The Fylde Coast Museum of Aviation and Aircraft Manufacturing

It comes with great pleasure to announce the creation of a new museum project based in Hangar 42 at Blackpool airport (formerly RAF Squires Gate & Vickers Shadow Factory).

The Hangar a former Wartime Bellman type and its associated side offices was taken possession off in July 2015 and is currently going through a refurbishment and upgrade to allow it to be opened to visitors, a set opening date has not been set but is hoped to be open by the Summer of 2016, however during the refurbishment we will be having regular open days to allow visitors access to the museum and see the progress being made, details of which will follow.

The Museum known as “The Fylde Coast Museum of Aviation and Aircraft Manufacturing” was born out of the need of The Lytham St Annes Spitfire Display Team’s search for new premises as we had outgrown the agricultural storage unit that had been the team’s home for a number of years.

The Museum will be operated by The Lytham St Annes Spitfire Display Team and will be based around the teams fleet of four replicas, three Spitfires and a Hawker Hurricane and ex RAF vehicles along many other related items and displays which will celebrate the rich aviation history of the region, also many elements of the Lancashire Aircraft Investigation Team Collection will be on display including the C4 Time Team Invaders, more will follow on the exhibits expected to be seen. The end result is to create a hangar that has the look and feel as it would have during WW2, any offers of suitable exhibits would be fantastic to help create the look. We also hope to host corporate events, educational events, and filming, during 2016 a full size Spitfire flight simulator will become available to fly.

The team had been touring the UK since 2009 raising funds to establish a RAF Memorial at nearby Fairhaven Lake in Ansdell and associated interpretation boards. Now this is completed fund raising will be directed to the museum project, all the funds raised are in the support of maintaining and developing the exhibits and aircraft and carrying out the work to the buildings.

See http://www.spitfiredisplayteam.co.uk for more info on the team and how to book us for an event.

To date much work on the Museum has been done by a small group of willing and able volunteers whilst the rest of the team work on exhibits and also out on the road attending events and shows around the UK nearly every weekend over the warmer months. The buildings have been made secure and 44 Tons of rubbish has been removed from the building to date, the offices are proceeding nicely and these will consist of a reception/shop area, NAFFI, lecture room, small artefact display rooms and archives. The workshop area has been established and cleaning and painting of the Hangar area is underway.

Even though the Hangar is now water tight we still need urgent repairs to the exterior cladding and to get the lighting installed to allow work to be carried out during the winter months.

This is an exciting time for the team but we still need support, materials and donations to help keep driving the project forward and to also grow the volunteer base to help run and develop the museum, so if you can help please get in touch. Even if you can spare an hour of your time we would greatly appreciate it, we have many varied jobs to do so there should be something to suit everyone.

You can make a donation to support the project via http://www.gofundme.com/l7x5wg, any donation how great or small is greatly appreciated and you can be assured that it will be wisely invested.

Many thanks for taking the time out to read this announcement and we look forward to updating you all regularly with progress and the teams activities.