Posts Tagged ‘RAF Museum London’

RAF Museum recognised as Tripadvisor® 2023 Travellers’ Choice® Award Winner

Sunday, August 27th, 2023

RAF Museum London

The RAF Museum is delighted to announce it has been recognised by Tripadvisor as a 2023 Travelers’ Choice award winner as a top attraction. The coveted award celebrates businesses that have consistently received great traveller reviews on Tripadvisor over the last 12 months, placing these winners among the top 10% of all listings on Tripadvisor globally.

Barry Smith, RAF Museum Director of Visitor and Commercial Development, said:
‘This award speaks to the high level of visit experience we provide to all our visitors, and our commitment to excellence. To be amongst the top 10% of attractions worldwide on the world’s largest travel platform is incredible. This award is special because it’s based on real visitor reviews from people who have enjoyed their Museum visit, and then taken the time to share their experience online with other families who are looking for a highly recommended day out.’

John Boris, Chief Growth Officer at Tripadvisor, said:
‘Congratulations to the 2023 Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice winners. The travel resurgence we’ve seen throughout the past year has even further heightened the competition. Earning a Travellers’ Choice Award demonstrates that you have provided great experiences to those who matter most: your guests. With changing expectations, continued labour shortages, and rising costs, this is no easy feat, and I am continually impressed with the hospitality industry’s resilience and ability to adapt. Cheers to another successful year!’

Check out all the Tripadvisor reviews for our Midlands site here, and London site here. Entry to the RAF Museum is free, to book your day out at the top attraction visit www.rafmuseum.org/london

Strike Hard, Strike Sure: Bomber Command 1939–1945

Friday, May 19th, 2023

Bomber Command Exhibition - London

Marking the 80th anniversary of the famous ‘Dam Busters’ raid, the Royal Air Force Museum London has unveiled a new permanent exhibition dedicated to Bomber Command.

Around 125,000 aircrew from 60 nations served in Bomber Command during the Second World War, volunteering from Britain, the Commonwealth and Dominions, occupied and neutral countries as well as German nationals fleeing persecution. Their average age was just 23.

Our exhibition shares the Bomber Command story through the lens of the personal experiences of those who served. They were, in their eyes, just ordinary people from many different countries and backgrounds. In history’s, they gave extraordinary service. Men and women from across the world, on the ground and in the air, played a part.

Throughout the exhibition, silhouettes depict the stories of individuals who played crucial roles, like that of Barnes Wallis the genius inventor behind the ‘bouncing bomb’, used in the famous Dams raid, and the Vickers Wellington bomber; Wing Commander Raymond Hilton who was the first operational captain of Lancaster ‘S for Sugar’, currently on display at the Museum; and Corporal Lilian Bader who was one of the first Black women to join the British armed forces.

Also on display are other Bomber Command aircraft such as the Handley Page Halifax and the tail section of the Short Stirling Mk III surrounded by new hi-tech interpretation.

New showcases have enabled us to exhibit personal objects taken from storage such as the fire-damaged flying helmet, jacket and goggles belonging to Sgt John Hannah. This brave wireless op/air gunner was awarded the VC by extinguishing an on-board fire with just his bare hands – thereby saving his aircraft and crew against all odds.

On display are some of the innovative technical developments that supported Bomber Command in the delivery of their operations. Visitors can see the replica 9,250lb cylindrical Anti-Dam Mine (also known as the bouncing bomb); the 22,000lb Grand Slam Bomb; and a Rose Brothers Type R gun turret.

The exhibition’s themes cover training, tech and tactics, precision raids, and experience and loss. Context is provided by a timeline detailing key events in Bomber Command’s history and aircraft development while new exhibition features including augmented reality will help aid visitor understanding.

‘Strike Hard, Strike Sure: Bomber Command 1939–1945’ is now open.

The Museum is open daily from 10.00am and entry is free. Pre-book your arrival time at www.rafmuseum.org/london

Aircraft rolled out for another Photography Night Shoot

Thursday, September 30th, 2021

RAF Museum Albatross

Date: 19 November / Time: 5.00pm to 9.00pm / Cost: £45 per person (over 16s only)

The RAF Museum London has teamed up with Threshold Aero to offer an exclusive evening shoot with our fantastic collection of First World War Aircraft.

