Museum Of Flight Hangar Re-opening

The proposed super hangar was mentioned as intended to house a cold war collection when I was there. I’ve noticed posters for EF around Edinburgh, including the back of buses. All very good to see!

I knew mention would come around again of new buildings, I deliberately didn’t mention it above so as not to detract from the good work done with the existing hangars.

Apparently a super hangar is still the ultimate goal, there has been a few numbers quoted over the years, but I heard £35m the other day.
Apparently in one of the fields the concrete base with embedded door rails for one end of a hangar remain intact, whether this is an airship hangar or another pre-war i dont know. Current “wouldn’t it be good if” includes digging up and moving these to or building the super hangar over and making a feature of doorway.
The shuffling of aircraft again talk of moving Concorde, the 1-11, comet and pieced together Viscount into the super, with the Vulcan moving into the current Concorde hangar as centre piece of what would be the Cold War hangar.
Again pinch of salt if you will, but there is a 5 year plan for this … Whether that be built within 5 years, or a 5 year long funding campaign is about to be launched and then building work, I don’t know.

When I visited last year, the chap doing the tickets suggested that they might eventually build a hangar beyond the airfield perimeter, and thus out of conservation area.

I visited on Easter Monday and thoughts are similar to those already given:

Main hanger still dominated by Concorde and feels rather empty despite the Jetstream 31(s) having been added since the last time I was there
Civilian hanger – well laid out and a lack of barriers in several places allowed close up access. Kids enjoyed the numerous interactive screens with videos and cockpit photo.
Military hangar – as Wallace mentioned the lighting that accompanies the video that runs every 5-10 minutes makes photography difficult. The main lighting dims when this is being shown and as an aircraft type is discussed on the video spotlights highlight this aircraft. The screen also comes down right in front of the tail of the F3 so you can’t get a full shot of the aircraft. Would have been good if the screen could have been retracted/folded when the video was not being shown.
Both hangars however, are much improved in terms of the environment which will hopefully help preserve the airframes.
The doors to hangar 1 were open when I was there as the Strutter was being moved for assembly – picture below showing the Provost, Nimrod and some rocket items. The Beaufighter was to the right against the hangar doors.
IMG_8800 by Euan Leitch, on Flickr

Unfortunately the condition (at least aesthetically) of some of the airframes has not been covered by the renovation. The Spit and Twin Pioneer are both particularly poor:

IMG_8776 by Euan Leitch, on Flickr
IMG_8700 by Euan Leitch, on Flickr

The Comet has always looked in particularly poor state – would be good to see everything indoors eventually but suspect unlikely but does raise concerns over what might come of the Phantom and Buccaneer.

Made it to East Fortune this afternoon for a look around the place, see what differences there are in addition to the opening of the new hangars.

Firstly having a ticket point on the drive way in is something new, and surprisingly hasn’t been in place before. Whilst clearly the attendant can’t give out the range of info on entering the museum it now means that they have better control over paying entry – giving gift aid details out the window of the car seemed a bit strange though. Previously it was all to easy to drive in park up, miss out the shop and wander around the rest of the museum free.

The car park looked fairly busy but from experience the site swallows up a large number of people, it’s only when school or coach groups are in, that it can feel crowded. And so on starting with Hangar 4 Concorde, after a cursory look around the shop, there was only one other couple in the hangar space. At first glance it appeared much as last season, perhaps a re-arrangement of the Concorde displays but nothing significant, until the lighting changed an a video was projected onto a new screen suspended on the hangar doors. At the other end the Jetstream and SuperJetstream mock up take up one corner with the front section of the BOAC marked Boeing 707.

Moving on with the short walk past the Green Goddess and Matador trucks in their spaces…I do wish they could be rolled out in good weather like this afternoon, but realise the work needed day in day out for this.

The new Military Hangar is next, feels strange to walk around the side of it to enter, rather than the tradesman’s door in the big doors. First reactions is Wow, sliding doors into the air conditioned space, with the much mentioned Spitfire elevated before you. I wasn’t sure about seeing the illustrations before and then other people’s pictures, but I have to say it does look impressive this way. There is a number of artefact displays which form a timeline, and the aircraft sort of do as well. The Bolingbroke looks magnificent and is a credit to the many man hours, man days and man years to bring her to this condition. And while I’d still like to have seen a early scheme, the target tug yellow does give the aircraft a certain something. Some of the aircraft’s positioning leaves a little to be desired photographically, the Sea Venom and the Sea Hawk, appear to be after thoughts, and don’t follow the time line around the hangar and the ME 163 Kommet is somewhat hidden under the Bolingbroke’s wing. Given the way that aircraft were rather packed into this hangar previously, you do get a feeling of a much larger building, especially given a viewing platform in the centre. The right hand end is dominated by the three big birds, the Lightning, Tornado and Jaguar. Given their size there is always going to be spaces behind and between fuselages there could perhaps be a ground level display. For example there are pods and missiles that are placed under the aircraft they flew with, some of these together would fill in a space.
The military hanger has items hanging from the ceiling, one is a screen located above the Tornado, don’t miss the Harrier on the back… but the third a Blue backdrop to the Spitfire with images of other spitfires, this in itself I could live without, but on the reverse side there is an huge image of a WW2 fighter station scramble…something that you can’t really see unless you ask permission to squeeze between the noses of the Meteor and the S103 (Mig15).
As a final thought regarding the this Hangar, whilst not wanting to over do something or use the same trick twice. Could the Harrier have been elevated too? Just a few feet that would allow more flexibility in overlapping wings.

