RAF Museum

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An Avro Lancaster in the main hangar of the RAF Museum London.

The Royal Air Force Museum (RAF Museum) is a museum dedicated to the history of aviation, and the British Royal Air Force in particular.

The museum is spread over two sites in England;

The RAF Museum London at Colindale (Hendon) in north London
The RAF Museum Cosford at RAF Cosford in Shropshire, 5 miles northwest of Wolverhampton

The museum was officially opened at the London site on November 15, 1972 by Her Majesty The Queen. 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. While they were being so stored, these aircraft were not publicly displayed.

On May 1, 1979, the Cosford site was opened at RAF Cosford, one of the RAF stations which had been used to store the museum's collection of aircraft. In 1980, the Cosford site agreed to house the British Airways Museum collection, which have now been removed after British Airways withdrew funding. Currently in the final stages of construction is the Cold War hangar. This addition to the museum's already impressive collection will house the V bombers and other Cold War aircraft, many of which are hung from the Hangar roof.

[edit] London site

The Royal Air Force Museum London is comprised of 5 exhibition halls,

Milestones of flight
The Bomber hall
Historic Hangars
The Battle of Britain Hall
The Grahame-White Factory

As of 2005 it has over 130 aircraft. These aircraft include one of only two surviving Vickers Wellingtons left in the world and the Avro Lancaster S-Sugar, which flew 137 sorties. It also includes the only complete Hawker Typhoon in the world.

Recently added to the museum is a B-24 Liberator, which was moved to Hendon from Cosford. The aircraft was originally presented to the Museum by the Indian Air Force. In exchange, a Vickers Valiant was sent to Cosford to take part in the upcoming Cold war exhibition.

[edit] Cosford site

The museum at Cosford opened on 1 May 1979, initially exhibiting 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 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's Conservation Centre from Cardington, Bedfordshire to Cosford. The Centre was opened by Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Michael Beetham and it is named after him.

The Cosford site includes several developmental aircraft such as those that led to the English Electric Lightning and the second prototype of the BAC TSR-2.

Sadly, British Airways (BA) decided in 2006 that they would not finance the BA Collection any more, and the RAF Museum would not take on the aircraft without funding. Several of the classic jet airliners have therefore been broken up, including the only Boeing 707 preserved in the UK, a Vickers VC-10 and a Hawker Siddeley Trident.