Midland Aviation Museum, Coventry, May 2024.
Jun 26, 2024 21:51:47 GMT 1
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Post by viscount on Jun 26, 2024 21:51:47 GMT 1
MIDLAND AVIATION MUSEUM, Coventry Airport boundary
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The Midland Aviation Museum was one of the early UK aviation Museums to be established by enthusiasts in the early '60s - well ahead of national collections such as Hendon, Yeovilton, Middle Wallop, or even Duxford. Over the years the collection has grown continuously, so today the Museum can boast a considerable and very representative collection of British military aircraft during the Cold War and immediate post Cold-War period, along with a fair number of aircraft from our NATO allies and even adversaries during that same time-frame not found together elsewhere in the UK.
A long walk around showed some issues. One, aircraft that are exhibited outside for many years, do age and their paint-work fades. While it is obvious that there is a rolling programme of upkeep and repainting, some of the repainted aircraft are now already paint fading too. It is also clear that civilian types collected in context of an Aviation Museum on an civil airfield site (Dove, Viscount, Argosy) are all looking rather unloved - the later two not helped their physical size. Two, the sole hangar, offering a dry display environment has become the collecting ground for multiple displays and storage for gifts. The result is a right jumble of exhibits very much on top of each other. For example, the relatively rare Vampire F.1, presented in the markings of the local RAFVR unit of the early 50s is almost crowded out by exhibits, displays and donated artifacts around it in the hangar. Three, outside the rampant growth of grass this spring, while now cut, the grass areas are rough and in places littered with lumps of matted cut grass. Not great customer experience getting wet feet due to walking around after overnight rain.
Past success is today creating issues with too many tasks for a mostly voluntary workforce. A very different 'feel' to contemporaries, the likes of Newark or Yorkshire Air Museum. However, today MAM remains a major, if rather overlooked, significant aeroplane collection with much to see and admire. There are a fair number of aircraft types on display that are not found together elsewhere around Britain. What a difference a full-size hangar (or two) would make to both the presentation and conservation/preservation of the collection - that though would take considerable investment with little immediate financial return. A conundrum not faced by MAM alone.
Enough of my musings. On with what MAM has to offer on display for visitors.
MIDLAND AVIATION MUSEUM, Coventry, Thursday 30th May
Inside displays:
"G-AEGV" HM.14 Flea Replica
G-BRNM CMC Leopard
Humber-Bleriot XI Replica, BAPC.9
Druine Turbulent complete, never registered, BAPC.126
(N1498) AW. Whitley B.V crash, wreckage, recovered remains of fuselage section
EE531 G. Meteor F.4 RAF, camouflaged
VF/301, RAL:G DH.100 Vampire F.1 RAF, silver, 605 Sqdn
VZ477 G. Meteor F.8 Cockpit section only
WH646 EE. Canberra T.17A Cockpit section only
XK789 Slingsby Grasshopper TX.1 suspended from roof
BAe Harrier GR.5 RAF procedure trainer cockpit
fv29640/red J Saab J-29F Tunnen Swedish Air Force
0-14419 Lockheed T-33A USAF, 57th FIS markings
Outside displays:
G-ALVD DH.104 Dove 2 Dunlop
G-APRL AW.650 Argosy 101 Elan Air Cargo
G-APWN WS-55 Whirlwind 3 faded Bristow cols
G-ARYB DH.125-1
G-CHNX L-188AF Electra Cockpit section
F-BGNR V.708 Viscount Air Inter
VS623 P. Prentice T.1 once G-AOKZ
