I am afraid I suspected this would be end result when I visited and started a thread ‘Sad RAF Museum’ several years ago. The Bomber Command hall was a mess then and you could only get in the Graham White building during a couple of hours a day.
The Battle of Britain hall was in need of a revamp certainly but not at the expense of chucking the iconic aircraft out. I don’t think I’ll waste my time going to see this ‘museum.’ If the RAF Museum really spent £25M on this perhaps they should have a look at Brooklands who made a vast improvement including the hangar move with £8-9M!
mmitch.

There are some excellent tributes over on Pprune. I like the one about ’20 minutes gliding experience in a Harrier’ 🙂
https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/610070-rip-john-farley.html
mmitch.

Certainly the wing had collision damage which M.A.P.S did their best to correct without jigs. But if I remember correctly the Merlin was a low houred (under 100?) unit.
mmitch.

No room for it in the RAF Museum? Even among the ‘hats.’ 🙁
mmitch.

I went there around 1953/4 on a school trip, returning from Hampton Court. There was I remember the control tower with the Queen’s building probably still under construction. On one side there was a car park (just ground level) with a low fence separating us from the aircraft! I remember Sabena and BEA? Dakotas being loaded and serviced in front of us.
A Tannoy announced each arrival and departure. I was too interested in the aircraft to look for a play ground but as has been suggested may be it was builders sand.
mmitch.

He could certainly do with a bigger shed! But a 25 year project, that’s dedication.
mmitch.

If you haven’t been to the museum it may be worth it. There are many photos in the displays some of them may not be in the books.
I believe it reopens around Easter then at weekends.
mmitch.