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The Revamped London RAF Museum


spruecutter96

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Re HMS Victory, yes it is pretty good isn't it? virtually the whole ship now opened up to view ( yes I know, not much is original )

and the same can be said for Warrior  & Alliance.

The Mary R is quite something too, never really did anything for me but ,had 3/4 hour to kill before my train one day and had a quick looksee, blew me away, quite incredible, even better since last year with the new display theatre.

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The RAFM is free but is not part of the MoD kitty so doesn’t have to compete for resources against more tanks/ships/aircraft. It’s therefore at the mercy of market forces, applying to the likes of the Heritage Lottery Fund and donations for its existence. As I’ve said before, the hardware will be there long after the management have moved on. 

 

Trevor

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16 hours ago, junglierating said:

............still free at point of entry as is the National Army musuem but much to my anoyance anything remotely RN you pay through the nose for ...

Afternoon Gent's.

ALL National museums are free to enter, including Science, Albert and Victoria, Natural History museums, Railway museum in York and the reserve collection at Shildon, IWM, RAF at both Hendon and Cosford, plus all the local council run museums.

I Can only assume that like Duxford (IWM) the Senior Services museums have been subject to private inward investment?therefore making them a commercial enterprise, ergo, NOT classed as a National museum. Sorry, but in this instance the law holds sway, and that sees only black and white.

Remember, the government implemented the 'free' entry, the only way the museums can now make money is on car parking, food and their shops and utilising 'volunteer' staff to cut down the fixed overheads.

It's got to be remembered (sadly) that a large number of the population, don't give a flying fig for our history, as many have the attitude of 'you must entertain us, as we have a right......' :weep:

 

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3 hours ago, PhoenixII said:

Afternoon Gent's.

ALL National museums are free to enter, including Science, Albert and Victoria, Natural History museums, Railway museum in York and the reserve collection at Shildon, IWM, RAF at both Hendon and Cosford, plus all the local council run museums.

I Can only assume that like Duxford (IWM) the Senior Services museums have been subject to private inward investment?therefore making them a commercial enterprise, ergo, NOT classed as a National museum. Sorry, but in this instance the law holds sway, and that sees only black and white.

Remember, the government implemented the 'free' entry, the only way the museums can now make money is on car parking, food and their shops and utilising 'volunteer' staff to cut down the fixed overheads.

It's got to be remembered (sadly) that a large number of the population, don't give a flying fig for our history, as many have the attitude of 'you must entertain us, as we have a right......' :weep:

 

Hmm i concur with most of what you say ....not so sure about the last bit...the raw material is the same but they are only as good as the educashin and training in place.As the saying goes sh** in Sh** out .

Note it was the previous govt the introduced free national museums people forget that.

As for RN museums as I said theiving corporate gits 😡

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As with just about everything today whether it's government (or rather privatisation of just about every service) or otherwise it's about profit.  Even though (as pointed out) most are free, they have become businesses in their own right due to privatisation, so they must make a profit.  I also think you'll find that in most cases the top end management is paid rather handsomely, some of these are from the "revolving door" concept that was, others are cooperate management types who are put there by shareholders/investors.  

 

As we're seeing more and more space is being given over to cafe's, conference and venue renting/hire, I've been to weddings on the Belfast and in Tower Bridge I kid you not.  While that was happening big areas of Belfast were shut off and the whole of the top walking galleries on Tower Bridge were closed, there wasn't a reduction in ticket price as far as I know either!  Yes these are great places and create a certain exclusivity and to some degree "out doing the Jonese" as they cost a small fortune and yes it makes money, but sadly most of that isn't going back into the museum it's going into pockets.  

 

History and heritage has more than ever become just another commodity to be exploited, by all and any means!    

  

Edited by Kev The Modeller
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  • 2 weeks later...

Having just spent the best part of the day I have to ask, who thought that the design for the first hall was a good idea?! Absolutely mess, no clear pathway around it, where there were information boards on multiple items it wasn’t clear what they pertained to (the bombs and ground attack munitions, the seaplane models and, in another hall, the American bases were in alphabetical rather than the logical numeric order), still not sure I saw a lot of it. Also not sure why there is a platform that goes to the back of the Herc, but it’s all blocked off?

 

The best bits? The halls which are still laid out and contain the boards from earlier iterations and the aircraft themselves...

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I wish I hadn't started to read this because I also went to the shambles that is Hendon expecting at least something amazing for the 100 year's worth

 

I got forced to walk a long way from the revamped car park to get in by the shop, no entry from car park to main hall unless you can sneak in through a staff gate

 

I have new knees that have almost become time-expired and a 'bit of a bad back'

Ouch

 

A disorganised first hall, yes why no entrance to the (American Air Force) Hercules fuselage? Kids would love it

But no

 

Then into the Belfast truss hangars and excitedly awaiting the new stuff

 

Where?

