What makes a good museum for you? (Aviation or other)

Forgot to add, nothing worse than entering to find tired looking aircraft with deep grass growing around them, sitting on half inflated tyres with the odd panel missing and faded come seriously flaking paint and corrosion, surrounded by junk. You get the feeling, if they cannot care for their “product” why should I pay to see this.

That said I like the likes of the RAF Museums Halifax displayed as found on the seabed, shame the restored turret sits beside it looking totally out of context.

I replied on the WIX thread, but the gist of comments:

I visit all kinds of aviation musems. I am a 47 year old male in the USA and my family does not enjoy my hobby. I usually go alone.

I will conduct repeat visits if the collection is interesing enough.

Likes:
-“working” atmosphere. I actualy like dark and working class museums. Garber annex, USAF Museum annex, Planes of Fame Chino, Rhode Island, all have an excellent feel to them. Feels like you are in on a secret. I understand clean (and agree bathrooms are important), but there is a difference between clean and sterile. The old museum in Santa Monica was very clean, but very sterile. Felt like I was in some rich guys house- very uninviting.
-Acces to planes. Like to get underneath and up close. I understand the concerns about less caring vistors that could do damage. MAM in Virginia is excellent.
-Unique artefacts. I will go out of my way to see a unique/rare aircraft or sole survivor.
– Open cockpits, proceedures trainers.
– Military props and jet, and rotors WWII to present. Less interested in WW1/golden age. Zero interest in aerobatic, sport or general aviation. Large civil aircraft OK.
– Cut aways.
– Unrestored is great. Boneyards are fine (in the right climate)
– Sub-artefacts- weapons, turrets, ejection seats, vehicles. Not much interest in small artefacts like swords, uniforms, china, log books etc.
– Information on the exact airframe I am seeing- This aircraft serial number xxxxx was delivered in ….., was recovered in….. is painted to represent…..

Dislikes:
– Aircraft hung way up in the rafters. Quantico is terrible.
– Ropes/chains etc. See above.
– Docents that hound you. Thank you for what you do, I am well aware you are there if I need you, but I do not always want a lecture.

Could care less about:
– Photography. I do not photograph, so could care less about lighting, sight lines, etc. I understand some are very passionate about this so do not intend to start a flame war, but I prefer the photos in my mind.
– IMAX, tilt-o-simulator, etc. Great for kids, but I am past that stage. Free, non motion simulators are fun.
– Food. I am usually not there to eat, so neutral here.

I did. Very nice.:)

I can only assume you mean these ?

Did you get the chance to admire the beautiful Lindy we read about weekly here? And the apparently splendid looking Mirage?:)

I think we shall be making our first visit to Elvington today.

We are off to stay with wife’s niece in York, so will set of a couple of hours earlier than planned.

Will give my impressions when we get back.

Well we got to the YAM at Elvington on Thursday afternoon, our first visit. Well worth a look, and I had no idea of it’s history.

We only had a couple of hours, and would have liked to have spent more time there, but they were waiting to close up.
Lot’s to see, with plenty of aircraft on display outside. Some looking a bit sorry for themselves unfortunately. That is just an
observation, not a criticism. Any museum staffed largely be volunteers, can only do so much.
Couldn’t get to see the Halifax unfortunately as it was parked at the back of the hangar, and they were busy clearing away
after some sort of exhibition laid on for students and school kids. No doubt connected with armed forces week ?
Nice museum with some good displays, so must get back for a longer look. It’s very handy though, only being 10mins away
from my wife’s niece.

Lighting, Lighting, Lighting, content, informative displays, informative descriptions and some more lighting. If you can’t see it and you aren’t permitted to touch I,t make sure it smells or makes a noise.

The thing I like is when they try to arrange aircraft in different and exciting positions, unlike a previous poster I love the Cosford presentation, the Lightning vertical, the Vulcan rotating and the aircraft rolling in the sky.
I preffered it more than the Duxford one, that all seems to be a bit crammed in, similar to the tank museum, a fascinating as that collection is, it feels like an undercover auction forecourt for tanks, with rows and rows of them crammed in. Another bonus for Cosford is the display hangers feel like they rotate around the parking, where Duxford you tend to be at one end meaning a hike back to the car once you get up to the end.

One I like is the Space centre with a rocket mounted vertically above the cafe, tons of interactive stuff and an IMAX.

In aicraft Museums I like to se some live aircraft. I don’t mean thundering up and down a runway as thats already covered and is a bitr specialist.

What I mean is some aircraft light working , U/C retractions and demos, wings folding, and if space is availab;ple engine runs.