Two of our aircraft and a vehicle will be coming out of their Hangar to be photographed, like never before. Our Albatros, R.E.8. and Crossley Tender will sit proudly outside the Hangar doors of the Grahame White Factory for this unique photographic opportunity. The backdrop for your photographs will be the historic Hangar doors of the Hangar which dates to 1912.

Each aircraft will be lit up with professional LED lighting with Auto White Balance. This will give you the opportunity to capture shots of the aircraft in their Museum setting, showcased like never before and without the public in your shots. Our small team of Living History volunteers will be posing for special shots that will make your photos come to life.

Other aircraft inside the Hangar will be lit with LED lighting and have the barriers removed (where possible) for shots in their Museum setting, but without visiting public.

The Night Shoot will start at 5.30pm, following a short safety briefing to ensure that you get the most out of the experience. You can also book a hot meal in advance with your ticket. You can choose from a soft or alcoholic drink with your meal when you purchase your ticket. Hot food is only available when booked in advance and the food will be served between 4.00pm and 6.00pm

The event is suitable for all abilities, you don’t need to be a professional photographer to enjoy the event. A team from Threshold Aero will be on hand throughout the evening to provide assistance and guidance if required. Please read our full terms and conditions before booking, this event is highly dependant on weather conditions due to the delicate nature of the aircraft.

https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/london/

RAF Museum Conference: New Thinking in Air Power

Wednesday, June 30th, 2021

RAF Museum London

16 September – 17 September 2021

Tickets are now available for Royal Air Force Museum’s ‘New Thinking in Air Power’ conference on 16–17 September 2021. The conference will bring together academics and scholars to present Air Power research which challenges the accepted historical consensus.

The conference will feature a keynote address given by Professor John Ferris entitled “Revolutions in Airpower, 1903-2021: An Anatomy” and a Roundtable session chaired by Professor David Edgerton.

The research presented at the conference will offer critical reflections on, and reframe our historical understanding of, Air Power and the past. They will overturn the generally accepted view of events in the light of new evidence and modified interpretations. In doing so, this research revises the conclusions of previous works and challenging myths which have developed within the study of Air Power.

The conference represents an important moment in advancing historical knowledge as well an exciting line-up of speakers from around the World assess the current state of the Air Power historiography and the future direction of Air Power thinking.

The panels hosted at the conference will focus on presenting the latest research on a range of Air Power topics including: The First World War: from East Africa to the Western Front; New Thinking and the Application of Digital Methods to the History of the RAF in the Second World War; Air Power and the Nuclear Paradigm.

There will also be panels reconsidering the motivations of individuals and air forces and a reassessment of Air Power Doctrine and Procurement.

The conference will present research and papers relating to Air Power both in Britain and abroad, with research on the Air Power capabilities of African regional powers; the stigmatization of psychological Issues in the US Army Air Forces; training and air forces in the Middle East, American statecraft and transatlantic collaboration on the Joint Strike Fighter; the Luftwaffe and National Socialism; and Soviet strike capabilities during the Cold War.

The conference keynote will be given by Professor Ferris the author of Behind the Enigma: The Authorised History of GCHQ, Britain’s Secret Cyber Intelligence Agency and The Evolution of British Strategic Policy, 1919-1926. Professor Ferris has published over 100 articles or chapters on diplomatic, intelligence, imperial, international, military and strategic history, and strategic studies. His keynote will explore “Revolutions in Airpower, 1903-2021: An Anatomy”.

The conference will conclude with a roundtable, Chaired by Professor David Edgerton, which will explore both the issues raised at the conference and the future direction of revisionist Air Power history.

Further information is available in the provisional Conference schedule and programme of abstracts and biographies.

Location
The conference will be hosted at the Royal Air Force Museum, London, on Thursday 16 – Friday 17 September 2021.

TICKETS
This is a two-day conference, each ticket provides access to both days of the conference. Lunch and refreshments on both days are included in the cost.
Conference fee: £85
Concession* rate: £60

* The Concession rate applies to Students, retired delegates, and those that clearly work from limited budgets, as part of the RAF Museum’s commitment to make the conference as inclusive as possible.

Book here Buy Tickets for Royal Air Force Museum Conference: New Thinking in Air Power (digitickets.co.uk)

www.rafmuseum.org

Museum welcomes Stanley Johnson to view his father’s medals

Saturday, May 22nd, 2021

Stanley Johnson at RAF Museum

The RAF Museum, which reopened to the public this week was delighted to host Stanley Johnson, father of the Prime Minister, with his friend Paul Newman (601 Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force) on Wednesday 19 May.