 

Still an Army Auster hanging from the roof, then assorted American machines still

Then after I made my way into the shadow of the Vulcan all I could see at the other end of the hall was Luftwaffe aircraft

 

This is supposed to be a museum of Royal Air Force machines not half the Luftwaffe.  😠

 

You may guess I was very disappointed, doubt if I'll go again for quite a long time

 

I'm not upset about paying for parking, get used to that at Cosford as a frequent user. ☺

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It sounds like they should have left well alone. Now, I  know the cost will be the biggest barrier to my musings but splitting the collections in two locations is not conducive to viewing the hardware and artifacts of the RAF. Maybe a centrally sited airfield as suggested many times before .  It just seems that this whole sorry debacle is being created by the wrong management.  Is it not too late for  a ground up reassessment of the whole project?

 

Keith. 

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Not as such

What you get now is entry at the old new building where BOB was and Sunderland is

A revamped entrance with lots of stuff including a Red Arrows jet up in the ceiling and a SAR Sea King and hands on learn how stuff works display with the cafe and shop

Then you walk across to the other new building where the exhibits were moved around as bit and the front of a Herky bird sits in USAF colours

Then walk across to the old twin Belfast truss hangars to see a mix of 'old and familiars' and some different others

 

Still a great museum but...

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Perdu, it may come as a surprise but the Auster was an RAF aircraft (and so has a place in the RAFM), serviced by RAF ground crew but flown by Army Officers. The principle of the AOP squadron was ‘it was easier to train a Royal Artillery officer to fly than to teach an RAF pilot to plot the fall of shot’.

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2 hours ago, perdu said:

Not as such

What you get now is entry at the old new building where BOB was and Sunderland is

A revamped entrance with lots of stuff including a Red Arrows jet up in the ceiling and a SAR Sea King and hands on learn how stuff works display with the cafe and shop

Then you walk across to the other new building where the exhibits were moved around as bit and the front of a Herky bird sits in USAF colours

Then walk across to the old twin Belfast truss hangars to see a mix of 'old and familiars' and some different others

 

Still a great museum but...

Where was the BoB exhibition moved to then?

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I never saw the BOB exhibit in full, it was being dispersed ages ago but I think some of the aircraft are now in the main halls and causing me to be a grump

 

Some of Cosford's exhibits have been moved too I'm told, I need to get back to see what is left

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I think its some kind of direction control

I don't understand it either

You are required to go in via the left hand hall and the old way in through the previously possible museum shop has been closed off 

Its a mess in my opinion :(

 

And a terrible shame for the RAFs proud heritage

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 15/08/2018 at 16:41, bentwaters81tfw said:

Where did the £25 million go? well £24.5 million of that went in 'consultancy' fees.

I imagine being a public venue a lot of the spend was on the legal compliance infrastucture such fire alarms emergency lighting, sprinklers and DDA  as these have to be continually updated to maintain an entertainment license, none are particulary cheap or noticeble.

 

As for the spend 20% is lost on VAT

Typically consultants fees for professional services on a contruction project would be between 12% - 15% of the capital value of the works.

 

Thomo

 

On 15/08/2018 at 16:41, bentwaters81tfw said:

 

 

 

Edited by The Tomohawk Kid
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 24/09/2018 at 19:53, Aeronut said:

Perdu, it may come as a surprise but the Auster was an RAF aircraft (and so has a place in the RAFM), serviced by RAF ground crew but flown by Army Officers. The principle of the AOP squadron was ‘it was easier to train a Royal Artillery officer to fly than to teach an RAF pilot to plot the fall of shot’.

Just came back to the thread and noticed I missed this, sorry

 

I have to admit that pleases me, the Auster is one of my favourites

Didn't we all break our ducks building the Airfix Auster Antarctic, back in the day

A kit inviting us to customise the airframe to suit

Imagine that - floats, skis and wheels all one one little plastic bag

 

 


And seeing WE600 in Cosford is always a pleasure  👍

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Must visit the RAF museum sometime so these post's are helpfull good or bad I can only say be thankfull some of these Museum's are within

reach as up here in the North east apart from an excellent little air museum near Sunderland it's a wasteland for military stuff,I was fortunate

enough to visit the FAA museum while on holliday back in the ninetees which was a great day,I managed to get to Cosford and Newark back in 2010

while working in Tamworth,as you can Imagine  a trip to Hendon would be a two day affair from up here.

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