Hi everyone,
After more sleepless nights than I care to think about, our new WW1 Gallery is open at last. Built by our volunteers I think it has come up very well indeed, the photos don’t do it justice.
We received a number of grants that allowed us to complete this project and is indicative of where we want to take the Museum in terms of its standards in the future.
The exhibit focuses on a couple of key points – the Australian Air Aces of WW1 – McNamara, Dallas, Cobby and Little, an the remarkable story of the German raider SMS Wolf, which menaced our shores during that time. Lots of interesting display items including the “Baron’s Tank” as we call it (Fokker DR.1 Tank widely believed to be off the Baron’s aircraft), our original BE2-a wings, remnants of two German Zeppelins, one being LZ72 (L.31) which was shot down and crashed at Potters Bar in the UK – we have a belt from one of the crewmen who died as well, our ABC Firefly engine, Kelly and Lewis V8, models, props, ephemera and more.
If you are in the area do make sure you check it out. The exhibition will run until March next year.
A couple of photos to give you an idea of what we have done to the tin shed !
Cheers
The tank!
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Zeppelin remains
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One view
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Another view
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Dead Man’s Penny and a stark reminder
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By: detective - 29th February 2016 at 07:08
Yes Bellarine .. lovely work. I think i shall post a thread titled “Stepping on Landmines”…..because this forum is full of ’em ! LOL
By: Versuch - 27th February 2016 at 02:39
Ewan , it looks like you have lots of goodies in nicely laid out displays . A credit to all involved , and I look forward to seeing in person.
Kind Regards Mike
By: Sabrejet - 26th February 2016 at 18:02
Ah, apologies I’d forgotten the Royal Aircraft Factory (RAF) Farnborough existed before the Royal Air Force (RAF) was formed by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). RAF Farnborough became the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) which in later years became the Royal Aerospace Establishment (RAE), a naughty subtle change that one, then the Defence Research Agency (DRA), and then the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) and finally privatised as QinetiQ, and no that last one isn’t an abbreviation.
Yes – the Royal Aircraft Factory was renamed on 1st April 1918 to avoid confusion with the ‘new’ RAF! In fairness the ‘factory’ didn’t actually produce much in terms of hardware, instead serving more of a design function. It gradually assumed the research role it later became famous for.
But RAE (or even RAF) has a much nice ring to it than QinetiQ ever will I think!
By: Arabella-Cox - 26th February 2016 at 13:08
Ah, apologies I’d forgotten the Royal Aircraft Factory (RAF) Farnborough existed before the Royal Air Force (RAF) was formed by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). RAF Farnborough became the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) which in later years became the Royal Aerospace Establishment (RAE), a naughty subtle change that one, then the Defence Research Agency (DRA), and then the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) and finally privatised as QinetiQ, and no that last one isn’t an abbreviation.
By: Sabrejet - 26th February 2016 at 11:43
Yes I keep making that mistake, sorry. RFC / AFC it is !
Ewan: see other post: it is definitely an RAF BE.2a! It may well have been flown by the RFC/AFC, but still an RAF (Royal Aircraft Factory) designed machine!
By: Sabrejet - 26th February 2016 at 11:41
Surely the BE2a pre date the RAF wouldn’t they have originally been RFC
Royal Aircraft Factory (RAF – designers of the BE.2a) formed pre- WW1 and as I stated in post #4 above, I doubt there’s much that exists of RAF design prior to the BE.2a.
By: Bellarine - 26th February 2016 at 11:35
Surely the BE2a pre date the RAF wouldn’t they have originally been RFC
Yes I keep making that mistake, sorry. RFC / AFC it is !
By: Arabella-Cox - 26th February 2016 at 11:00
Surely the BE2a pre date the RAF wouldn’t they have originally been RFC
By: Sabrejet - 26th February 2016 at 10:21
They would indeed be some early RAF stuff if they’re BE.2a: I can’t think of a surviving type which would be earlier.
More modern aircraft have been rebuilt to fly around far less!
By: Bellarine - 26th February 2016 at 06:52
Cheers Sabrejet 🙂
The story of the wings – we believe that they were in fact a set of spares for the units at Pt Cook / Laverton. They were located in the attic of a shed in Geelong some years back and brought to the Museum. Up until now they have languished in a corner and generally unnoticed. Given that they are probably one of the oldest surviving original RAF aircraft items, we felt they needed to be a centrepiece of the new exhibition. We put up perspex shields on the lower sections today so that grubby fingers don’t get near them – but visitors can get very close and see how amazing they actually are – because some of the fabric has gone you can see the wooden spars etc so it’s a great way to understand just how these aircraft were made. The roundel we think is not real and probably painted on later by the people that owned the wings – like a lot of things, we simply don;t have the historical data to separate truth from fiction !
By: Sabrejet - 26th February 2016 at 06:33
Ewan – that looks a great job: clear, uncluttered and well-presented.
What’s the history of the BE.2a wings?
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February 26, 2016 at 6:18 am