Imperial War Museum Duxford 13-03-10

Two weeks ago I went to the UK to visit some museums (Duxford & Hendon). Our first stop was on Saturday at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford.
The price is ok, 16.50£. With a Belgian Studentcard it’s 13.20£.
The museum has 7 large hangars with their own theme.
The first Hangar was the AirSpace hangar. I was surprised by the beautifull hangar and how clean it was (Not like the museum in Brussels.) These planes looked new!
Just after we entered the hall, a guide came to us and asked if we wanted to walk with him during a guided tour. He took us trough the history of English Aviation.

Avro Vulcan bomb bay

The tour continued for 35 (interesting) minutes. After that we had a look at the other planes.
A negative point in some museums is that some planes are placed in a corner or behind other planes.
In this hall the Concorde was placed in a bad way… I just couldn’t take a good pic.
On to the second hall: Hangar 2
This hangar was one of the many positive surprises at Duxford. It turned out to be a hangar full with airworthy oldtimers!
Flying legends is now ranked higher on my ‘to-do-list’.
Many of the planes were partly stripped.
Or some of the technicians can’t remember things very well or it’s very difficult

Looking at the engines from the B-17, I suppose it’s just very difficult!

Hangar 3
Marine Stuff!

The reason why I visited Duxford was not to take pictures but to gather some information about the battle of Britain for school (Eindwerk). In Duxford I was slightly dissapointed (compared to Hendon). At the entrance of Hangar 4 (Battle of Britain), there was an interesting introductionmovie about the history of Duxford airfield. There were also interesting infopannels…

Tail (and engine) from a crashed Heinkel

Exactly how they found him

Also some modern planes in that hangar

Enough information. Up to hangar 5 ‘The conservation hangar’.
Junkers!

Also quite some nice, old civil planes outside

Last hangar for the day, American Air Museum!
In the American Air Museum you can find the ‘Station 357 Café’. An ideal stop after a nice day. You can enjoy a hot Choclate (which is really hot, I burned my tongue badly!). You have nice view over the hall which is filled with American Stuff.

Blackbird, one of my all time favourites.

We didn’t had more time for the Land Warfare hall, but I had to take some more pictures at the AirSpace hall as I didn’t saw it all in the morning.

Enough pics! On to the closest BurgerKing

Duxford is a must for all aviationhistory enthousiasts. So many positive points! (friendly people, lots of information, very nice collection of planes, nice shop,…)
Tripod and wide angle lens can be usefull.

more at http://www.airplanepictures.tk