Shackleton & Avro 707 under threat?

[Radpoe Spitfire]

This may court a little controversy, but does the RAFM have to be in the capital?

While Cosfotd and Lynham have been muted, I think Scampton, having good road acess would fair better, bring a national museum to bomber county and preserve a bomber command airfield.

Edited November 20, 2015 by Radpoe Spitfire

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

It's a shame about Manchester museum. I have never been there and it was on my list to do in the spring.

As for Hendon..bin it and enlarge Cosford into a 'super' museum as already mentioned. Too many things seem to revolve around London. Regardless of whether a one stop RAF Museum is at Hendon or Cosford,it's still a very long way for us up here to travel. (Plenty of space at Kinloss,Leuchars and Prestwick )

One of the issues,management ,again already mentioned and this is so true. The exhibits are there long after the 'whizz kids' have moved on.

I supposed that museums have to appeal to all and not just us enthusiasts but I wish they would listen to us sometimes.

Richard

[Ascoteer]

I would love to see the RAFM move to RAF Lyneham as it is one of the stations very close to my heart but aren`t the hangars quite dispersed around the site? I only remember the Air Movements Hangar next to the terminal building and the Air Engineering hangar across the pan with the Rubb hangar opposite,.....I dare say there are others which I never saw but I think that new buildings would have to be built.

I would suggest that, as dear as Lyneham is to my heart, it is a total non-starter. Aside from the fact that the REME have taken it over (and probably parked all sorts of vehicles all over the place), hangar-wise it is far too spread out.

Standing on the pan looking NW you've got, from right to left, the old MAMS hangar, the air terminal, then the 3 main Modified K-type hangars (A line, B line and deep servicing). South of the pan are the 2 K-Type hangars that were also the HQs for 47 and 70 Sqns.

There are also 3 E-Type blister hangars on the airfield (1 on the N side next to the Lillybrook Estate) and 2 on the SW next to ATC.

Finally there are 3 E-Type hangars on what was the old 47 AD (Sqn) RLC off site to the S of the A3102 Calne road (between the OMQs and the SCNCOMQs).

Cosford might be an idea but is very pushed for space as is - I rather resent the fact that the Dom, the Jetstream and Albert (amongst others) are left outside to rot as is. If you were to shut down Hendon you'd have to do some serious building work and I very much doubt there is the lucre available.

[Ascoteer]

The problem with Hendon is that it too far out from central London for most tourists. In all the times I have been there it is rarely busy, and very often appears to be used as a drop in centre for local mums. It does indeed look very tired, and SWMBO -who has visited quite a few aircraft museums around the world over the years- compared it to a mortuary when she went there. I found it difficult to counter her observations, to be honest, and it often feels like you have tiptoe around the place and whisper in hushed tones. Some of the over-zealous stewarding does not help much either, frankly.

I'm not sure I agree with Hendon being 'too far out' having, as it does, good comms links.

However I do feel that Hendon doesn't really seem to know just what it is. If it is the RAF Museum then why the non RAF types in there (aside from the BoB Hall)?

Additionally the layout is appalling and a real 'mish-mash'. The 'Milestones of Flight' Hall doesn't seem to have that many 'milestones' and the Main Hall is just a higgledy-piggledy mess with no real theme.

The BoB Hall is somewhat better but the addition of the Sunderland, Walrus (Seagull), and the V2 just makes no sense.

By far the best laid out is the WW1 Hall.

Having said that, the layout at Cosford is far from ideal (save for the Test Flight hangar).

Sometimes it makes me wondr if any of the RAFM Staff have acrtually ever served in the RAF.

And don't even get me started on the fact that Cosford still haven't arranged Albert's props correctly (North/South No1 blade uppermost) based upon some spurious HS&E idea that some moron might walk into one of the blades.

[Truro Model Builder]

I do agree with you about good links out to Hendon, but as there is already so much in Central London you're only likely to head out to Colindale if you have a real interest.

I think both Cosford and Hendon suffer from no real long term planning, but instead more of a 'add this here, add this there' approach, and as it is now 40-something years old the whole thing needs a total rethink, and it needs to be put onto one site. RAFM would make a bomb if they sold the Hendon site to the developers, if the prices on estate agents' websites are anything to go by, and there are a number of sources of funding that could be accessed.

Location is the key, and I still favour Cosford as it is relatively central, on the motorway network and in area that already has a good tourism draw. It also has a runway, and is more central than Scampton (sorry, Radpoe) despite the history of the place.

[AWFK10]

This has been on the cards for years as they have been very obviously running the place down, pity as it was a great little museum when the upstairs was full of really interesting displays.

Exactly my thoughts on the infrequent occasions when I've visited in recent years. I used to call in fairly regularly in the late 80s/early 90s, and as you say there were some excellent displays upstairs - a permanent one on local aviation history (making the comment about the aircraft not being "really part of our story" even more baffling) and temporary exhibitions. Now it's a shed into which stray members of the public are grudgingly admitted to view a reduced complement of aircraft parked on the floor together with a few vintage cars and motorbikes deposited there to make it seem a bit less empty. There's practically none of the interpretative material that once made it a museum rather than a parking lot, and MOSI's lack of interest in its aviation collection comes over loud and clear.

Unfortunately, it's part of a trend, not restricted to museums. Back in the day, when I visited Manchester I would do the rounds of the Manchester Model Shop (not that far from the museum) together with Beatties, the Ian Allan Bookshop, a Waterstones with an excellent military/aviation section and a couple of second hand bookshops that often had interesting stuff in. Only Ian Allan and Waterstones still exist: in common with all their branches now, Waterstones military history section is a pale shadow of what it once was and to be honest I sometimes struggle to find anything of interest even in Ian Allan - making it hard to justify the time and expense of travelling to Manchester at all. I've done IWM North: I wouldn't go back specially.

[tonyot]

I agree wholeheartedly with every word of the above,......verbatum! My thoughts exactly.

Cheers

Tony

[Max Headroom]

All bar one of the aviation exhibits are owned by other parties. If the facility closes then the owners take them back. If the owners don't want then them I would imagine one of the big auction houses would be called in.

The sole exception to the above is the Fa-330 gyro which was owned by the Merseyside Aviation Society and when it wound up (technically afterwards) it was my signature on the document that gifted it to the museum. It's not been there for years and I think it may be on loan to an overseas museum (somewhere in Scandinavia I think).

Trevor

[stuartp]

AWFK10, on 22 Nov 2015 - 1:35 PM, said:

I've done IWM North: I wouldn't go back specially.

Quite. Interesting building but where are the exhibits ? I thought museums were supposed to have 'stuff' in them ?

I suspect the demise of the MOSI rail connection is being overplayed, it is significant in historical terms being part of the original Liverpool and Manchester Railway but it is of limited use in getting exhibits in and out. Moving anything by rail these days which isn't in perfect working order with all its various certification in date is an administrative nightmare and prohibitively expensive, for getting the odd loco or carriage moved in or out it is far cheaper and easier to put it on a low loader and take it by road. The NRM in York is different, their rail connection is used heavily as they are used as a servicing base for steam railtours, and they are hemmed in on both sides by 11'0" headroom bridges.