I done’t mean all these on the same aircraft although that would be nice. Just something live were possible on a selection or one airframe.

I was at a Lee On Solent airshow many moons ago and they had a Seahawk in the hangar doing U/C retractions, and I thing a Seavixen doing Flap and wing folds possibly. That stuck in my mind as impressive and made the aircraft a live thing with a heart and sole as oppossed to a dead sole less shell that could just as easily bee a good fibreglass replica.

Just my 2 peneth worth.

Regards
Mark

Mark, we did similar at the St Athans B if B day with the Lightning and Bucc, we did retracts, wing folding, air brakes etc getting them ready we did retracts on the Bucc and the gear cycled so far never to move again, they had to ask if anyone on their fitters courses were ex Bucc and then stuck them on it, it took them about a week to get the gear down lol. Cosford was doing similar with a Jag a couple of years back.

The museum that still has great memories for me is the Science Museum collection at Wroughton, I visited a couple of times in the late 80’s early 90’s and the variety of objects was amazing. It is a terrible shame that this is not a properly funded public display. I hope tales of its deteriorating condition are exaggerated. For aircraft museums, I find that wandering around the outside of exhibits, especially large aircraft, doesn’t satisfy my curiosity, so the more that are opened up the better. I realise that there are a lot of issues to be addressed when this is done. But it makes a big difference to the visitor experience imo. Set piece scenes with period artefacts are another favourite of mine.

Rockhopper, do you know how difficult it is to get those information boards prepared and displayed especially in an all volunteer museum? I am wondering if there is any potential for preparing something that visitors could download to their phones, tablets etc and will start a thread on that.

I like to see well presented information boards about each aircraft with information about the actual aircraft I’m looking at. Laminated A4 bits of paper that have been rain soaked don’t really say to me that the exhibits are being cared for.
I visited my local museum on Sunday even though I’ve been there many times. I feel I’m helping them along by paying my £3 to look around. There were lots of helpers around but very few information boards in place. Only the “star” aircraft were receiving any attention with many of the others looking little better than derelicts.

We operate an aviation museum spread over two hangars plus the ‘workshop’. It is an all volunteer operation.

We let people walk around among the 30 or so aircraft on display. Most people like to get up close to the aircraft and maybe peer inside but some abuse this. Minor damage to aircraft such as fabric poked through with a ball point pen, zig zag scratches on a drop tank, evidence where someone has tried to open a cockpit and props not where we left them for example. Obviously then we have to supervise visitors and as a museum volunteer I would much rather talk to them than just follow them around.

http://www.aviationmuseum.co.nz/cms/index.php

It’s a difficult one to answer, since people seem to have so many different requirements. However, having visited the Skyfame Museum at Staverton years ago, I do have a penchant for ‘lots of exhibits/minimal explanation’, since part of my enjoyment is in learning for myself. I know not everyone would feel the same way however.

Recently I’ve visited some really nice collections in the UK (though the old and sadly long-gone Jet Heritage museum at Hurn takes some beating) and abroad (for instance the lovely ‘live’ Olympic Flight Museum, the Nanton Lancaster etc) and I think – for me – the things I really appreciated at all of these were threefold: the ability to get up-close/hands-on to the exhibits, the space around them to enjoy each exhibit in its entirety and the absence of museum staff trying to ‘explain’ each exhibit!

Unfortunately I have also recently been to a couple of aircraft museums, where I had just fancied a quiet and unhurried visit, only to be accosted by museum staff and accompanied the whole way round, despite not asking for such assistance.

A couple of weeks ago I was on holiday in Dorset, and visited the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton for the first time.

I’ve been to Duxford, Hendon and Cosford loads of times before, but I thought the FAAM was seriously impressive. The freedom to walk right up to the aircraft was really refreshing, and the ‘Carrier’ exhibition/recreation was wonderfully immersive. There was also very little evidence of the modern obsession with suspending aircraft from the ceiling, which is one of my bugbears!

Most importantly, my whole family (aged between 2 and 64, mostly not that bothered about old aircraft!) had a genuinely great day out.

The FAAM may not have the sheer quantity of exhibits that some of the larger collections boast, but they’ve really made the most of what they have – I thought that some of the larger museums could learn a few things from them…

I think we shall be making our first visit to Elvington today.

We are off to stay with wife’s niece in York, so will set of a couple of hours earlier than planned.

Will give my impressions when we get back.

For information to all that participated:

This exact same question has been posted on a number of forum sites (local, regional, USA focused and UK/Europe) as well as a number of facebook sites I am associated with. With the sites ranging from personal through general interest to special interest.

