Category: London Events

Last week saw the introduction of the new immersive Dambusters Virtual Reality Experience at the RAF Museum London. For the first time ever, visitors to the Museum can step inside the story of this legendary raid through an authentic, interactive recreation of the Dambusters’ first mission on 16 May 1943 attacking the Möhne Dam.

Participants suit up in a vest and step inside an accurate physical set of a Lancaster. They are completely immersed and able to reach out to feel the window, fuselage and equipment of the Lancaster bomber. As the aircraft continues its mission, users will also feel the ‘roar of the Lancaster’s Merlin engines’, through their haptic vests.

They have complete 360° first person views and spatialised audio enabling them to see and hear everything happening outside and inside Lancaster G-George: the actions and conversations of the other crew members, reacting to the events happening outside, such as the crash of Hopgood’s Lancaster, the tracer fire streaking toward the bombers and ultimately, the breach of the massive Ruhr dam. Flying at merely 60 feet altitude the trees and dam parapet whoosh past at a speed of 232 miles per hour.

Yet, this is not a thrill-seeking ride, this is a historically accurate document, created by All Seeing Eye with input from No. 617 Squadron official historian, Robert Owen. Its level of accuracy is astounding and relies on actual memoirs of the crew members. We know who they were, when they were born, their ranks, their roles and ultimately how all seven died before the war was won…

The six men were personally chosen by Wing Commander Guy Gibson after he was asked to form and take control of a new squadron, originally called Squadron X, without being told what the mission was until much later. The other aircrew were not told their mission until the day before the raid. They spent weeks flying at low altitude cross-country and over water, preparing for that what they did not know.

One person who did know was Barnes Wallis, the famous engineer who had previously designed the geodetic structure of the Vickers Wellington bomber, another iconic aircraft of Bomber Command. He had come up with a solution to breach the German dams over the Ruhr valley. These dams provided hydroelectric power to the armaments industry nearby. It was believed that taking out these dams would result in a drop in Nazi war production. However, the dams were massive constructions, impossible to destroy by ordinary bombs.

Torpedoes and sea mines create shockwaves through the water, which rupture the hulls of ships. It was thought that such a weapon would do the trick. The Germans were also aware of this and they had placed torpedo nets inside the water. It was Barnes Wallis who came up with the idea to create a spherical bomb, which would bounce over the surface like a skipping stone, before sinking directly in front of the dam and explode. Through several live tests throughout the country, from Dorset to Wales and from Essex to Lincolnshire, he meticulously calculated the exact speed, altitude and distance which were required. Any deviation from this would result in failure.

It was clear the crew for the Lancaster, the only bomber capable of carrying this 9,250 pound mine, had to be the very best. They flew night after night in specially modified Lancasters. As the mine was too big to be carried internally, the bomb bay doors were removed and UPKEEP, as the bouncing bomb was officially called, was suspended underneath the fuselage. To save weight the mid-upper gun turret was removed with the air gunner moving to the front turret of the aircraft, a position normally taken over by the bomb aimer underneath. Another addition was downward facing searchlights which would provide the crew with the correct altitude indication, a mere 60 feet above the water.

19 Lancasters took off from RAF Scampton with Gibson’s G-George leading the attack. His bomb did not breach the dam and it probably took until the fifth Lancaster before ‘she went’. Throughout, Gibson kept flying over the target, drawing away anti-aircraft fire for the others. Visitors can witness the entire scene in the Virtual Reality Experience from two positions inside the aircraft: those of wireless operator Harlo ‘Terry’ Taerum and navigator Robert ‘Hutch’ Hutchison. These men made it back to RAF Scampton, but died only four months later in another sortie.

The outcome of the mission was a success: two out of the three dams were breached, severely disrupting the German energy supply. It also caused massive flooding in the area with the tragic death of hundreds of civilians, including Ukrainian slave labourers and Western prisoners of war. However, the Nazi authorities deviated the energy supply and, through a Herculean effort, the dams were repaired after weeks, instead of the predicted months. This takes nothing away from the accomplishment of the RAF bomber crews on that night in May 1943. They displayed an extraordinary level of professionalism and courage in an awe-inspiring raid, from which eight aircraft and 53 out of 133 ‘bomber boys’ did not return.

