Once again I thought that it would be a good time to start a fresh Newark Air Museum Briefing thread that will endeavour to keep everyone up to speed with activities at the museum site, which is located on part of the site of the former RAF Winthorpe in eastern Nottinghamshire close to the border with Lincolnshire.
2013 is set to be another exciting year for the museum; especially as on Sunday 14th April it will be celebrating 40 years of being officially open to the public.
To help commemorate this auspicious event, each week running up to the Anniversary event a new photo album will be added to the Museum Gallery page on the museum website.
First up is an album of ‘Pre-Opening’ photographs that have been taken form the museum archive – this features the Wallace, Magister, Flying Flea, Prentice, Anson, Meteor, Swift and a couple of other rarities!
To help create space for these albums the Cockpit-Fest albums will be taken off line, but fresh albums will be added after the 40th Anniversary celebration ones have run their course.
As ever, details about the other events such as the Indoor Aeroboot / Aerojumble on 2nd March 2013; Tribute to the Lightning event on 18th &19th May 2013; and Cockpit-Fest 2013 & Aeroboot on 15th & 16th June 2013; can be found in here!
I would just like to say a BIG THANK YOU 🙂 to everyone who visited the Newark Air Museum in 2012, and helped the museum to post another increase in visitor numbers – more positive news, from what has been a challenging time for many other visitor attractions; and often in some diabolical weather conditions!
Happy New Year to you all, from everyone at “the friendly aviation museum!”
At a convenient time perhaps a kindly Mod could lock the 2012 Briefing thread?
Finally don’t forget that the museum is back open at 10am on Wednesday 2nd January 2013!
By: TwinOtter23 - 31st December 2013 at 11:10
Details of NAM’s New Year opening times have been added to the website, in the usual place!
Just to confirm that NAM is only closed on New Year’s Day, but open as normal the rest of the time – fortunately no weather related issues to report from this part of Notts!
By: TwinOtter23 - 30th December 2013 at 10:36
This morning I have received a request from ‘Aeroboot Central’ that I have been asked to pass on to potential Aeroboot / Aerojumble stallholders.
Since Christmas there has been a flurry of Facebook postings about the event, linking back to this item on the NAM website. In turn this has resulted in an increase in requests for participation forms.
It’s uncertain what has prompted this interest (adverts in FlyPast and another aviation magazine??) however because the museum is in year-end mode (stock taking, valuations etc.); plus they’ve had lots of visitors during the last three days they’re struggling to find time to process the paperwork as quickly as they would normally do. So if you have submitted an application please be a little patient while waiting for a response. Items will be dealt with in the order in which they arrive at the museum.
Fingers crossed this interest can be carried forward into lots of buyers at the event as well!!
By: TwinOtter23 - 29th December 2013 at 09:12
Yesterday I undertook half a day’s cockpit opening duty on the Vulcan at NAM, which was a great pleasure. The main purpose had been to fulfil a Christmas present commitment to a visitor from California and his British family – who were over the moon with being able to spend some time inside XM594 with their British relatives!
As ever once open the magnetics effect of an open crew door on XM594 saw at least 30 plus other people experience the cramped confines of the aircraft. Amongst these people was a very gracious Russian family; their son asked the question of the day which was, “Which country did this aeroplane fight against?” Having briefly explained that it was designed to fight against Russia, his father stepped in with a big smile to explain that the MiGs they had already looked at over on the Southfield Site had been built to try to shoot the Vulcans down!
Perhaps not quite the chat that I’d anticipated, but it beat helping with the ‘stock-take’ in the NAM shop! Also open yesterday was the Varsity and the Victor cockpit (this latter item for a shop photography session by a visitor from the Netherlands) – rounded off a truly international component to the visitors!
Opening times each day up until Tuesday 31st December are 10am until 4pm, with last admission at 3pm – sorry but I cannot guarantee that there will be any volunteers on site to open any aircraft.
By: TwinOtter23 - 27th December 2013 at 16:22
This morning I was doing some ‘stock taking’ on the airframe and cockpit section front at NAM as part of the proof reading exercise for the 2014 edition of Wrecks & Relics; amended details now en route to deepest Rutland via the Royal Mail.
In the next edition of W&R NAM will have 92 airframes and cockpit sections noted, which is 12 more listed here on the museum website!
The discrepancy was slightly perplexing but mainly falls in the area of the CIMs, microlights, gliders and UAVs, which are being listed in NAM’s entry for the first time!
Another status update that was noted this morning concerns the SZD-30 Pirat glider, which is now confirmed as being stored on site at Winthorpe.