The purpose of Mr Johnson’s visit was to view his father’s medals, which he recently very kindly loaned to the Museum, and which are now on display as part of the RAF 100 exhibition in Hangar 1 of our London site.

Mr Johnson’s father, Flight Lieutenant Wilfred Johnson, served as an RAF Coastal Command pilot from 1942 to 1944. He flew Wellington GR.XIV aircraft on patrols over the Atlantic Ocean and attacked several German submarines. On 17 August 1944, Wilfred returned early from a patrol due to a radio fault. His Wellington then suffered an engine failure shortly before landing. He faced the difficult and dangerous task of flying low at night on one engine, in a heavy aircraft still loaded with high-explosive depth charges. Wilfred dropped these weapons in a safe place, avoiding nearby villages, and returned to RAF Chivenor – but he was seriously injured in a crash-landing on the airfield. Following his selfless action, Wilfred was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for ‘skill and coolness in emergencies’ and ‘his hard work, thoroughness and keen sense of duty’ as an RAF pilot. Wilfred’s DFC, along with a congratulatory letter from King George VI and his Medal Group of Four, are now displayed in Hangar 1 at the Museum.

Stanley Johnson, Wilfred’s son, said:
“My sisters and I, as well his eight grandchildren, are absolutely thrilled that the wonderful RAF Museum at Hendon has chosen to display our father’s medals so brilliantly in the new exhibit, including the DFC, and the letter from King George VI. Though my father didn’t talk much about his wartime service or about the crash which ended his flying career, I know that in many ways my father’s years as a pilot with RAF Coastal Command, based at Chivenor, in North Devon, were the high point of his life. The years he spent at Chivenor were pivotal in another way, since after the war Wilfred became a hill-farmer on nearby Exmoor, in a rugged steep-sided valley on the River Exe where, seventy years later, my family and I are still privileged to live!”

Ian Thirsk, Head of Collections and Research, said:
‘It is an absolute privilege to display Wilfred Johnson’s medals at the RAF Museum, Wilfred’s story is an inspirational one which we are both honoured – and delighted – to share with our visitors. Wilfred’s medals will help us to emphasise the largely unsung role of RAF Coastal Command during the Second World War’.

www.rafmuseum.org

RAF Museum Celebrates Sikh heritage

Tuesday, November 10th, 2020

WO Bally Flora

The RAF Museum is pleased to announce that WO Bally Flora MBE has donated three of his service turbans.

The donation includes two examples of the current issue, Warrant officer’s and Airman’s Turbans, introduced during 2006 and the earlier light blue style of Turban as worn by WO Flora when he first joined the RAF.

Two of these turbans will go on display in our Head Dress display at the main entrance of our London site in time for Diwali – this Saturday 14 November.

WO Balbir Singh Flora MBE
Warrant Officer Balbir Flora joined the RAF when he was 17 and worked in Logistics. He now works as part of the RAF Special Engagement Team, previously serving as a logistics supplier. The aim of this team is to engage with diverse communities, to change perception of the Armed Forces and promote the RAF as an alternative career.

The RAF Museum is currently closed. We are planning to reopen our doors on 5 December, so pre-book your tickets now at www.rafmuseum.org

Young artists’ display is ready for take-off

Thursday, March 5th, 2020

art by Jo Wilson

Date: 27 March 2020 – 28 March 2021
Location: Mezzanine Gallery, Hangars 3-5
Cost: Free

A collection of works by BA and MA Fine Art and Printmaking students from Middlesex University London will go on display at the Royal Air Force Museum London later this month. This vibrant new display is the result of the Museum’s community co-production and co-curation initiative in which local communities develop their understanding of collections though outreach.

Students were invited to respond creatively to a selection of drawings and watercolours chosen for the Museum’s forthcoming exhibition, ‘In Air and Fire: War Artists, the Battle of Britain and the Blitz’, opening to the public on 27 March. As well as closely engaging with the works behind the scenes, attending a drawing workshop, students engaged with displays around the Museum to consider wider visual and historical contexts for their subject-matter.