The RAF Museum is proud to be able to present this new experience to its audience as it brings a new perspective to the existing exhibition of the Dambuster raid which holds a replica of UPKEEP, better known as the ‘bouncing bomb’. Also on display is the actual office of Barnes Wallis, the designer of the bomb. We have added informative panels concerning the raid, the bouncing bomb and the crew members. Last but not least, an actual Lancaster stands proudly nearby, in Hangar 5.

The RAF Museum constantly works on broadening and diversifying the ways our visitors can discover and experience the history of the RAF. On 23 February, during February Half Term, we will be welcoming visitors including young aviators aged 8 and over to a special Open Cockpits and Cabs event at our London site that has been specially created for families.

On this day, our event attendees will be able to step over the barriers, get inside into the cabins and cockpits of some of the most iconic aircraft and helicopters in our collection and get a feeling of how it was like to fly these amazing machines. At the same time, our knowledgeable guides will deliver a detailed story about each aircraft and people who flew it.

For this Open Cockpits and Cabs event we have carefully selected some much-loved machines that will amaze and unleash the imaginations of our young visitors: our Sea King, Wessex, Merlin and Belvedere helicopters and our Jet Provost 5, Phantom, Chipmunk aircraft. In this blog, we explore some of the details about three of the remarkable aircraft that visitors will have access to on 23 February.

Our fantastic bright-yellow Sea King helicopter is on display in Hangar 1, telling the story of the RAF Search and Rescue units. Originally the Westland Sea King helicopter had been designed for submarine warfare, but was later adapted for long-range RAF search and rescue duties. Our Sea King was the first of initial batch of nineteen Sea King HAR Mk 3 helicopters produced for the RAF for Search and Rescue.

Its first flight took place in 1977. In 1986 our Sea King was delivered to No 22 Squadron and took part in countless rescue missions including searching and saving missing children, injured and ill people, mountain climbers, runners and fishermen.

One of the pilots of No 22 Squadron was HRH Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, and our Sea King helicopter was one of the aircraft he flew. His former colleague, Ayla Holdom, has shared a few stories about serving in the RAF Search and Rescue unit including some stories about serving with HRH Prince William as part our RAF Stories Project:

Please follow the link to listen to more Ayla’s stories.

Speaking of royalty, another of our helicopters, the Westland Wessex HCC4, was in service to The Royal Family. It was manufactured in 1969 and entered service with The Queen’s Flight at RAF Benson, Oxfordshire, where it was exclusively used for transporting The Royal Family and their guests around the UK.

The list of its royal passengers is very impressive: HM Queen Elizabeth, HRH the Prince of Wales, HRH the Duchess of Gloucester, HRH Princess Alexandria, HRH the Duke of Kent and many others. Moreover, our Wessex was also flown multiple times by HRH the Prince of Wales and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh. HRH Prince of Wales flew it for his first flight; and we have in our collection photographs of him flying his sons and Princess Diana in this helicopter. Visitors will have the opportunity to sit in the exact same seats as they did.

In 2002 the helicopter was delivered to the RAF Museum London to take its rightful place among other outstanding helicopters in our collection. On 23 February, its cabin will be open for all attendees of our Open Cockpits and Cabs event.

We also hold in our collection one of the major RAF combat aircraft flown during the Cold War, a McDonnell Douglas Phantom FGR2, which will also be open for this event. Our Phantom was ordered in 1966 and entered service in 1969 with the newly formed No 6 Squadron. It flew with many squadrons on many missions until 1997, when it was delivered to our London site.

In our Historic Hangars, right next to the Phantom, we have a silhouette of Squadron Leader Edward Smith, who flew the same type of Phantom during the Cold War. Edward visited our Museum last year and we interviewed him about flying this incredible machine.

These are just some of the stories behind just three of the aircraft that will be open at this event but we will open more on 23 February for our Open Cockpits and Cabs event.

We have deliberately chosen a Saturday daytime during Half Term to encourage more families to attend our event. If you would like to use this opportunity of getting closer to our treasures and discover their fascinating stories, please hurry up and do not miss your chance to book your tickets for our February Half Term Open Cockpits and Cabs event. The price is £15 each for general visitors, £7.50 for Museum Members. Each ticket will entitle you and your group to a mini guided tour of 12 aircraft in our collection with an individual member of our Aircraft Team who will guide you through the stories of each of these magnificent machines.

