Duxford Air Museum: A Photo Visit
HANGAR 1
This massive hangar houses a great many static displays of aircraft from a number of different eras. There is also a large series of display panels detailing 100 years of flight.
In amongst the mix you will find a prototype/test version of the Concorde supersonic airliner, a massive Avro Vulcan from the 1960s, a (not-so) Short Sunderland flying boat and a couple of helicopters.
This is a very fine-looking Tiger Moth biplane. Photo by AJS.
This photo depicts a British Avro Lancaster heavy bomber from World War II (number KB 889). This was the most successful British bomber of the war, and is of the same type as those used in the “Dambusters†raids on the German dams of the Ruhr valley. Photo by Roach.
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As it happens, there is also a “bouncing bomb†as used in those very same raids, although it was not clear if this was an original or a replica. Photo by AJS.
Here we see a more modern Panavia Tornado GR1. Photo by AJS.
This is a shot of the cockpit of the Concorde, one exhibit that you can board and view from the inside. The interior contains diagnostic equipment and monitoring stations for the test flight program that took place before the production models were built. Unfortunately, this plane is so large and surrounded by so many other exhibits that it is impossible to get a decent picture of the entire plane. Photo by AJS.
This is a Mikoyan MIG 21 fighter. The amazing thing about this exhibit is how small it is! Photo by AJS.
This is a very mean looking MIL M24 Hind D that saw service with the East Germans. It looks very menacing, although it has no rotor blades and seems to be a little run down. Photo by AJS.
This is what’s left of a Mosquito – unfortunately looking a bit shabby and with the engines removed. It is no doubt currently under renovation like many of the exhibits. Duxford is very much a working museum and upkeep and restoration of the exhibits under the public eye is another part of the attraction. Photo by AJS.
Along an entire wall of this hangar is an array of engines from various planes. This example is from an ME262 – a German jet fighter from WWII. Photo by AJS.
And finally, two very fine German planes from World War II. The first is a Fiesler Storch, used for reconnaissance. It looks a bit spindly, but we like it. This is the sort of thing German Officers might use to fly over the battlefield to see how well (or badly) things were going. Obviously, they would not do this unless air superiority had been achieved, since it lacks any armament whatsoever. Photo by Roach.
And here are two pictures of a beautiful JU52 transport plane. German soldiers used to refer to these planes as “Auntyâ€. This particular plane looks in really good condition, and one might almost think it to be a flyable exhibit. Alas, it is not. Photos by AJS.
We would have loved to have included a good snap of the Vulcan bomber, but (this is a common theme) it’s just too big to get into one picture! However it is an impressive exhibit. Originally designed as part of the ‘V’ Force in the 1960s to carry nuclear bombs or short-range nuclear missiles, some Vulcan Bombers were used in the Falklands War, flying from the UK to the South Atlantic to drop bombs on Port Stanley airfield.
