A BOAC “Comet” and a Scottish Aviation “Bulldog T1”. Some of the many delights afforded you at the free to enter RAF Museum at Cosford, Shropshire, 10th August 2022 (Author’s Collection).
Today’s venue for “making memories” was the free to enter museum of RAF Cosford, near Shifnal and in the heart of the county of Shropshire in central England. I was accompanied by my beautiful teenage son as he will occasionally indulge me in my vain attempts to make such memories and in doing so, we ventured to RAF Cosford for the second time, and the first since my son was 18 years younger and 6 foot smaller!
Well over 60 images follow in a scrolling, pictorial journey fashion and representative of the exact tour we experienced. They are also split loosely between the five main areas of the free roam tour and should your travelling feet head in the direction of central England, I cannot recommend this tour highly enough. I found the trip back in time for the “Cold War” highly prescient to our current age and the age of living a present past.
*All quotations within the colour commentary are taken directly from the information boards in or around the aircraft*
*I believe everything is correct and every aircraft correctly labelled and named. Anyway, on with the show!*
*All images captured by me on Wednesday 10th August 2022*
Visitor Centre and first outdoor area
The route map to your visit! The following pictorial roll with be as experienced during the afternoon itself so we’ll navigate from the centre to the right, through the “Test Flight” and “War in the Air” buildings and continue left via the wonderful “Cold War” Hangar and “Hangar 1” before we return from whence we came. I hope you enjoy the tour!
“Volunteering at RAF Museum Cosford”.
The very first aircraft you encounter: “Hawker Siddeley Dominie T1".
(1) Two further images of a RAF “crew trainer” and the Hawker Siddeley Dominie T1.
(2) Two further images of a RAF “crew trainer” and the Hawker Siddeley Dominie T1.
An “Electronic Reconnaissance” aircraft or the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod R1.
(1) A “long-range maritime patrol” aircraft post World War II or the Lockheed SP-2H Neptune.
(2) A “long-range maritime patrol” aircraft post World War II or the Lockheed SP-2H Neptune.
(3) A “long-range maritime patrol” aircraft post World War II or the Lockheed SP-2H Neptune.
At the entrance to the Test Flight/War in the Air Hangar, please say hello to a flying boat or a “PBY 6A Catalina”.
Test Flight/War in the Air Hangar
In service between 1964 and 1969 a “Hawker Siddeley Kestrel F(GA)1”.
(1) Five marvellous introductions to “Race For the Sky” and “The Battle of Britain”.
(2) Five marvellous introductions to “Race For the Sky” and “The Battle of Britain”.
(3) Five marvellous introductions to “Race For the Sky” and “The Battle of Britain”.
(4) Five marvellous introductions to “Race For the Sky” and “The Battle of Britain”.
(5) Five marvellous introductions to “Race For the Sky” and “The Battle of Britain”.
Replica of a “Bristol M.1c”.
(1) Two images of a “Gloster Gladiator Mk1”. The following is taken directly from the information board: “The Gloster Gladiator was the RAF’s last biplane fighter and the first to feature an enclosed cockpit for the pilot. Deliveries began in 1937, with Gladiators continuing to serve in the early years of the Second World War”.
(2) Two images of a “Gloster Gladiator Mk1”. The following is taken directly from the information board: “The Gloster Gladiator was the RAF’s last biplane fighter and the first to feature an enclosed cockpit for the pilot. Deliveries began in 1937, with Gladiators continuing to serve in the early years of the Second World War”.
(1) Three images of the German Luftwaffe’s Messerschmitt and their “principal fighter during the Battle of Britain”.
(2) Three images of the German Luftwaffe’s Messerschmitt and their “principal fighter during the Battle of Britain”.
(3) Three images of the German Luftwaffe’s Messerschmitt and their “principal fighter during the Battle of Britain”.
RAF Cosford’s famed “Supermarine Spitfire Mk1”.