The site of our RAF Museum in Colindale, London has a long and enduring connection with aviation, even long before the creation of the Royal Air Force. Some of the very first flights in this country were held on what was a large open field in Colindale. In 1911, Claude Grahame-White bought what was by then known as the London Aerodrome and erected his own flying school, aircraft sheds and workshops.

Quite early on he developed the idea to hold weekly air displays at Hendon, starting over the weekend of 5-8 April 1912. The largest event of the year was the First Aerial Derby, organised by the Royal Aero Club and held on 8 June. An estimated crowd of 45,000 spectators was at Hendon, and an estimated 3 million around London witnessed the event! These were basically air races, though this aspect may have been of lesser importance than the actual spectacle of these often-bizarre contraptions.

The First World War interrupted civilian flying but in 1920 the first Royal Air Force Aerial Pageant was organised by the Grahame-White Company to raise money for service charities. 40,000 paid on the gate, but the crowd was reckoned to the much larger, with all the surrounding vantage points occupied, as they had been for pre-war displays.

In 1925 the RAF Aerial Pageant was renamed the RAF Display, but it was as popular as ever. The day was packed with air displays, which must have amazed the visitors. Compared to modern-day air shows the relatively slow moving aircraft flew much closer to the public. Some of the activities, such as bombing runs with live ammunition or air displays with aircraft tied together (!), would not have been allowed under modern regulations.

The 1928 programme, held at the RAF Museum’s Archives, shows that the day had a varied programme:
12.30 pm: individual aerobatics in which two pilots would take turns in exhibiting individual aerobatics. They would fly the Siskin, which was the standard fighter aircraft at the time.
1.55 pm: an altitude race between four specially painted Siskins, racing to reach the highest altitude within 15 minutes. They would carry a sealed barograph which would be read after the race.
2.15 pm: a demonstration shoot in which aircraft would try to machine gun designated dummy targets.

How interesting the 4.20 pm parade of new and experimental types must have been, as it would have given the public a glimpse of the future of the RAF. One aircraft on show was the Bristol Bulldog, which was to replace the Siskin as the standard fighter aircraft. A preserved example can be seen in the RAF Museum. However, some of these displayed aircraft would never see production, let alone service, such as the gigantic Beardmore Inflexible bomber or the futuristic Westland-Hill Pterodactyl flying wing.

This RAF Centenary year, we have captured the magic of the RAF Pageants by organising a wonderful family festival. A nostalgic celebration of the past Hendon Pageants, which took place at our London site on 15 September, brought back the style and the charm of the 1930s and gave our visitors a chance to immerse into this romantic era between two wars.

The event featured live vintage music, swing dancing demonstrations and lessons, an RAF Museum vehicles and a Merlin engine display, community and local interest stands. Additionally our visitors could enjoy the vintage fairground and the fascinating Living History area with numerous wonderful re-enactors bringing the swinging 30s to life. Our Hendon Pageant culminated with the breath-taking flypast of the Second Would War’s Lancaster bomber, the courtesy of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

In fact, the RAF Hendon station was much more than the ground for air displays. It even played a part in the Battle of Britain. In 1927 the airfield became the home to two Auxiliary Squadrons, which were manned by reserve personnel. One such squadron was No. 601 Squadron, which was nicknamed ‘the millionaires squadron’. It consisted of a group of wealthy aristocratic young men, all of whom were amateur aviators. During the Battle of Britain, the RAF station was briefly used by No. 504 Squadron. One of its pilots was Sergeant Ray Holmes, who became famous for deliberately ramming his Hurricane into a German Dornier bomber. The Hurricane gate guardian at the entrance of the RAF Museum is painted in his colours.

This year is the RAF’s Centenary year. Our purpose during this time is to commemorate the past, to celebrate the present and to inspire future generations to explore the RAF’s amazing story.

Our audience is growing and becoming younger and more diverse. As a result we have put together a calendar of exciting and educational events to make our summer programme more compelling and inspiring for our younger audience.

