I had a chance to visit the museum about 12 years ago when I was stopping near Pickering, but on that occasion the nearby Museum of Farming won out - it hosts the Derwent Valley Light Railway which wasn’t running but I could at least have a look. The Air Museum wasn’t the ideal stop off for the journey home as it’s only a few miles from the caravan site, I ended up wasting time waiting for them to open. As usual with aviation museums they cram a lot into the hangers, although there were also outdoor flight lines and several huts with displays on various topics such as Air Gunners and Zeppelins. Inevitably the info concentrates on Yorkshire and the squadrons based there at Elvington Airfield, I noted a couple of omissions, or at least missed detail, as a result but that’s being picky!
In general there was good interpretation attached to each aircraft, with added signs detailing the roles played in both the Cold War era and the Falklands conflict. The bulk of the aircraft are various jet fighters but there’s a reasonable number of earlier craft as well, some very early (such as a replica of George Cayley’s 1853 “Steerable Parachute” glider). The “history of flight” display was one that was a bit lacking, jumping from Cayley to the Wright Brothers, ignoring other pioneers such as Otto Lilienthal and Percy Pilcher - it’s possible the latter actually flew a powered plane 4 years before the Wright Flier but a broken crankshaft prevented the planned public demonstration and, having taken up one of his gliders to at least show something, he was killed. Recent studies showed that his plane could have flown with some modifications (the replica added wing warping which he would likely have been aware of).
I’m reasonably knowledgeable about the history of aviation from reading and visiting other museums but there are always new things to discover. This tiny aircraft is a real rarity, a Port Victoria P.V.8 “Eastchurch” Kitten recreation (a big name for a little plane!) These were designed by the Admiralty in 1917 as a disposable interceptor to be launched off a battleship to intercept the Zeppelins before they could bomb the mainland, it would then be ditched and the pilot would hope for rescue. The bombing threat had receded before the project was completed so it was cancelled, no originals survive.
To go to the other extreme, unusually for aviation museums I’ve visited in the last few years they don’t have a Vulcan, they have a Victor instead! It’s one of only four remaining complete aircraft, and one of the two that can run it’s engines. The aircraft never really captured the public imagination as the Vulcan did, possibly because they were mostly converted to tankers, but it’s lasted better than the third member of the V Force, the Valiant, which only has one surviving example.
All in all it was a worthwhile visit, with plenty to see and a reasonable “NAAFI” canteen.
When I set off home from Elvington the satnav was only showing 11 minutes difference using the A1 instead of the M1 so, as I prefer the former, I took that route. Unfortunately the delays started to mount up to about 30 minutes but I was able to avoid them by going through Oakham so I was home by just after four pm. Overall it was a successful trip away, the campervan behaved itself - I even managed to remember about the clutch and gears, mostly (the Suzuki is an auto).
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