Cosford RAF museum

We visited the RAF museum at Cosford in Shropshire. This was particularly for Alex who has developed a keen interest in aircraft and all air force matters since he has become a fairly enthusiastic air cadet. Martin is also interested and I’m always ready to visit an air museum. Annette , Lindsay and Ellen came as well although maybe slightly less interested; in Annette’s case not at all. We had been before because of my interest. Although my cast has now been removed my wrist is still weak and rather painful so Annette is doing all our driving.

Cosford is a national RAF museum based at an airfield which is in slight use although I have an idea the large base is mainly for technical training. There are also various other functions such as the HQ for RAF physical training. It is also the base for the local Air Ambulance. I was rather surprised to see a number of Jaguar aircraft lined up by the runway; a type which is no longer in operational use.

The museum is large with a number of the larger aircraft outside. These include a Vickers VC-10, Lockheed Hercules, Bristol Britannia. BAE  Nimrod R1 and a former Dutch Neptune maritime reconnaissance. Also outside was a Catalina flying boat of WW11 era. The Catalina was specifically designed to land on both water and land so it sits on its land undercarriage.

The part of the museum we visited were the research area and the Cold War area the latter housed in a striking and unusual exhibition hall. The development area is actually quite a mix of types and ages. From WW11 Hurricane, Spitfire, Mosquito, Me109 and some more unusual types such as a Japanese Zero and a German Fiesler Storch. A range of development and prototype aircraft  include a Fairey Delta 2 which for a while held the airspeed record and was the first to hold a supersonic record. A fairly unique exhibit is a TSR 2 the aircraft notoriously axed by a new government as an economy measure despite showing unusual promise. I seem to recall that other prototype TSR 2 were destroyed and I’m surprised this exhibit survived.

Some other prototypes are of more esoteric interest. Before BAE finalised the Typhoon design they built an aircraft to guide them in finalising the aircraft. Not exactly a protype but effectively fulfilling a similar function. Quite different is the modified Jaguar modified to act a development aircraft for the control techniques called fly-by-wire.

The Cold War hall is rather different being a custom made exhibition area rather than a modified hangar. It’s them, as the name suggests, is not just the aircraft of the postwar period but displays around particular parts of the Cold War ( such as the Berlin airlift, the Cuban missile crisis ) and contains a lot of non aircraft displays such as tanks. Included in these non flying displays are some rather quirky ones such as an  East German Trabant car. The “trabby” has become something of an icon of East Germany. With an inefficient engine and cheap synthetic duroplast  bodywork it was the lowest common denominator of cars but was in  demand by a car loving populace willing to go to great expense. Waiting times to purchase a new one ranged above ten years.

More bloodcurdling was a sectioned Polaris missile and mock ups of nuclear weapons. The “v” bombers, Valiant, Victor and Vulcan are all represented. These were supposed to be the UK deterrent force in the 50’s thro 70’s. Ironically only the Vulcan was actually well designed and was used in the Falklands war. The Valiant was defective and soon withdrawn while the Victor while also defective found a role as an air to air refuelling tanker.

The shape of the Cold War hall rather like a section of a pyramid offers sufficient height to allow a Lightning jet to be displayed vertically. Rather less warlike the hall contains a Dakota and various other transport aircraft from the period. Perhaps the most curious in the Avro York, a passenger aircraft based on a Lancaster wing but with a passenger containing fuselage.

The area also contains the main museum shop. Alex has become a big enthusiast for plastic kits making up aircraft. I indulged him by buying one of a German WW11 Focke-Wulf 190. I should explain he already has models of most of the British types including a prized Lancaster. He was in a cadets band which played at an air instructors passing out ceremony. As a treat the cadets were taken to RAF Coningsby to visit the Battle of Britain memorial squadron. He was also given the chance to sit in the cockpit of a Typhoon, the current operational fast jet.

A quote I’ve just come across is exactly what we said when I first started work in Information Science. It was in a joke book but definitely not funny for many scientists.

A couple of months in the lab often saves a couple of hours in the library.