The plan was to stay overnight and visit the RAF Museum at Cosford the next morning, but I had made good time and decided to go straight there, (and return next morning if I ran out of time).
This museum is huge! It has 4 large hangers, as well as many aircraft displayed outside. The planes displayed outside included some of the larger transport planes and a few others that just couldn't fit into the hangers. They include a Royal Dutch Navy SP-2H Neptune (204), a Royal Danish Air Force PBY-6A Catalina (L-866,) the Hunting H126 (XN714), WK935 the "Prone Pilot" Meteor F8, Britannia C1 (XM497), C-130K Hercules (XV202) and Nimrod R1 (XV249).
In the first hanger the star for me was the Gloster Gladiator (K8042). I hadn't seen one of these before. There were also some more WWII aircraft here including an early Spitfire 1 (K9942) with a Hawker Hart (K4972) "flying" over it. Next to it was it's archenemy the Messerschmidt Me109 (10639) of the Luftwaffe.
Another WWII aircraft on display is the Boulton-Paul Defiant (N1671), here depicted as a night fighter. Also displayed was another German fighter the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 (420430). The Avro Lincoln B2 (RF398) was developed from the famous Lancaster Bomber. The Hawker Tempest (PR536) was one of the fastest fighters in WWII, and this example was used by the Indian Air Force before it was purchased by the museum.
The Hawker Siddeley Kestrel (XS695) was one of 8 development aircraft used to prove the V/STOL capability which led to the RAF and Royal Navy using the Harrier family of aircraft like Harrier GR3 (XZ997)
There are some "Cold War" aircraft on display including a Polish Air Force MiG-15 (1120), an RAF Vickers Valiant B1 (XD818), a Javelin FAW1 (XA564) and a Hunter T7 (XL568).
There are also some transport aircraft displayed inside. In this photo are a Handley Page Hastings (TG511), with a DC-3 Dakota (KN645) suspended behind it, and a Shorts Belfast (XR371) to the right. Also a clearer photo of the Dakota.
This is a great museum to visit. I logged almost 80 planes here, but probably missed a few!
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