Warbird Information Exchange

BDK wrote:



I assume this question is directed to me. I have not seen any of the Italian aviation museums.

The best of several good Italian collections is the Italian Air Force Museum (Museo Storico dell’ Aeronautica Militaire Italiana), with aircraft previously at both Turin and Vigna-di-Valle (Lake Bracciano) now amalgamated at the latter location, so not Turin as I stated in the previous post. This collection is almost entirely military but includes diverse WWI (including rare Lohner L seaplane and Ca.36 three-engine bomber), on up to include the Caproni-Campini CC.2 early jet and two Macchi Schneider Cup winners (M.39 and M67). I would not rank this collection as highly as the RAF Museum, but someone who saw both museums might rank this higher than the Belgian Air Museum. I think the Belgian Museum has a larger diversity with more WWI aircraft (including two Zeppelin gondolas), but the Italian Museum appears to have a better display environment.

Maybe I should be listing a TOP SIX!

The Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton is certainly one of the two best naval aviation collections in the world, but I do not see the diversity and numbers of particularly rare and historic aircraft to place this at the top level. The museum does however have one of the best aviation displays anywhere.

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Kevin McCartney

@old iron:
No slur intended on your opinion of Yeovilton. Just pointing out what I liked about it.

@OP:
https://www.nelsam.org.uk/Exhibits/

Wandered into this museum outside Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1991. Found the most odd (nice odd) collection of aircraft - not expecting to see so many ex-French Adl'A F-84Fs and F-100 - in a UK museum. Found their website - attached above - and they still exist, but happily with undercover areas now (open air storage in 1991). A bit off the beaten track - I only found it because I was intending to go for a "bush" walk via public transport. Happily spent the day there instead.

...geoff

There's a huge transportation museum at Sinsheim in Germany. I visited in 1996 and I remember mostly cars... but they had airliners on pylons out in front. I'm sure that there were military aircraft there, but I'd have to dig my pictures out to give any kind of accurate report. One thing for sure; I'd go back if given the chance.

There's two of them, Speyer and Sinsheim.
https://speyer.technik-museum.de/en/
https://sinsheim.technik-museum.de/en/
They are two separate museums, but only 35km apart. I would allocate a day for each of them if you do plan to visit them but as I mentioned earlier, they are not on my A-list. While some of their exhibits are rare (Buran shuttle, Tu-144 and Concorde), I am not a fan of how they are displayed, spectacular as it may appear. Also, if you look closer, you can see how they've taken some irreversible shortcuts in preparing the aircraft for display, which is inexcusable in my book. Several of the aircraft on poles are already unsafe structurally and in a few years time, they will all be beyond saving if you ask me.

The Deutsches museum in Munich has a far better collection and looks after it: https://www.deutsches-museum.de/index.php?id=1&L=1
The main location is on the 'Museumsinsel' in the center of the town, but most of their aircraft collection is at the 'Flugwerft Schleissheim' which is on an airfield outside of the city: https://www.deutsches-museum.de/en/flug ... formation/
If you use Munich as your only stop in Germany, you'll have seen several rare types, including all of the German VTOL attempts. The Schleissheim location will take up a full day as you'll also have to factor in a bit of travel to get there from Munich itself, I did the central location in half a day but did skip some of the other, non-aviation, displays. If you're interested in technical subjects, you can easily spend a full day here as well.

I just noticed that part of the aviation display at the Museumsinsel location is currently being redesigned, with a planned reopening in 2021. See here for more about this: https://www.deutsches-museum.de/en/exhi ... -aviation/

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A Little VC10derness - A Tribute to the Vickers VC10 - www.VC10.net

Like others, in the UK I would recommend Duxford (obviously), the Shuttleworth Collection, Fleet Air Arm Museum & the RAF Museum Cosford. If your timing allows, go to the Shuttleworth Vintage Airshow on September 6th https://www.shuttleworth.org/events/vintage-airshow/ This show highlights the collection with many of their aircraft flying.

As for the Fleet Air Arm Museum, previous posters have mentioned unique types such as the Albacore & Wyvern. The FAAM frequently rotate airframes off display into their storage facility, Cobham Hall. On my last visit (March 2019), both the Albacore & Wyvern (plus both Fireflys & both Skyraiders) were off display. The good news is the FAAM do Cobham Hall tours and there is one planned for September 3rd https://www.fleetairarm.com/event/187.aspx You must prebook as the tours sell out, but the September tour does not appear to be on sale yet.

Cosford is one of my favourite museums, especially the Flight Test hangar, with many rare and unique jets https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/cosford/th ... n=Aircraft

I agree with old iron's opinion of the Science Museum collection in London. The airframes are utterly iconic, but I last visited in October 2019 and was very disappointed - scruffy exhibits, poorly lit, upper viewing walkway closed. The Supermarine S6B, for example, looked dreadful with big chunks of paintwork flaking off!

Of the smaller independent museums, Newark is head and shoulders above the rest (and "smaller" is probably the wrong word to use about Newark!) http://www.newarkairmuseum.org/

Enjoy your trip