Middlesex University Associate Professor of Painting and Printmaking, Steve Mumberson said:
“The opportunity for students from the MA Printmaking, MA Fine Art and BA Fine Art to see and draw from works by original war artists – both well-known and unknown figures – proved to be a formative experience. Seeing works by little-known women war artists, either purchased by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee or produced independently, resonated with the students in different ways. It stirred them to reflect on the major events of the war and how these affected their grandparents across the world, both in terms of military involvement and socio-culturally. As for those of us who are older, the project has more immediately sparked thoughts about our parents’ involvement during those difficult months from the summer of 1940 and throughout the Blitz. This exhibition of our work represents those researches and engagements, personal to us all.”

The student’s art outreach project will showcase a wide range of works, featuring different approaches to printmaking – linocut, woodcut, etching, screenprint, and digital – as well as painting and installation.

Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries at Middlesex, Mark Hunter said:
“Middlesex University has enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with the RAF Museum. Students from across Dance, Photography, Illustration, Fine Art and Printmaking have collaborated with the Museum on a range of projects: the most recent of which saw our Fine Art and Printmaking students engage in a piece of outreach work by creatively responding to items from the collection. This was a wonderful opportunity to further our links in with the RAF Museum, the local community and the borough of Barnet more broadly”

The artwork will be displayed in the Mezzanine Gallery, adjacent to the ‘In Air and Fire’ exhibition in the Museum’s Art Gallery from 27 March 2020 until 28 March 2021, entry is free. For more information visit rafmuseum.org/london.

Furthering engagement with the local community, the Museum’s Heritage Outreach Officer led consultations with local community groups to garner their thoughts and opinions about some of the war artists’ works. These comments will be reflected in select community captions within two of the exhibition sections ‘Shelter and Civil Defence’ and ‘The Blitz’.

Five community groups; Age UK Barnet, Grange Big Local, Grahame Park Drop-in Group, ESOL (English as a Second or Foreign Language) learners, and the Museum’s ‘Art for Wellbeing’ cohort, actively participated in the consultation process, each group bringing a unique perspective to the works. Exhibition visitors will get to see which artworks were the most popular with each group and to join in the dialogue.

RAF Museum Heritage Outreach Officer, Rhiannon Watkinson said:
“With our local area having such strong links to The Battle of Britain and The Blitz – from the bombing of Colindale underground station to Fighter Command pilots flying out of RAF Hendon, I knew I had to invite discussion from our local community, to enrich participation with another layer of interpretation. The community captions also allow exhibition audiences to hear very different perspectives on the artworks – different voices.”

www.rafmuseum.org/london

In Air and Fire: War Artists, the Battle of Britain and the Blitz

Friday, February 21st, 2020

Graham Sutherland Camouflaged Bombers

Date: 27 March 2020 – 28 March 2021
Cost: Free entry

A collection of work exploring artists’ responses to the Battle of Britain and the Blitz (July 1940 – May 1941) as they represented evolving machinery, communications, and urban landscapes, shaped by what was an unprecedented ‘war in the air’, is set to go on display at the Royal Air Force Museum London next month.

The exhibition entitled ‘In Air and Fire: War Artists, the Battle of Britain and the Blitz’ will open to the public on Friday 27 March 2020 from 10.00am until 5.00pm daily. Visitors can view over sixty works of art, several of which will be on display for the first time as part of this exhibition. Entry is free and visitors to the RAF Museum will have until 28 March 2021 to view the work.

As sky battles unfolded across the South and East of England in the summer of 1940, followed by cities’ bombardment in proceeding months, artists produced a pictorial record of the war, many of their works commissioned and purchased by Sir Kenneth Clark’s War Artists’ Advisory Committee (WAAC).

The exhibition features works by Official War Artists, including Paul Nash, Graham Sutherland, Carel Weight, Anthony Gross, Richard Eurich and Eric Kennington. Yet it extends beyond the prominent male members of the British School, championed by Clark, to reflect the full range of war artists’ contributions. It seeks to bring together the stories and perspectives of artists from diverse backgrounds, highlighting the best of collection works from the period.

Comprising around half of the curated selection, the exhibition celebrates the works of women war artists, most of whom were overlooked for commissions, whose pictures were typically purchased by the patriarchal WAAC or produced for independent projects. They include Laura Knight, Doris Zinkeisen, Eve Kirk, Olga Lehmann, Rachel Reckitt, Mary Viola Paterson, Enid Abrahams, Elva Blacker, Elsie Gledstanes and Lilian Buchanan. Unofficial war artists, many involved with the relief effort of the Blitz, also contributed significant works on themes of civil defence and devastation.

