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 ...

, 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) an ...

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 o ...

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 her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

. The hangars housed just 36 aircraft at opening. Over the years, the collection increased and aircraft were stored at RAF stations 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, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers ...

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 Cardington is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England. Part of the ancient hundred of Wixamtree, the settlement is best known in connection with the Cardington airship works founded by Short Brothers durin ...

to Cosford. The centre, costing £2.4 million, was opened by Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Michael Beetham.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 ...

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 (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 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 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 2 ...

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 t ...

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 The Armstrong Siddeley Mamba was a British turboprop engine produced by Armstrong Siddeley in the late 1940s and 1950s, producing around 1,500 effective horsepower (1,100 kW). Armstrong Siddeley gas turbine engines were named after snak ...

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 *

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 *

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 The de Havilland Gipsy Queen is a British six-cylinder aero engine of capacity that was developed in 1936 by the de Havilland Engine Company. It was developed from the de Havilland Gipsy Six for military aircraft use. Produced between 1936 ...

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 The Junkers Jumo 004 was the world's first production turbojet engine in operational use, and the first successful axial compressor turbojet engine. Some 8,000 units were manufactured by Junkers in Germany late in World War II, powering the Mess ...

* Junkers Jumo 205 *

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 producing ...

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 produ ...

Power Jets W.2 The Power Jets W.2 was a British turbojet engine designed by Frank Whittle and Power Jets (Research and Development) Ltd. Like the earlier Power Jets W.1, the reverse-flow combustion configuration included a double-sided centrifugal compress ...

Pratt & Whitney R-985 The Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior is a series of nine-cylinder, air-cooled, radial aircraft engines built by the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company from the 1930s to the 1950s. These engines have a displacement of ; initial versions produce ...

Pratt & Whitney R-1830 The Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp is an American air-cooled radial aircraft engine. It displaces and its bore and stroke are both . The design traces its history to 1929 experiments at Pratt & Whitney on twin-row designs. Production be ...

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 *

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 The Rolls-Royce RB211 is a British family of high-bypass turbofan engines made by Rolls-Royce. The engines are capable of generating of thrust. The RB211 engine was the first production three-spool engine, and turned Rolls-Royce from a signif ...

* Rolls-Royce Kestrel XVI * Packard Merlin 28 * Rolls-Royce/SNECMA M45H * Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour * Turbo-Union RB199 * Walter 109-500 * Walter 109–509 *

Walter 109-739 Walter may refer to: People * Walter (name), both a surname and a given name * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968) * Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 19 ...

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 The Short Range Air-to-Air Missile, or SRAAM for short, initially known as Taildog, was an experimental British infrared homing ("heat seeking") air-to-air missile, developed between 1968 and 1980 by Hawker Siddeley Dynamics. It was designed to b ...

* British Aircraft Corporation Bloodhound * British Aerospace Sea Skua * British Aircraft Corporation Swingfire * British Aircraft Corporation Thunderbird * Douglas Thor * 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 requi ...

* 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 * Henschel Hs 117 'Schmetterling' *

Henschel Hs 293 The Henschel Hs 293 was a World War II German radio-guided glide bomb. It is the first operational anti-shipping missile, first used unsuccessfully on 25 August 1943 and then with increasing success over the next year, ultimately damaging or si ...

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 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 ...

* 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.V ...

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