The museum I was most looking forward to was the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. My last visit was almost 40 years ago, and at that time is was just a couple of World War 2 hangers. The museum still has the same hangers, but also has some extra, purpose built, exhibition buildings. There are a number of different collections on the same site, including the Imperial War Museum, the American Air Museum and the British Airliner Collection. I took many photos and will split them up into easily digestible bites!
We arrived just after opening, to a misty drizzly morning. We ignored the suggested route and headed outside, to walk the length of the museum and work our way back.
Outside we were immediately greeted by Spitfire T7 NH341 (G-CICK) and P51D 44-72216 (G-BIXL). Next to them was B-17G "Sally B" 44-85784 (G-BEDF)
Next was a plane that looked both familiar but not quite right. It reminded me of a Sea Fury, but was different. When I got home i saw that it was in fact a Hawker Fury II SR611 (G-CBEL). This aircraft was built for and flown by the Iraqi Air Force, and once decommissioned had been based in the USA and Australia before returning to the UK. It is painted up as the prototype.
A bit further along was PBY-5A Catalina 44-33915 (G-PBYA). (Actually a Canadian built Canso painted up as an American Catalina)
We now came to the British Airliner Collection. These were the planes I remembered seeing as a teenager at Heathrow Airport! The Airspeed Ambassador (G-ALZO) had just been retired when I started plane spotting, but there were still a few left at Dan Air's engineering base at Lasham. Next was the "Whispering Giant" Bristol Britannia of Monarch Airlines G-AOVT. Though many were retired, there were still a few being used at Luton Airport when I was plane spotting. A more modern plane is the BAe 146. This example is ZE701 from the RAF VIP flight based at Northolt. Next, one of the greatest British Airliners, the VC-10. The VC-10 held the airliner speed record for flying from New York to London, and was only beaten by Concorde. This example is a Super VC-10 of BOAC G-ASGC. Rounding out the collection are the Vickers Viscount G-ALWF of BEA, The Trident 2 G-AVFB and BAC 1-11 G-AVMU in the colours of British Airways the mainstays of short-haul flying in the 60s and 70s.
The next instalment will be the American Air Museum......
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