Not having access to Hangar 1 felt very strange, being located next to the School/education room and with the Comet and Vulcan in close proximity. The APSS have apparently taken over this hangar as workshop space, and so isn’t currently suitable for public admission. The Museum and the APSS are looking at ways to allow public access but this is taking time.

Over at the new civilian hangar, again with new entrance, the available space makes you feel as though you have walked into something much larger than you remember from it being essentially a storage, and workshop hangar for the Bolingbroke. Whilst there is nothing “new” within the hangar it’s good to see the aircraft that are in there with room to breathe. The Twin Pin dominates, as it would in any hangar, but it’s nice to see the Anson beside it for size comparison. There is a nice spread of aircraft right down to microlight and autogyros. Together with sail planes hanging from the ceiling….that takes me back to the pre-concorde days when there was hand gliders with mannequins hanging from the roof of that hangar.

Nice and shiny but where are the rest….There is still a number of aircraft in store, whether that be with the APSS in Hangar 1 or elsewhere. The obvious examples are the beaufighter wreckage, the Nimrod front end, and the entire rocketry section. The Viscount fuselage appears to have gone indoors somewhere as well though the wings still well wrapped remain outside. Speaking of outside, the Buccaneer and the Phantom are both still outside. Without the space that Hangar 1 gives, it’s hard to see them going indoors this summer.

Some of the other aircraft are heading for the NMS main building in Chamber Street in Edinburgh, for their new Science and Technology galleries, they include the Pilcher Hawk, the tiger moth, the Auster. The illustrations for these galleries suggest all will be suspended from the roof so will be worth a trip into the city centre after it opens in July.

The only question that remains is what’s next for East Fortune…please not another 10+ years before the next innovation?

I hope no-one minds I’ve written this as a “report”, it was the easiest way for me to express my views on the old place.

My parents have a photo of me sitting in a cockpit at EF, possibly a Buccaneer. Where did this go?

In store.

My parents have a photo of me sitting in a cockpit at EF, possibly a Buccaneer. Where did this go?

Any news on getting started with the Beaufighter?

There are still a number of aircraft and many exhibits “in store”. As far as I am aware, any plans for hanger 1 have not been made public. I understand the Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter is currently being assembled there. Last time it was open there was the Nimrod nose, and some others there.

Aircraft outside are Vulcan, Comet, One-Eleven, Phantom and Bucc. The Viscount is wrapped up outside with wings off. Janguar is inside.
The guide says hangar 1 closed.

I was told by one of the guides just prior to the rebuild work, that the museum was looking into puting it’s “space” and rocketry exihibit into hangar 1. I don’t know if they were thinking permanent or perhaps over the summer given the Tim Peake ISS mission. Some of it lived in there pre-Concorde and pre tornado.

The lighting in the military hangar is very tricky as it goes up and down whenever they start the video presentation. Watch the dual illumination from outside against the hangar lights, there’s a slight blue cast on my Beech 18 photo that I could not totally eradicate…. and for everything else there is manual white balance… in saying that I ended up going almost all monochrome.

Very atmospheric views of familiar aircraft. EF never looked that good before!

It’s about time they threw that Viscount together and perhaps tarted the Buccaneer up as well, particularly if they are leaving it outside.

I noticed the wrapped up Viscount at the airshow last year. Prior to that the wings had been up by the bins!

Aircraft outside are Vulcan, Comet, One-Eleven, Phantom and Bucc. The Viscount is wrapped up outside with wings off. Janguar is inside.
The guide says hangar 1 closed.

Interesting to see these changes, many thanks for the photographs. I’m a little wary of the fact that the F4, Bucc (and Jaguar?) are now outside.

Can you access the aircraft in hangar 1 on special days?

Agreed – I have moved it back.

Why was this moved from Historic to Airshow Photographs? The thread is about the Museum of Flight re-opening (with Wallaces good photographs) its not an airshow and very few people will view it here!

Made a quick visit yesterday and will return again soon after the school holidays are over. A know I am a grumpy old man but cant stand people trying to “touch” exhibits and children shouting and running about. The 2 renovated buildings are well laid out and the aircraft are reasonably lit. (Watch out for the lighting -see examples- as you will need to adjust your camera settings to get the correct colours. Perhaps the museum could tell the public the type of lighting used. Its not as bad as the RAF Museum but the mixture of natural light and artificial light needs to be watched.) I think overall its a fantastic improvement and should hopefully bring in many more visitors. The Bolingbroke is a credit to all the people who worked on it for many years. I know some wanted an RAF paint scheme but the workmanship is outstanding and the colours reflect the actual aircrafts origins and use. It also stands out for the general public to see.

Great stuff. Haven’t been to the museum in years – really must go back soon.

Don’t approve of the Spit on the pole, though.

Yes very nice Wallace – love the ‘ghosting’ : )