Duxford drop in

On the way home from a couple of days away and it seemed rude not to pop in to Duxford as I was kind of passing by. After all, there is always something to see.

Midland Air Museum

So today we headed over to Coventry, or Baginton to be more precise, for a visit to the Midland Air Museum which is on the edge of an industrial estate next to the airfield. There is quite a large collection of aircraft, most of which are situated outside although  a few rarer older aircraft are inside a display building along with a number of artefacts and historical displays.

If, like me, you time it OK you can have a tour of the Vulcan cockpit and the staff seem quite prepared to go out of their way to give you a closer look at some of the aircraft. We found them very friendly and approachable. Certainly a museum worthy of a visit.

Sywell

Second port of call today was Sywell Aerodrome, rumoured now home for future Flying Legends shows. Today was my first visit and its a nice airfield with a good car park for visitors who want to watch the comings and goings or head to the Aerodrome Cafe. As for hosting a major air show I have reservations about the roads handling the traffic flows efficiently but I guess that time will tell. Today there was enough to keep us interested for a while and we were lucky to catch a Mustang and Spitfire giving flight experience trips so worth dropping in.

De Havilland Aircraft Museum

 Today Gaz and I headed off from an overnight near Cambridge to this museum at Hatfield. A communication breakdown meant he headed off down the M11 and I took the A1 but we arrived at more or less the same time so no harm done.

As the name suggests the museum is dedicated to all things De Havilland although pride of place goes to three complete Mosquitos together in one hangar, including the original prototype. The survival of a WWII prototype is indeed a pretty rare thing. I was last at this museum a good many years ago since when it has expanded and the latest new hangar opened not so long ago. There are a mixture of aircraft inside and out with the usual artefact displays documenting De Havilland history.

Staff were friendly and there is a little tea room are if you need refreshments.