Day 18 – London - Monday, January 20th 2014

Today I took my group of students to the RAF Museum at Hendon. Those of you who know me would be aware that this is a dream trip for me, and I had an excited group of boys who also are keen on aeroplanes. There are so many aircraft at the Museum that I could bore all of you silly with multiple pictures and explanations. So I will instead give you the highlights.

We started with the first world war and the Graham White hangar is full of these early aircraft.

Mr O’Brien and an Albatross V

Carey and a Sopwith 11/2 Strutter.

Once we finished with WW1 the next hangar contained aircraft specifically associated with the Battle of Britain. There were Spitfires, Heinkel’s and Messerschmitt’s. as well as other aircraft of the period.

Jack with a Westland Lysander (these were used to fly into and land in occupied Europe to drop and pick up agents.

The last hangar / Pavilion contained a huge array of various types and period aircraft.

A Sopwith Camel “diving” at us.

One of the most Historic aeroplanes in the collection is S for Sugar, a Lancaster bomber that has the distinction of having completed 137 missions. This is amasing considering the average life expectancy of a Lancaster at the height of the bomber offensive was about 10 missions. It has a real Australian connection as it was flown for the last part of its service by 467 Squadron RAAF.

The boys with S for Sugar

There are also more modern aircraft there as well. There is an example of one of the RAF’s V bomber series. The Avro Vulcan.

Some of the boys and the Vulcan

The museum also has a lot of engines on display so for the “Rev Heads” amongst you here is one of the most impressive. This is the 3,500 horse power (yes 3,500) Napier Sabre engine. It had an “H” configuration (2X12 Cylinder horizontally opposed banks)

The Napier Sabre “H” 24 3,500Bhp engine

Some entered into the spirit of the exhibition more fully than others.

Brandon having fun!!

The boys looking into the cockpit of the beautiful Hawker Hunter.

Matthew with a Curtis Kitty hawk. A lot of Australians flew these in both the African deserts and New Guinea

Once we had toured through the whole museum then there was the Gift Shop to get through. Some parents will discover that some (or none, including myself) did not get through the store unscathed. I think we all had an excellent day!