By: TwinOtter23 - 26th December 2013 at 13:39
Just a quick reminder that Newark Air Museum is open again after the Christmas Holiday tomorrow morning at 10am and will be open each day of the holidays until next Tuesday, 31st December.
Opening time each day is 10am until 4pm, with last admission at 3pm – all being well I should be on site on Saturday 28th if anyone wants to drop in for a chat! 🙂
By: TwinOtter23 - 22nd December 2013 at 17:03
A fresh news item for the spring Aeroboot / Aerojumble at NAM has been added to the NAM News Page.
This coincides with the first advert for the 2014 sales being published in the February 2014 edition of FlyPast (page 112) – I understand that further adverts will be appearing in due course in there and elsewhere! 😉
By: TwinOtter23 - 20th December 2013 at 19:15
A returning favourite, an aerial photo of NAM’s Vulcan XM594 in the snow, features here in NAM’s Christmas message – the link also contains details of the museum’s Christmas Holiday opening times; enjoy! 🙂
By: TwinOtter23 - 17th December 2013 at 18:38
A couple of updates have been added in here today – one details some small progress in the ‘Project Panini’ fund raising effort (good news as a site meeting was held earlier today with a local architect practice) 😉 and the other advises that the Airfix Lightning F.2A’s have arrived!
Prompted by the Wright Brothers anniversary thread I’ve asked that a photograph be added in here http://www.newarkairmuseum.org/gallery.php – this is from 17th December 2003 (10 years ago today) when the first section of steelwork was erected on NAM’s Hangar 2 – where did that time go? 😮
By: TwinOtter23 - 11th December 2013 at 08:38
Confirmation of NAM’s Christmas Holiday opening hours have been added in here this morning!
By: TwinOtter23 - 4th December 2013 at 15:46
I called in briefly at the museum today and I understand that they’ve already had a few shoppers who have been tempted by some of the items in the ‘Advent Present Ideas’ album that’s located here in the online Gallery!
By: TwinOtter23 - 1st December 2013 at 10:12
The first item in the ‘Advent Present Ideas’ album has gone live this morning and there are also some updated photographs of progress on the Auster AOP.9 project in the Work & Behind the Scenes album, both albums can be found in here!
Earlier in the week my PC took a Windows update and when viewing the albums this morning I had to adjust the compatibility settings on my browser to get the software to run the albums properly!! :rolleyes:
Talking to people on site yesterday apparently the Merlin arrival and departure on Friday (see previous post) was spectacular! Hopefully some of their colleagues from Oxfordshire might be making a further visit today – albeit by coach this time!
By: TwinOtter23 - 29th November 2013 at 13:28
While not really historic I thought forumites might be interested to know that NAM received a ‘fly-in’ visitor this morning from a 28 (AC) Squadron Merlin – mini news item in here – apparently all attempts to smuggle it across to Hangar 2 failed!! 😀
By: TwinOtter23 - 26th November 2013 at 17:49
No problem David!
Earlier today the NAM trustees gave their approval for some aviation magazine advertising to promote the 2014 Aeroboot / Aerojumble Sales at Newark! 🙂
The decision is still out on whether to amend the opening times; comments can still be made via the link on the NAM website!
At the March 1st event the museum will be participating with a stall of its own and more non-accessed items from the ‘stores centralisation project’ will be made available.
By: David Burke - 25th November 2013 at 08:50
Great stuff ! Thats where I saw it ! Thanks
By: TwinOtter23 - 25th November 2013 at 08:12
I’ll try; there still is a refitted AOP9 instrument panel photograph in the “Restoration & Behind The Scenes” album it’s – photograph 10 of 12 and can be found by following this link http://www.newarkairmuseum.org/gallery.php
By: David Burke - 24th November 2013 at 20:47
A few months ago there was a picture of the AOP.9 instrument panel -could you give me a pointer !
By: TwinOtter23 - 24th November 2013 at 20:11
A couple of updates have been added to the NAM website today, including one about recent research quest concerning The Nottingham Aircraft Manufacturing Company, details of which have now been located at the NA thanks to a suggestion and details from a forumite 🙂 –details of these items can be found in here!
As mentioned elsewhere about these parts earlier in the week some Hastings re-paint photographs were added to an album in here!
By: TwinOtter23 - 16th November 2013 at 10:53
Another NAM update has gone online this morning in the usual location – plastic kit / shop related!
By: TwinOtter23 - 12th November 2013 at 20:08
If anyone’s been struggling with their Airfix Quick Build Spitfire and Messerschmitt Bf109e, then help could be at hand via an item on the NAM news page! :highly_amused:
By: TwinOtter23 - 11th November 2013 at 20:19
A few museum news updates have been added in the usual place!
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January 1, 2013 at 10:36 am