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The outside airliner display is virtually a catalogue of post-war British airliners.  Starting with the wonderful Concorde.  Unfortunately we didn’t have time to do the film and visit to the plane interior – and that was an extra to our admission.

The VC10.  This one finished its career as the Sultan of Oman’s personal transport.  The interior was extremely well appointed – though quite basic compared with today’s executive jets, and even 1st class airline travel.

You could take the captain’s seat, though I’m not sure what that expression is all about!

VC10, Vanguard, and I think a BAC 1-11.

Vanguard, Varsity (RAF crew trainer) and Viking.

A replica Vimy, that is (or at least was till recently) airworthy.  Apart from being a WW1 bomber, these planes completed the first N-S Africa flight, and the first UK-Australia flight.

One of the hangers contains a display illustrating aircraft construction.  This is a WW1 BE2 replica.

A Supermarine Schneider Trophy seaplane.  First of a string of planes that eventually grew into the Spitfire.

Wellington WW2 bomber.  R for Robert was salvaged from Loch Ness, having been located by a team of monster hunters.

There’s also a replica Wellington fuselage to explore.  The geodetic framework was new at the time, and not only made the Wellington a versatile workhorse used throughout WW2, but made it very resistant to enemy attack.

Three generation of fighters – Sopwith Camel (replica), Hawker Hurricane, and behind, Hawker Hunter.

The elegant Hawker Hart, from the 1930’s.  An all metal biplane, that was still in service at the start of WW2, and containing ideas that would evolve into the Hurricane.

Hawker Hunter.  One of the more successful post-WW2 military aircraft.

Elsewhere, a display of hardware including this Barnes-Wallis bouncing bomb prototype.

And his early ‘Tall Boy’/’Big Boy’ earthquake bomb.  I think the display case in the foreground implies that Barnes-Wallis had been involved in developing ideas from airships to the Swallow flying wing aircraft – not that we should try and swallow an airship.

Next post – buses.

Last week, Maxine had to visit West Byfleet, so we looked to see what we could visit in the area, to make a day out of it.  And the Brooklands Museum was just two miles away, so we paid it a visit.  More my sort of thing, but we both had a very interesting time there, and it’s well worth a visit, as there’s all sorts of transport on display.  I’ll start with mostly cars, then they’ll be a post on planes, and finally one on buses.

The museum is in one corner of the old Brooklands race track, used in the 20’s and 30’s.  Part of the banked circuit has been preserved.  Although the road surface has subsided here and there, it would have been just as scary driving around it then, in an 8 litre engine, open topped, racing car with dubious brakes.

And when you look at the racing cars in 2019, can you imagine taking an Austin 7 to Le Mans?  DRS, what’s that??  Aerodynamics????  But this is a lovely little car!

Elsewhere there were all sorts of machines, from long gone companies like Napier Railton and still going, but rather different, ones like Bugatti.

A massive Bentley in racing green – best in a straight line – and a Lagonda.

The MG’s on display were smart little cars, though comparing the MG ‘Midget’ with its contemporaries showed what an accurate name that was!

Elsewhere, there was a display of Grand Prix cars, in the days before spoilers and downforce….

And historic motorbikes with long gone names such as Ariel and Brough Superior…

More up to date is this BOAC Commer van…

Moving onto aircraft, the museum has three generations of Harrier VTOL jump-jets.  This is an early prototype.

This production aircraft landed in Central London, as the nearby poster describes…

This late model was converted to a two-seater and used by British Aerospace as a demonstrator to try and sell the Harrier worldwide.

You were allowed to try out the cockpit for size.  The warning notice is not due to the ejector seat still being operational – more a concern that the aging switches will break!

More planes next post…