that were designed for Schneider Trophy contests of the late 1920 and 1930s. Desi ...

seaplane and the

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 ...

, designed by

R. J. Mitchell Reginald Joseph Mitchell (20 May 189511 June 1937) was a British aircraft designer who worked for the Southampton aviation company Supermarine from 1916 until 1936. He is best remembered for designing racing seaplanes such as the Supermari ...

. There is also coverage of the Schneider Trophy seaplane races, twice held at

Calshot Spit Calshot Spit is a one-mile long sand and slate, shingle bank, near the village of Calshot, located on the southern bank of the open end of Southampton Water, on the south coast of England.OS Explorer Map, New Forest, Scale: 1:25 000.Publisher: Or ...

, and the

flying boat A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...

services which operated from the Solent. In December 2019 the Calshot Spit lightship was relocated next to the museum in order to be converted into part of the museum's cafe. In September 2020, 3 of Southampton's former trams were moved to the museum site where it is planned they will undergo restoration before going on public display. Construction of the current building began in 1983 and was designed by Barry Eaton, then the City Architect. It opened in 1984.

Exhibits

Aircraft on display

Aircraft on display at the museum include: Supermarine S

* Avro 504J - Replica *

Britten-Norman BN-1 The Britten-Norman BN-1F is a British single-seat ultralight aircraft that was built in 1950. Design and development In 1951 Peter Gatrell, John Britten & Desmond Norman built and flew an ultra-light monoplane, their first aircraft, which made i ...

* de Havilland Sea Vixen FAW Mk.1 - ''XJ476'' *

de Havilland Tiger Moth The de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s British biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and other operators as a primary trainer aircraft. ...

* de Havilland Vampire * Folland Gnat * Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.3 - Cockpit section. Modified to resemble Harrier FRS.1 *

Mignet HM.14 The Mignet HM.14 ''Flying Flea'' (''Pou du Ciel'' literally "Louse of the Sky" in French) is a single-seat light aircraft first flown in 1933, designed for amateur construction. It was the first of a family of aircraft collectively known as Flyi ...

''Pou-du-Ciel'' * Saro Skeeter (x 2) * Saunders-Roe SR.A/1 - ''TG263'' *

Short Sandringham The Short S.25 Sandringham is a British civilian flying boat designed and originally produced by Short Brothers. They were produced as conversions of the prolific Short Sunderland, a military flying boat that was commonly used as a maritime pat ...

S.25/V - ''VH-BRC, Beachcomber'' * Slingsby Grasshopper * Slingsby Tandem Tutor *

SUMPAC The Southampton University Man Powered Aircraft (or SUMPAC) on 9 November 1961 became the first human-powered aeroplane to make an officially authenticated take-off and flight. It was designed and built by Southampton university students betwe ...

A - ''N248'', competed in the 1929 Schneider Trophy * Supermarine Seagull - Nose section only *

F.24 - ''PK683'' *

Supermarine Swift The Supermarine Swift is a British single-seat jet fighter aircraft that was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was developed and manufactured by Supermarine during the 1940s and 1950s. The Swift featured many of the new jet age innova ...

- Cockpit section *

Wight Quadruplane The Wight Quadruplane, also referred to as the Wight Type 4, was a British single seat quadruplane fighter aircraft built by J Samuel White & Company Limited (Wight Aircraft) during World War I. Testing revealed design deficiencies and after ...

- Replica

Engines on display

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 ...

Alvis Leonides Major The Alvis Leonides Major was a British air-cooled 14-cylinder radial aero engine developed by Alvis from the earlier nine-cylinder Leonides. Design and development In 1951 Alvis started development of a 14-cylinder, two row radial of 1,118 ...

Bristol Siddeley Orpheus The Bristol Siddeley Orpheus was a single-spool turbojet developed by Bristol Siddeley for various light fighter/trainer applications such as the Folland Gnat and the Fiat G.91. Later, the Orpheus formed the core of the first Bristol Pegasus ve ...

Bristol Proteus The Bristol Proteus was the Bristol Engine Company's first mass-produced gas turbine engine design, a turboprop that delivered just over 4,000 hp (3,000 kW). The Proteus was a reverse-flow gas turbine. Because the second turbine drov ...

* de Havilland Gipsy Major * Gnome Monosoupape * Metrovick Beryl *

Napier Gazelle The Napier Gazelle is a turboshaft helicopter engine that was manufactured by D. Napier & Son in the mid-1950s. In 1961 production was nominally transferred to a joint venture with Rolls-Royce called Napier Aero Engines Limited."ENGLISH ELEC ...

* Napier Lion * Napier Naiad *

Napier Sabre The Napier Sabre is a British H-24-cylinder, liquid-cooled, sleeve valve, piston aero engine, designed by Major Frank Halford and built by D. Napier & Son during World War II. The engine evolved to become one of the most powerful inline ...

* Napier Scorpion * Rolls-Royce/Continental 0-300 * Rolls-Royce Derwent * Rolls-Royce Merlin

Police and Fire Heritage Collection

In 2017 an exhibition by the Hampshire Police and Fire Heritage Trust was added to the museum.

Charity

The work of Solent Sky is supported by a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ch ...

, the R. J. Mitchell Memorial Museum Limited, whose objects are "to advance the education of the public in matters relating to aviation by establishing and maintaining a museum as a permanent memorial to R. J. Mitchell, the designer of the Schneider Trophy S6B seaplane and the Spitfire."

References

External links

*
R. J. Mitchell website

{{authority control Aerospace museums in England Museums in Southampton The Solent Science and technology in Hampshire