When I got to Coventry and the Midland Air Museum, it was cold and drizzly. It was the middle of a British summer!
Inside the museum it was very difficult to photograph the aircraft as they are all packed in so tightly. Here you can see a Slingsby Grasshopper XK789 and a Druine D.31 replica suspended from the roof and USAF T-33 51-4419. SAAB J-29 29640 of the Swedish Air Force was the first European swept wing jet fighter and is the only one on display in the UK
Outside, the aircraft are much easier to photograph. There is a varied collection of planes here including this Saudi Airforce Lightning T55 55-713 and Royal Canadian Air Force CF101 Voodoo.101447
Reminding me of air shows in the 70s and 80s were USAF F-4C Phantom 63-7414 and Danish Air Force F-104 Starfighter R-756
Something we never saw before the "Iron Curtain" came down were Soviet aircraft. Here there is a MiG-21 of the East German Air Force, and a Mil-24 of the Soviet Air Force
Royal Navy Sea Harrier ZE694 and RAF Javelin XA699 were also on display here.
Leaving Coventry, and heading towards Plymouth, I had time for a quick stop at Cotswold Airport (formerly RAF Kemble, and former home of the RAF's Red Arrows aerobatic display team)
There is an example of a Red Arrows Gnat T1 outside the airfield Café.
Cotswold Airport is a place where obsolete aircraft come to be "parted out" and subsequently scrapped. Engines and other valuable equipment is removed, and the rest of the aircraft is cut up and sold for scrap value. There are aircraft in various stages of dismantling dotted around the airport including Jet2 B737 G-LSAO, Air Portugal Airbus A319 CS-TTH and Bluebird Nordic B737 TF-BBJ.
This is also the home of the "Party Jumbo" G-CIVB. This ex British Airways B747 is preserved here and plans are to open it as a venue for parties and conferences etc.
An ex-RAF Hawker Hunter T8 XE665 and Britannia C1 XV496 are also preserved here.
Also based here are Vertical Aerospace who are developing an electric vertical take off and landing plane, the VX-4.
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