The question has resulted in a surprising number (at least to me) replies and 2000+ views of the question as of this Monday morning.

What I have found very insightful, considering the diverse range of places it has been posted, is the consistency in the “meat” of the comments.

The majority, regardless of region, country, focused interest or general interest are looking for the same things in a museum (of pretty much every type).

All of the comments are being used to create an information base for future planning, additional research as well as the basis for ongoing visitor consultation and sharing with other museums and heritage institutions.

Been an interesting project

Thank you everyone again

Hi there,

I am volunteering in a small aviation museum in Germany and visited many aviation museums around the world. I do agree with many things said already, but to me the texts/descriptions and presentation of artefacts is also very important: Aside from the hard facts (e.g. year built, speed, numbers produced etc) I personally like to read individual histories, especially if the aircraft was restored/recovered by the museum. It makes aircraft a lot more interresting when you know what it did and where and how it ended up in the museum.

It might sound picky to some, but I also think its important to use the same layout and fond on all text used to describe the exhibits.

When I did tours with my guests, I like to tell them the anecdotes which make an artefact interresting. You can find the plain aircraft facts in books and on the web, but what sticks to visitors is the story behind what they see like.

To me prime examples are the Seattle Museum of Flight: it is very clean, the various topics are grouped together (like the Airpark for airliners, Personal Courage Wing for WW I & II military aircraft etc) and the Deutsches Technik Museum in Berlin (lots of well presented sections like trains, aircraft, cars etc). Its not just their size, but the way they present thier stuff.

As someone who is actually ‘making a museum’ as we speak, The Tettenhall Transport Heritage Centre, this is all very interesting, even if some of the comments are contradictory. e.g. the preference for cluttered/uncluttered displays. We are constricted in many ways, not least the size of the building, and the fact that we have to restore it just as it used to be. In fact the building is an exhibit in itself. The toilets are all ready there, and very nice they are, and the cafe will be adjacent, but run by someone else. (I have tasted their cup cakes and they may be a good enough reason to visit by themselves)

We will have a core collection of artefacts of local reference, but will try to leave space for the odd interesting, borrowed, items. There was a survey done many years ago of the ten reasons visitors would return to a museum, and the exhibits on display were not in the top five. We intend that restoration will always be underway in full view of visitors so they can witness the process, we don’t want just a shed full of dusty objects, and we will be offering tours of the whole site, which includes local railway, canal and road transport history.

Seems this thread may have run its course so I just wanted to say a thank you to all that contributed to this point.

Tom H

Example of a great building;- Duxfords Superhangar. It’s large, light, airy, and the SUPERB viewing balcony allows a different perspective on all the exhibits.
Example of a crap building;- Cosford’s new ‘carbuncle’. It’s dark, (…and not the only hall that could be so accused…) wretched, gloomy and more of a vehicle for architectural ego than a purpose-designed exhibition-hangar. In fact, even the ordinary old hangars at Cosford are much, much better than the new hangar. I dread to think what that new monstrosity cost. Any building built around the exhibits is also frozen in aspic. A normal hangar can have the doors thrown open and everything (Relatively) quickly and easily moved around. Ordinary hangars can easily have extra skylights added to boost light levels. The addition of elevated walkways, somewhat akin to Duxfords Superhangar, around the periphery would be great too.

What else…? An aviation museum at a usable airfield clearly has an edge. A/C can be flown-in, displays can take place and visitors can arrive by air. Space and parking is also less likely to be a problem. It also adds a lot to the inherent ambiance.

I’ve also been to some museums where one gets the impression that it was set-up for the sake of setting-up a museum. By that, I mean, filled with all, or nearly all, pretty boring and mundane exhibits. Of course, not everywhere can have the resources of something like the RAFM, but the hard truth is, not everything aeronautical is ‘historic’ or meretricious of saving. Look at some of the gems we have lost…….and look at some of the meat-and-two-vedge that we see time and again…. Naturally, 20-20 hindsight is a wonderful thing…!

Finally, one last observation – and a personal peccadillo;- Almost all museums focus on military aviation. Airliners aside, there isn’t one which really focusses on historic civil aeroplanes – they are just scattered around the UK. The closest we have is probably Old Warden. I’ve always seen this as something of a gaping hole in the museum scene. It’d be great to see such airframes collected together in one place.

As for cafes and shops and toilets. Jolly nice, but all I ever remember about visiting any aeronautical museum is the thrill of seeing past aeronautical history writ real before me. Frankly, the trivia does not even register.