Isn’t it amazing and wonderful, in this day and age, that any airline is prepared to put this much money, effort and time into restoring and operating a large, complex and thirsty airliner for reasons of heritage? While Lufthansa must obviously plan to gain some excellent publicity and advertising revenue, it’s still very hard to imagine (say) British Airways doing something so downright altruistic with (say) a Comet.

“First Light” by Geoffrey Wellum is my personal favourite.

First show where I saw the full display with take off and landing: Yeovilton 2010…

The HLF have rejected the landmark building proposed, how is something that will be less of a contributor to heritage help? It is even more unlikely to win HLF funding, so where are you proposing the funding will come from?

Moggy

True the HLF rejected the scheme, but do we know on what grounds the decision was made? Perhaps they too would have preferred a submission which gave a little more thought to the sensible preservation of the objects within, and a little less thought to the desire to create spectacle for its own sake.
What is to say that a slightly more architecturally modest building “will be less of a contributor to heritage” than the scheme proposed? On the list of roles for a museum, preserving artefacts in a sensible manner has to come pretty high on the list. Of course there has to be a balance, and as I said there is plenty of scope for designing an architecturally “interesting” building with good displays without resorting to the lengths of the Beacon.

At any rate, I was not trying to presume that I have a failsafe plan for designing and funding a solution (my training is in biology not architecture!) Of course funding is difficult to come by, and I appreciate that there is pressure to come up with “landmark” schemes which will grab the attention of bodies such as the HLF.
Instead, as a keen museum goer and one of the “younger generation” museums make such a fuss of trying to attract I was merely making a few observations on what might be a more sensible scheme in an ideal world.

Interestingly, most of my enthusiasm for audioguides and the value of the diorama as an immersive experience comes from several visits to the recently-completed SS Great Britain project in Bristol, which won nearly £9 million from the HLF for a difficult and demanding preservation job which, in my opinion combined hi-tec modern engineering and more traditional museum display approach superbly without feeling the need to create a “landmark” of any kind beyond what was already there.

I’ve just posted this in the 109e thread, and realise I probably should have put it here.

I definitely agree with the pressing need to update and improve the Battle of Britain Hall, and I don’t even object to it being a fairly “striking” building. But one which is at least vaguely in proportion to the rest of the site, and which keeps the aircraft accessible and on the ground would be vastly preferrable. A really lovely and fitting building could be constructed on the existing footprint, showing the aircraft to great effect without resorting to stringing them up, one atop the other like a child’s ceiling mobile.

If anything, I think the period diorama idea the exhibition currently follows is the right one, however it could be done in a far more convincing, less dated and more realistic fashion. A really good diorama should show off the pilots of both sides, but also include the role of the ground crew, Observer Corps, radar operators, command structure, etc.

Imagine… The Hurricane and Spitfire next to each other at dispersal, with groundcrew figures hurrying around preparing for the next sortie, pilots waiting nervously in deckchairs, the adjutant leaning out of the window, shouting “A Flight Scramble!”. Next along, the Defiant undergoing maintenance, perhaps showing off some of MAPS’s superb workmanship “under the skin” with a few engine panels off and the turret guns being removed for cleaning. Nearby, the 3.7-inch AA battery is manned by watchful eyes, scanning for the enemy raiders…

A quality, sympathetic, well-lit modern display showing the RAFM’s whole range of Battle of Britain artefacts in context to one another (uniforms, small artefacts, ground equipment, aircraft) would vastly improve the whole experience without resorting to gimickry and architectural folly, and better immerse the visitor in the atmosphere of the time and place they are learning about.

I am also a huge supporter of the walkie-talkie like audioguides which are now a feature of many modern museums. Allowing you to engage with the exhibits using more than one sense, they free you from constantly reading signs. Thus you can actually really look at the objects on display, get far more information about them than you would want to read from a sign, don’t have to crane your necks over other visitors (or squint at poorly lit, small print text!) Really good audio information systems allow the visitor to tailor their information intake to their personal interests, and provide entertainment for all ages. There must be hours of audio recordings from the Battle and its veterans languishing in the RAFMs archives: they could rotate these through the devices to give a constantly changing set of first-hand experiences of what it was actually like to fly and fight.

Adopting the audioguide system would make the looped cinematic presentation largely superfluous, or perhaps shift it to an introductory role at the entrance to the exhibition, where it would not disturb people in the main hall trying to look at the exhibits. That, in turn would free up more space for exhibits/ more interesting diorama arrangements.

Sorry for the lengthy stream of consciousness, more like my 10p worth! I really do hope the RAFM see sense, and adopt a more modest scheme which would produce a better, more long-lasting result.

Thanks Andy!

Phil

It seems a great shame when looking at the Varsity’s current state to think that she was flown into Duxford, still; let’s hope she has a brighter future ahead of her.