VT935 Boulton-Paul BP.111A RAF, all yellow
WF922 EE. Canberra PR.3 RAF, camouflaged
WS838/D G. Meteor NF.14 RAF, near end of a repaint
WV797/491 H. Sea Hawk FGA.6 RN
XA508/627:GN F. Gannet T.2 RN, 737 Sqdn, recent repaint
XA699 G. Javelin FAW.5 RAF, near the end of a repaint
XF382/15 H. Hunter F.6A RAF, 234 Sqdn, recent repaint
XL360 Avro Vulcan B.2 RAF, 617 Sqdn
XN685/703:VL DH.110 Sea Vixen FAW.2 RN, 890 Sqdn
XR635 Westland Scout AH.1 Army
XR771/AN EE. Lightning F.6 RAF, 11 Sqdn
ZA452/021 Panavia Tornado GR.4 RAF, 2 Sqdn
ZE694/004 HS. Sea Harrier F/A.2 RN
"117529"/TR-529 Lockheed T.33A Italian AF
R-756 Lockheed F-104G Danish AF
959 Mig-29SPS Fishbed East German AF
No.70/8:NV Dassault Mystère IVA French AF
"1706" PZL Iskra TS-11 Polish AF
55-713 EE Lightning T.55 Saudi AF
17447 F-101B Voodoo Royal Canadian AF, 416 Sqdn
0-82062 DHC-2, U-6A Beaver US Army (I walked past this without noting it - most certainly still on display)
52174/FU-242 NA, F-86A Sabre USAF
AF54/174:SM NA, F-100D Super Sabre USAF cols
AF63/699:CC McDD F-4C Phantom USAF, 366th TFW cols
- Mil-24 Hind-D BAe Systems, ex Latvia.
Not noted, some I may well have walked past, while others were missing:
G-APJJ Fairey Ultra Light Helicopter (in the hangar display quite recently)
G-MJWH Chargus Vortex 120hg microlight
BGA. ANW EoN Olympia 2 glider, open wooden frame
Slingsby Cadet TX.1 glider, BGA.804
XH592/L HP Victor B.1A Cockpit only
XJ579/121 DH.110 Sea Vixen FAW.2 Cockpit only
XK724 F. Gnat F.1 Fuselage (the CMC Leopard parked where it was not many months ago).
Bristol Beaufighter cockpit section, in the crowded hangar
H. Jet Provost SIM, in the crowded hangar
8449M Beagle B.206 was G-ASWJ with Rolls Royce.
GF+YF Flettner F.282B Kolibri German, helicopter (in the hangar display recently)
62-4535 Kaman HH-43F Husky USAF (one fin noted in the display hangar)
SOME IMAGES OF THE AIRCRAFT DISPLAYED INDOORS:
Cockpits are a great way of introducing younger visitors to the complexities of flight. Inside MAM are an EE Canberra T.17 and a G.Meteor F.8.
Stuffed right up near the roof are two older exhibits, a replica Bleriot XI (an airframe that, even though a replica, is now itself aging, having been bult in 1953!). The HM.14 Flying Flea while illustrating a 1930s scheme to bring flying to all, "G-AEGV" dates from 1969.
CMC Leopard
Slingsby Grasshopper
Like the early Meteor, good to find the 1946 built DH.100 Vampire F.1 VF301 also protected by being dry and indoors. Almost impossible to photograph due to surrounding exhibits and clutter.
Pleased that their Gloster Meteor F.4 EE531 is safely indoors. While most aircraft collections have a Meteor, few have an early F.1 or F.4 with the rounded fin and a pedigree that goes back to the immediate post-war years (built 1946). While there is a decent view of the aircraft from an upper level along with an appropriate Goblin engine tucked-in by the nose, there are three other aero engines also tucked close, while under the wing are various storage boxes and a painting on edge.
A significant older aircraft that certainly deserves preservation indoors is this Saab J.29 Tunnen although little seems to made of it's unique design approach compared to its British contempories, the Vampire F.1 and Meteor F.4 displayed close-by.
One of two Lockheed T-33A on site.
Hidden away, crowded-in by other displays, a rare section of preserved Armstrong Whitworth Whitley - a type that (as far as I am aware) does not exist as a full aircraft worldwide anywhere. As it was built at Baginton, it deserves a higher profile, perhaps even a diorama of it's recovery - but that would require space.
