RAF Museum

RAF Museum Hendon

Text:	Michael E. Fader
Pictures:	Andreas Herzog / Michael E. Fader

Royal Air Force Museum Hendon
Grahame Park Way
London NW9 5LL
Täglich, 10.00 - 18.00 Uhr
Montags geschlossen.
Der Eintritt ist frei.
www.rafmuseum.org.uk
Tel. +44 20 8205 2266

As part of the trip to England our editors team of Michael E. Fader and Andy Herzog visited the RAF Museum in Hendon in the London area. This museum traces the history of the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1912 until today. In four large halls over 100 planes are displayed.

Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5A (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader

Supermarine Spitfire Vb (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader)

Gloster Meteor F8 (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Westland Wessex HCC4 (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

The RAF Museum in Hendon is a pearl among the aviation museums. First, it is very substantial and the exhibits are well placed and being easy to photographed - with the exception,of the big bombers. Of course, for the RAF, the machines are in excellent condition.

The museum was founded on 15. November 1972 and shows the development of the Royal Air Force from 1910 until today. Hendon - located in a suburb of London - was a former RAF base. The runway were subsequently built over and are no longer visible today.

The exhibition is divided into five halls of which are also arranged thematically.

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

The Grahame-White Factory

This hall - which was once an aircraft factory - shows the beginnings of the Royal Air Force, which called at that time Royal Air Corps. The exhibited planes from the great war (first world war) are sometimes quite unusual. Outstanding is the Vickers Vimy bomber which shows that in 1916 there were big bombers. Surrounded by fighter and some light bombers such as the Sopwith 1 ½ Strutter, Sopwith Triplane, Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a, Sopwith Dolphin, and Caudron G.3 M.1C Bristol and other planes.

The Grahame-White Factory (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

(Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Bleriot XXVII near the Entrance (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader

Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Caudron G.3 (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader

Caudron G.3 (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Vickers F.B.5 (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader

Sopwith Dolphin (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader

Sopwith Pup (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader

Sopwith 1½ Strutter (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader

Avro 504K (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader

Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5A (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader

Vickers Vimy (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Vickers Vimy (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader

Hanriot HD.1 Belgian Air Force (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Hanriot HD.1 Belgian Air Force (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader

Bristol M.1c (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader

Battle of Britain

Another special hall is the in August 2009 opened hall of the "Battle of Britain". This time in 1940 -41 was fort the British radical and extreme. For the first time in modern history Britain was attacked directly The fighting in southern England, where the British stood with their backs to the wall, were fought from the RAF alone.

Here, the foundation for he glory of the Spitfire - much to the chagrin of the Hurricane pilots wore a bigger share of the fighting - was laid. "Our Finest Hour" shows not only the British aircraft, like the Bristol Blenheim IV, Hawker Hurricane I, Spitfire I and Westland Lysander III It also shows the planes of the enemy. . On planes of the Axis powers are Heinkel He 111H-20, Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3, Junkers Ju 88R-1 and 87G-2, and also an Italian Fiat CR42 Falco.

Taking pictures in the Battle of Britain Hall is not easy, because it has no natural light in the windowless building at all and the artificial light is not bright A tripod can be very useful.

(Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader

Chamberlain and Churchill (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader

Replica of a Radar-Room (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader

German Enigma (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Gloster Gladiator I (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

de Havilland Tiger Moth (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Supermarine Spitfire I (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader

Hawker Hurricane I (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader

Involved units of the RAF and Luftwaffe (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader

Messerschmitt Bf 110G-2 (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Fiat CR42 Falco (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Junkers Ju 87G-2 (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog and )Michael E. Fader

(Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Crashed Hurricane I (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

All the names of the pilots woh lost their livs (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader

The Sunderland Hall

Especifically is the presentation of the Short Sunderland MR5. It is accessible from the front to rear and impressively illustrates the technique of massive flying boats.

(Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Westland Lysander III (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader)

Supermarine Seagull V (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Supermarine Seagull V (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader)

Short Sunderland MR5 (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Inside the Short Sunderland MR5 (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader)

Milestones of Flight

In December 2003, was the "Milestones of Flight" was opened, In this latest hall of the RAF Museum Hendon. Opposed to the older buildings tha hall is very bright, In keeping with its theme here can airplanes be fount hwo made history in some ways. The variation is not confined to Britisch or Allied machines.

Milestones of Flight hall (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Bleriot XI (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader)

Fokker DVII (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader)

Hawker Hart II (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

North American P-51D Mustang (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Hawker Tempest V (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

De Havilland Mosquito B35 (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader)

Sikorsky R-4 (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Messerschmitt Me 262 (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader)

Gloster Meteor F.9/40 (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Gloster Meteor F.9/40 (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader)

Eurofighter Typhoon DA2 (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

The Bomber Hall und Historic Hangars

This hall is the largest of the museum and is home planes from the 30s to nowadays. The planes are set up very well and can be taken by camera easy, ecept a few ones.. The development of the fighters from the Supermarine Spitfire Vb of the Spitfire F24, Hawker Typhoon IB, de Havilland Vampire F3, Gloster Meteor F9/40, Hawker Hunter FGA9, McDonnell Douglas Phantom FGR2 and modern Euro Fighter Typhoon DA2 are shown here.

But even some helicopters are show here like the Bristol Belvedere HC1, Westland Whirlwind HAR 10, Wessex HCC4 and Gazelle HT3

In the Bomber Hall it is much more difficult to photograph the planes. Here are bombers like the Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress, Consolidated B-24L Liberator, Fairey Battle, Avro Lancaster I, North American TB-25J Mitchell, and the Avro Vulcan B2. The sheer size of this V-Bomber is impressive - and not unjustly called the Americans expressed this nimble monster "Aluminum Overcast"

It is pointless to enumerate here all the planes - this museum is a must for any aviation freak, is here the tradition of the RAF. Preserved very well. We from WINGS AVIATION can only write again that the planes are displayed excellently in top condition.

Fairey Battle I (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader)

Fairey Battle I (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Airspeed Oxford I (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Avro Lancaster I (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Handley Page Halifax II (recovered wreck) (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Consolidated B-24L Liberator (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Consolidated B-24L Liberator (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader)

Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

North American TB-25J Mitchell (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

English Electric Canberra PR3 (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Handley Page Victor (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Bristol F.2B (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Bristol F.2B (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader)

Bristol Bulldog II (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader)

Hawker Hart II (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader)

Supermarine Spitfire Vb (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader)

Curtiss Kittyhawk IV (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Supermarine Spitfire F24 (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Supermarine Spitfire F24 (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader)

Hawker Typhoon IB (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader)

Republic P-47D Thunderbolt II (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

North American Harvard IIB (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

de Havilland Canada Chipmunk (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Percival Prentice (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

BAC Jet Provost T5 (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

de Havilland Vampire F3 ah

Gloster Meteor F8 (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

BAC Lightning F6 (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Mc Donnell Douglas Phantom FGR2 (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Panavia Tornado F3 (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader)

Bristol Sycamore (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader)

Westland Belvedere HC1 (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Westland Wessex HCC4 (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Westland Gazelle HT3 (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

European Helicopter Industries EH101 (Picture courtesy Andreas Herzog)

Supermarine Stranraer (Picture courtesy Michael E. Fader)

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