Modernist artists drew inspiration from the formidable forms of fighter and bomber aircraft, representing them in themes of manufacture, repair, camouflage, and aerial operations. As the ‘personalities’ of modern warfare, planes became new portrait subjects. If ever more powerful aircraft inspired artists to evoke an ‘automative’ war, so too were they excited by the expressive possibilities of other new apparatus. The barrage balloon was an alluring subject for figurative artists, an ungainly behemoth, incongruous to the landscapes of everyday life, seemingly mightier than its human operatives.

But the human presence in this war was far from overlooked. Beyond the carapaces of their machines, pilots and crew of Fighter and Bomber Commands were famed in portraits promoting the achievements of the RAF. Furthermore, artist members of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force naturally documented the familiar people and spaces of the RAF stations they served. And with the onslaught of the Blitz, artists addressed domestic themes such as the Air Raid Precaution and fire services, ambulance and rescue work, and communal sheltering.

Alongside shelter, the blighted landscape became a major propagandist subject, to be reproduced across the world to proclaim Britain’s plight and fortitude. In updating the ruin scene, suggestive of a Romantic past, artists enshrined the memory and persistence of British culture. German exile Walter Nessler’s Premonition (1937) foretold a London Blitz, presenting an uncanny, dystopian vision of St Paul’s Cathedral rising from an inferno of twisted girders, shattered buildings and scattered buses.

RAF Museum Curator of Fine Art, Julia Beaumont-Jones said:
“As the exhibition will reveal, artists’ interests to interpret this war of ‘air and fire’ were diverse – influenced by the exigencies of employment; excited by new subjects to represent; and driven by a will to express experiences both shared and personal. Seeing these works together offers a rare insight into the diverse backgrounds and perspectives of war artists – from the prominent members of the British School who were officially commissioned, and the formerly overlooked contributions of women artists, to the work of the ‘civil defence artist’, the exiled artist, and the amateur ‘outsider artist’.”

Complementing the exhibition is a Mezzanine Gallery display of related work by Fine Art and Printmaking students from Middlesex University. For more information visit www.rafmuseum.org/london.

A ‘thank you’ to current serving personnel

Thursday, February 13th, 2020

Maths Alive at RAF Museum London

All current serving members of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces who are visiting the Royal Air Force Museum London before 15 March, will receive a special thank you gift.

The Museum will be offering all current serving personnel and their families, who visit MathsAlive!, the Museum’s latest exciting interactive exhibition specially created for children, a free ride on the 4D Theatre plus a limited edition MathsAlive! branded tote bag and Rubik’s cube (terms and conditions apply).

To take advantage of this offer serving personnel simply need to show their Military ID Card to staff at the entrance of the exhibition.

MathsAlive! can be found in Gallery 4’s temporary exhibition area, next to the 4D Theatre. Here, children will discover 18 thrilling and intriguing interactives that will help them explore the world of Maths through games and play. Maths has never been so much fun!

So, if you know a young person who loves dance, music and nature or would love to compete in a down-hill snowboard race, drive a Mars rover across the surface of the red planet or fight off computer viruses from within a giant computer game, take-off to the RAF Museum London! Admission to MathsAlive! and to the Museum is free.

MathsAlive! is open daily from 11.30am – 3.30pm during weekdays and 10.30am – 4.30pm at weekends and during February Half Term. For further details about this offer visit www.rafmuseum.org.uk/whatson. The exhibition is generously supported by Raytheon UK.

NFL Star Mario Addison at RAF Museum

Wednesday, July 3rd, 2019

Maria Addison at RAF Museum

On Monday July 1 2019, Mario Addison – NFL star of the Carolina Panthers – visited the RAF London Museum to find out more about the brave American men and women who fought alongside the Royal Air Force in the Second World War.

Mario’s guided tour was a chance to commemorate and celebrate the inspiring stories of the RAF and the enduring relationship between the US and UK, ahead of his own visit to RAF Lakenheath on July 4th, US Independence Day, where he will be meeting today’s British-based American servicemen and their families.

Mario is visiting London as the NFL celebrates its own centenary in 2019, and further engraining the sport’s own close US-UK ties with London’s newly-launched NFL Academy. Mario will also be returning to London with the Carolina Panthers in October as part of four NFL fixtures taking place in London.

www.rafmuseum.org