I visited Hendon in 1993, and I was over-awed by the contents of the museum, and to me, coming from the other side of the world, I did think it was a great experience – one I had long dreamed about.

However, even then I was struck by the lack of imagination in the displaying of those wonderful planes. I found that many of my photos did not turn out too well because of the poor lighting in the museum, and now I hear the lighting is much worse!?!

And I felt that they really needed to make the whole thing a bit more dramatic than simply squeezing as many planes into a hangar that can fit. It was difficult to see some of the planes due to the way they were crammed together.

It is sad that 11 years later things are no better, and on the contrary, seemingly are getting worse. As far as displaying the aircraft with lighting goes, I feel they could do not better than to take a look at how the RNZAF Museum does it. They consulted a theatrical lighting company to help set up the displays, with an absolutely wonderful effect. You’re not allowed to use flash photography in the museum, but the lighting is so good you don’t need it if you have a tripod (see a few photos I took here:
http://forum.airforces.info/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23627&highlight=rnzaf+museum)

I’m sure that the Hendon management realise that they have an amazing collection, but I wish they could put a bit of thought into presenting their colection to the public. Let’s hope that things change for the better soon.

Here is one of the displays i was impressed with there – the Wellington with a few dummies to add drama – they need more of this sort of thing, it brings the aircraft to ‘life’ – though I think they should custom build the dummies and not get the offcasts from Grace Brother’s window display!

On reflection perhaps I was a little harsh in calling the Isaac’s Fury horrid.

I just have memories of my first ever airshow, at Hamilton, where there were a couple of Harvards, a Dominie and a few bits and bobs, which were great. And then these Furies flew in. I was excited to see them fly in (from Ardmore?) and then when they taxied in and I saw them up close I was disappointed to be told be Dad that they were not real, and were scaled down (I was a naive 15 or 16 year old then, and knew little about our warbirds scene). It was somehow a really big disappointment.

I guess they are a nifty little thing to fly, and Dad knew one of the pilots who said they were great, but I developed a strong disregard for replicas then which stayed with me for many years till I realised there are some nice ones about, like the Clive du Cros Spitfire and the Southern Cross, etc. and they serve a valuable purpose in filling gaps not filled by the real thing.

My Dad used to have a video, which unfortunately he no longer has, which was a early or mid 1980’s programme about the Confederate Air Force in the USA. I think that perhaps it was a British or even Australian made documentary, not sure, but it wasn’t American. In it they chatted with some of the founders and members, and it had Tuck and Galland together at one of the big CAF airsows, and they were interviewed too.

I recall the show featureed bits on Fifi, the first Mustang in the CAF and its owner, showed the HE111 and also the Pearl Harbor demo, etc. It also followed a new bunch of Colonels being sworn in.

It was a great programme, and I could kick him for giving it and several others of his aviation video collection away – they are what got me into aircraft and ultimately into the Air Force when i was a teen. At least I managed to get some off him, like A Perfect Lady and some RNZAF docos.