The next couple of days were spent catching up with friends, and visiting some air museums on the way.
The first was the De Havilland Museum at London Colney. A great little museum with no less that 3 Mosquitos on display. The first is W4050, the prototype. Next is TA122 a Mosquito FB.VI and the last a target tug version TA634. These planes require constant care to maintain them in top condition.
The museum houses a collection of De Havilland and other aircraft built at Hatfield. Included are some of my favourites, like the DHC-1 Chipmunk. This is the type I flew as an Air Cadet from White Waltham Airfield in the early to mid 1970's
Some of the larger aircraft are displayed outside, including the BAe 146, The DH125 (Later designated HS125 after Hawker Siddeley took over De Havilland), The DH 114 Heron and DH 104 Dove.
Next on the list was the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden in Bedfordshire. This was a revisit for me, the last time I was here was in the 1980's. A few more hangers had been constructed and the collection had been expanded. This collection is a mix of original aircraft and replicas, many of which are kept in flying condition, and are flown regularly at air shows here.
These are a selection of photos and are pretty much in the order that I took them, and I'll list them along with their date if they are original.
Albatros D-V replica, Bristol M1C replica, 1931 DH Tiger Moth, 1937 Miles Magister and 1950 Percival Provost.
1938 Gloster Gladiator, 1941 Sea Hurricane, 1929 Parnall Elf, 1934 DH 88 Comet and 1935 Miles Hawk Speed Six.
1941 Spitfire VC, 1924 DH 51 Moth, the odd looking 1929 Comper Swift and the 1946 Avro Anson.
There are over 50 aircraft in the collection ranging in dates from 1894 to 1962.
The following day I headed up to Norfolk to two smaller museums. The Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum at Flixton is a lovely little museum, with a collection of aircraft displayed both outside and inside in a couple of hangars. The inside displays are very tightly packed and difficult to photograph. I arrived about 20 mins before opening time, but the volunteers let me in early.
Outside were a USAF F-100 Super Sabre painted in the colours of the Thunderbirds display team, a T-34 Trojan of the Chilean Air Force (awaiting restoration), A Pucara of the Argentine Air Force, a MiG 15 of the Polish Air Force and an RAF Vickers Valetta transport plane from the 1950s
The only plane I managed a clear photo of inside was this Boulton & Paul P6. Only one was built, and it was used to test different airfoil sections at the end of WW I.
The last museum of this trip was the City of Norwich Aviation Museum close to Norwich Airport. Some of the exhibits here were in poor condition needing some serious TLC to bring them up to display condition. Part of the museum is dedicated to Air UK which used to be based at Norwich Airport.
Air UK planes here include a Fokker F27 and a Handley Page Dart Herald
The remainder of the museum is dedicated to military operations in East Anglia, and include an Avro Vulcan, an English Electric Lightning, A Sepecat Jaguar and an air/sea rescue Westland Whirlwind.
An oddity here is the Hawker Siddeley (Later BAe) Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft which was based in Scotland and Cornwall.
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