I thought my initial, rather ‘wooden’ idea was a good ‘un but now I am floundering a bit.

Another two cents worth.
I remember visiting the Battle of Britain Museum ( it was a ‘Museum’ then, not a ‘Hall’), shortly after it opened. My first visit to Hendon. I was pretty disappointed. Dark, rather dull and, I thought, not a great advertisement for the RAFM as a whole. Subsequent visits reinforced this view and I tended to spend little if any, time on the place. The rest of the site, especially the galleries of artifacts and displays I found much more interesting.
Cosford, which I visit much more regularly than Hendon, lacks the latter. (Cold War building? A vast echoey chamber with far too much background noise and a truly dopey location for the shop, but anywhere that manages to squeeze a Belfast indoors has to get my approval!).
I’m not averse to changes at Hendon, on which I have always had a bit of a downer; when they were casting around for a location the choice of a place near London where there was no prospect of flying struck me as rather dimwitted – especially in the light of all those former bases that were closing down and had runways and all the infrastructure required to operate aircraft. (Does this dream location sound familiar?). Of course, I was a tad biased, living as I did at Syerston which at the time was utterly unused and had all those lovely Expansion Plan buildings etc with which to tell the story of the RAF. Naturally, I wanted the museum on my doorstep!
Of course, it was a National museum so proximity to London was a consideration but the vast majority of the RAF has spent it’s life in pretty rural locations and I have always wondered if those setting up the RAFM site were more concerned with the idea of the fleshpots close by with which to make a lively weekend out of the rather prosaic museum business which should have been the prime concern. (Disclaimer: purely a cynical personal opinion – it’s an age thing).
Change is inevitable I fear, and not always for the better. Like many I have strong views on the subject of RAFM decisions and policies which would,no doubt, stir up lively debate if aired but, while I feel very strongly that the BoB should be properly recognized as the pivotal event it was, I am not sorry to see the back of the Hall; time will tell, only please- don’t overdo the computer graphics and interactives! ( Another age thing!).

I like the above; not conclusive of course, but interesting. The corollary? Had an appointment at my GP’s on Monday. They have an open surgery every weekday morning with two of their four doctors taking patients in the order they book in, no appointment necessary. It was absolutely heaving with people queuing out of the door. Even allowing for the ‘we’ve had a weekend without a doctor’ effect it was hard to avoid the conclusion (voiced by a receptionist), that it was so much busier than normal because of the lack of A&E services. So, the problem just gets shoved further down the line?

Back in time a little, but my Old Man, 22 years a Snowdrop, still says, ‘A security clearance is only good at the moment it is issued.’

Must say, you learn something new every day. I can’t find any reference to RAF Brits operating via London. In 1966 one would have thought it would have been Lyneham. ‘The Whispering Giant in Uniform’ makes no mention of Heathrow. Tentatively, and with due respect to the memory of someone who ‘was there’, I do still think British Eagle if the destination was London. Can anyone enlighten?

Standard practice on Wellingtons, Whitleys, Manchesters and Stirlings was for two pilots, hence the dual controls. Later, (mid 1942 I think?),in order to ‘economise’ on pilot casualties, the 2nd pilot was replaced by a Flight Engineer.

Not been recently but there is certainly a brass plaque with what appears to be Chadwick’s image in front of the aircraft in the photographs to be found on t’interweb.

Sad news indeed. I’m about ten years too young to have idolised the likes of John Derry or Neville Duke. For me it was messrs Turcat, Trubshaw and Farley.