RAF Museum at Hendon - Fighters and others

In this final post from the Museum, I have a few samples from the collection of World War 2 fighters and other aircraft. Again, this is only a tiny selection of what was on display... you'll just have to go visit for yourself!

Top to bottom are:

Messerschmitt Bf109G
de Havilland Canada Chipmonk T.10
Republic Thunderbolt
Curtis Kittyhawk III
Hawker Hart Trainer

RAF Museum at Hendon - the Helos

The museum has a wide range of ex-military helicopters on display. In addition to what you will see here is the nose section of a Chinook [!] and a helo that was formerly used to transport the Queen. Very very nice!

Anyway, here are a few examples for you:

Westland Whirlwind HAR10... "Whirlwind" - what an appropriate name for a helicopter! :-)
AgustaWestland EH101
Westland/ Aerospatiale Gazelle
Sikorsky Hoverfly
Westland Belvedere HC1

RAF Museum at Hendon - time for the jets

The RAF Museum also has a number of jet aircraft on display. I wish I had room [and time!] to show more of them, but here is a small selection. Keep in mind that like most of the aircraft in the museum, they are reasonably accessible [you can get very close to them; some even have steps up to the cockpit].

Top to bottom are:

Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightening II mockup. Really nice!
Messerschmitt Me262
Panavia Tornado F.3
British Aircraft Corporation [BAC] Jet Provost T.5A

RAF Museum at Hendon - Very old aircraft

Here are a few of the very historic aircraft at the museum. These old aircraft are spread thoughout the various buildings, but particularly in the equally historic Grahame-White Factory building.

Top to bottom are:

Bleriot XI
Vickers Vimy
Caudron G.III

RAF Museum at Hendon - The Quiz!

What do the following three aircraft have in common?

No, I'm not talking about the fact that they are all at the RAF Museum :-) Perhaps take a look at the manufacturer... yep, all made by Supermarine!

Supermarine Spitfire Mk Vb

Supermarine Stranraer

Supermarine Seagull V

RAF Museum at Hendon - Intro

One of my final "aviation related" activities [apart from my flight home, of course!] was a visit to the RAF Museum at Hendon [effectively a suburb on London these days].

I last visited here about 3 years ago. A few things had changed - enough to make it worthwhile visiting again - and so I spent the best part of a day walking around the various buildings, including the old Grahame-White Factory building, which was closed the last time I visited.

Obviously, there's no way I could every publish every aircraft, and even if I wanted to, many of the displays were dimly lit, which was great to look at, but not quite so good for photography.

A highlight of the visit was a video presentation that is run several times during the day. It's a bit hard to describe, but basically, it's set up in one of the display buildings, with a small "stadium like" seating setup, and  projections is on to a main transparent screen, a second flat "zeppelin airship" shaped screen behind that, and uses the various aircraft in the building by highlighting them from time to time. VERY WELL WORTH visiting!

Lastly, entry is free :-)

Anyway, here are a few pictures to start with. Further posts will highlight a few other areas in the museum. Enjoy! Top to bottom are:

Advertising wall

Westland Lysander
Short Sunderland - this is open for visitors to walk through
Bristol Beaufort
Consolidated Liberator

Europe Trip #18: RAF Museum Hendon - 13 - Last of the jets

In this final post about the jets, I've included two of my favourite aircraft - the Hawker Hunter and the Harrier jumpjet.

I've seen a New Zealand-based Hunter flying at Ardmore airfield in past years [ZK-JIL] and it's an impressive sight - and sound! I haven't seen the Harrier flying [apart from video obviously], but it's one of those aircraft that captures the imagination and makes you wonder why they don't build more V/STOL fighter aircraft [OK - I know that the Americans have, but it's 40 something years later!].

Finally, this is the last of my posts from the RAF Museum at Hendon in the UK. As I have said before, it is well worth the visit - in fact, I strongly recommend it. I hope you've enjoyed these photos. Do come back over the next few days as there will soon be a few pictures from around London followed by the Duxford museum collection which is arguably even more awesome!

Europe Trip #17: RAF Museum Hendon - 12 - Big and Fast

OK, here's two more jet aircraft to gaze longingly at! The Avro Vulcan is an awesome beast! I mean, it is just HUGE! The museum have poked it into the corner [and I mean right in to the corner] of one of the buildings and it seems to stretch out forever!

The other is the mighty Eurofighter Typhoon. This appears to be one of the prototype aircraft, and is a stunning sight and because of the walkways on the second and third levels of the building, you can walk right up to, almost level with, the aircraft even though it is suspended from the ceiling. It's a nice looking plane also. Just a thought, it'd look good flying around Ohakea with some Kiwi roundels on it :-) Clearly this is no ordinary museum when it has a front-line fighter hung off the ceiling :-)

Europe Trip #16: RAF Museum Hendon - 11 - 3 more jets

Practical jet powered aircraft were first produced in the early 1940's - not surprising considering the world was busy trying to find better, faster, more efficient ways of trying to kill each other during World War Two.

The Germans were the first to put up a jet fighter in combat, the awesome Me 262. Here are three pictures of this aircraft, followed by some others.

Messerschmitt Me 262 [3 pictures]
Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer S2B
Heinkel He 162
Panavia Tornado P02

[updated thanks to feedback]

Europe Trip #15: RAF Museum Hendon - 10 - Jets!

For some reason jets fascinate me. I like the piston powered aircraft of course, but I guess jet powered aircraft are generally fast, sleek and rather noisy :-)

The list of fixed-wing turbine aircraft was less numerous than the others [naturally], but still very impressive. This post is the first of four for the jets. In this first post we have:

BAC Lightning F6
Gloster Meteor F8
de Havilland DH 100 Vampire
English Electric Canberra PR3
BAC Jet Provost T.5A
McDonnell Douglas Phantom FGR2
Phantom cockpit

Europe Trip #14: RAF Museum Hendon - 9 - Helicopters

Helicopters are interesting machines! Seemingly a collection of loosely held together parts, vibrating at random, ready to separate at a moment's notice :-) Having said that, they are clearly an invaluable tool in peacetime and war.

The museum had a range of helicopters - all of which had military [and some civilian] roles at some stage, including troop transport, equipment haulers and rescue. The first helicopter in the list was equiped in a VIP configuration and used on the Royal Flight to transport the Queen and other royalty from time to time.

Top to bottom are:

Westland Wessex HCC4
Agusta Westland EH101 Merlin/ Heliliner
Westland Belvedere HC1
Westland Whirlwind HAR10
Sikorsky Hoverfly
Saunders Roe Skeeter AOP Mk 12