The Hawker Hurricane Mk II — Taken directly from the information board “The Hurricane Mk II was manufactured in larger numbers than any other version. Some were armed with bombs and nicknamed “Hurri-Bombers”. The last Hurricane left the production line in July 1944 and today flies with the RAF’s Battle of Britain memorial flight”.
A Luftwaffe collage.
Another Luftwaffe collage but can I draw your attention to the small aircraft almost lost in the body of the image. This is a “Focke Achgelis FA-330 Bachstelze” or a German light reconnaissance aircraft that assisted their submarines spot enemy British ships over a 25 mile radius.
A beautifully preserved “Jaguar ACT”.
Another beautiful preservation and this time a “Saunders-Roe SR53” and a “mixed power interceptor using a rocket motor to climb rapidly to high altitudes”.
The Cold War Hangar
“An Iron Curtain has descended across the continent” — Winston Churchill, 5th March 1946.
Not alive for the Vietnam marches and too young to fully appreciate the best amongst us who campaigned incessantly against nuclear armament around the world. The words and places of “Greenham Common” and “Aldermaston” were huge in my early formative years, as was the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament or CND.
Where the “Cold War” hangar differs from the earlier era “Battle of Britain” hangar already seen is the higher level walkways open and freely available. Here is a small collection of the aircraft housed within the hangar as well as your first look at a representation of “Checkpoint Charlie” that separated East and West Berlin.
One of three West/East collage boards emphasising the cultural differences that typified the public cold war. In addition to “Lifestyle” here, there are also representations for the “Arts” and, rather aptly, “Spies”.
In ceilinged suspended animation — The “Hawker Hunter XL 568”.
Chaplin. Presley. The Beatles. And a favourite movie poster (see final image).
From on high and a representation of the small “Space Race” interactive booth.
The XL 568 and associated gems within the “Cold War” hangar.
A return to my youth and no, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the tank! “Solidarnosc” everyone.
The cars of the cold war (left) Mini Metro (centre) an East German Trabant and (right) a VW Beetle.
(1) Two wonderful representations with which to conclude the “Cold War” hangar part of the tour.
(2) Two wonderful representations with which to conclude the “Cold War” hangar part of the tour.
Hangar 1
Rear view of the enormous US Army “Sikorsky MH-53M” Helicopter.
“Fairchild Argus II”.
Slightly obscured but in the centre is the “Avro Anson C19 Series”. See below.
The “Avro Anson C19 Series” and a “Royal Air Force Transport” aircraft.
Another return to my growing up years and the “Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR3”. This became routinely and commonly known via TV news of the Falklands War as a “Harrier Jump Jet”. As noted directly from the official information board: “The GR 3’s ability to take off and land vertically meant they could operate from short, rough strips of ground, rather than airfields”.
The “Boeing CH-47 Chinook” helicopter that also became commonplace on the TV news during the Falklands War of 1982.
(1) Similar to the image selected to accompany the headline of this article, the BOAC “Comet” and a Scottish Aviation “Bulldog T1”.
(2) Similar to the image selected to accompany the headline of this article, the BOAC “Comet” and a Scottish Aviation “Bulldog T1”.
Final outdoor area
The “Lockheed Hercules C130K Mk3” blending perfectly with the burnt yellow grass of an English heatwave!
“First flown as a prototype for the United States Air Force in August 1954, the C-130 Hercules, as a troop transport, disaster relief and aerial tanker aircraft has been a mainstay of the RAF transport fleet since the late 1960s (along with those of many other air forces); it has seen extensive operational use including the Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan”.
A “Vickers VC10” that was “designed as a long range airliner able to operate from short runways at airfields in hot and high conditions as found in Africa and the far East”.
RAF Cosford sits just half a mile from the beautiful Shropshire village of Albrighton and I highly recommend a stroll around this picturesque village too.
A very happy Stanley Kubrick fan mid-way through this afternoon’s stroll (Author’s Collection).
Thanks for reading. This is very much a stand alone article from my travels hence far this Summer.
The three articles linked below are the most recently published from my sojourns beside the canals, rivers, waterways and historical castle ruins of England and Wales:
