I had a day out from Stansted to Prestwick with Ryanair and visited the Solway Aviation Museum at Carlisle and also the Dumfries and Galloway Museum. I visited last year whilst on holiday in Scotland in the pouring rain so it was nice to have another visit with some autumn sunshine in October for some better pictures. A few changes since my last visit with four new arrivals. The Trident 1 nose used to be at Glasgow in BAA colours until scrapped and ended up in a local scrap yard before being offered to the museum. The Saab Draaken used to be at Duxford before moving north. The Fairey Gannet is the one from HMS Gannet at Prestwick airport and the other new arrival is the ex Saudi Lightning that was mounted on a plinth outside the Ferranti factory near Edinburgh.
The staff are very pleasant and helpful which makes it a delightful museum to visit.
Any comments on the pictures welcomed.
See my other thread for the Carlisle pictures.
By: mutant - 25th October 2006 at 19:12
The museum in Dumfries is underated, possibly due to it’s remote location! (Not down south that is!!;) ) I last visited the museum in 2004 while on vacation from Canada and found the museum not only has a great collection of static aircraft exhibits, but an incredible archive and collection of aviation artifacts on display within the restored ‘control tower’.
Somewhat co-incidentally, as a student at boarding school in Ipswich during the 1970s, I would hike, ‘hitch’ or cycle out to RAF Woodbridge/Bentwaters whenever I could. You can imagine my suprise, while at Dumfries in 2004, to be re-aquainted with the F-111 escape pod which I used to sit in as a kid! Believe it or not the AFRRES HH-53s would dump the ‘pod’ on the heathland between the main road and the fence of what I presumed was the RAF Woodbridge bomb dump! What’s a fifteen year old lad to do but to climb in!
By: Spey111 - 25th October 2006 at 18:40
Dumfries and Galloway Pictures Part 2
Dumfries and Galloway Pictures Part 2
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October 25, 2006 at 6:38 pm