This Friday and Saturday (27-28 July 2018) we are hosting ‘Superhero Cinema’. Young visitors will be given the exciting opportunity to watch two animated blockbuster films ‘The Incredibles’ and ‘Big Hero 6’ right underneath of our magnificent Avro Lancaster, S for Sugar.

A world-famous bomber with the heart-stopping story of 139 military operations during Second World War is, we would argue, the perfect backdrop to inspire a new generation of future enthusiasts to start exploring our collections.

On 10-11 August ‘Feathers and Flight’ is coming to our London site when we will be hosting some of the amazing creatures that have inspired generations to dream about flying and aircraft design.

We will have a static display of glorious birds of prey including a Hawk, an Owl, a Falcon and an Eagle, plus regular flying demonstrations on each day. Visitors will be able to witness their magnificent beauty in our new central ‘airfield’ while also learning about each bird’s incredible capabilities.

Younger visitors will also have an opportunity to explore our thrilling Feathers and Flight Trail and to get creative in our ‘Messy Feathers’ workshop by making their own owl out of craft materials to take home and keep (Charges apply).

On 22-24 August, all young aviators are welcome to take part in our ‘Fast Jet Craft’ sessions – a series of exciting workshops where they are invited to create and decorate their own jet aircraft and jet kites before testing how they fly outside.

Even if you are unable to make it for any of our summer events, our brand-new exhibitions, which are open daily from 10.00am to 6.00pm, offer plenty of exciting activities and interactive fun for our younger visitors.

In our new exhibition ‘RAF Stories: The First 100 Years 1918–2018’ young visitors are welcome to try on the RAF uniform and get a feeling of what it is like to be a pilot by sitting in mini replicas of RAF aircraft placed next to their originals. What better way to fire their imaginations? We also hope our visitors take advantage of these models to take family photos that will make their day out truly unforgettable.

Teenage visitors will be captivated by the selection of challenging interactive activities we have in our ‘RAF Stories: The First 100 Years 1918–2018’ and our ‘RAF: First to the Future’ exhibitions both of which explain the cutting-edge technologies developed by and for the RAF during the last 100 years.

If you would like to discover whether you have what it takes to be a pilot, an engineer or an intelligent agent, then ‘RAF: First to the Future’ will be right up your street.

Youngsters, who dream about becoming a pilot, can now get a feel of what it is like to fly an aircraft by trying out our Flying Training Simulator. History buffs can plan a mission to help win the Battle of Britain by using our Plotting Table that simulates the work of a WAAF plotting team, and visitors can use our interactive debate table to decide what the future will look like.

We will also shortly have new a children’s playground offering an array of mini-versions of aircraft, vehicles and our Grahame-White Watchtower for younger visitor to explore while their parents enjoy lunch in our restaurant’s piazza nearby. They may think that they are playing, but they will be exploring and learning while doing so.

All in all we are confident that all of these activities will offer a fantastic family day out and inspire a new generation of children to embrace and to explore the RAF Story.

We look forward to welcoming you and your family in the near future. Don’t forget we are open daily from 10am to 6pm and entry to our site is free.

Every year in May we close the Museum’s London site for one day to welcome RAF veterans and current serving personnel and to celebrate and commemorate with them their precious legacy. In 2018, the RAF’s Centenary year, this very special reunion happened on 10 May.

This day is a brilliant and unique opportunity for all staff at the Museum to say BIG THANK YOU to all RAF personnel from the past and present – as well as future members of the Service. As a Museum dedicated to the RAF we can’t be grateful enough for all the help, support, invaluable objects and incredible real-life stories which the RAF provides for us so that we can share them with our visitors.

Over 1,000 extraordinary people, who served or are currently serving in the RAF, came from around the world to join this glorious celebration. Our audience was very broad and diverse from grey-haired and decorated war heroes to young cadets. But they all had one thing in common, the RAF.

Each of our guests had the thrilling opportunity of a special preview of our brand-new exhibitions, that will be opening on 30 June. Our new exhibitions are designed specifically to convey the RAF’s story and to bring it to life through real-life stories and our unique collection.

Museum CEO Maggie Appleton explained: ‘We do have an audience which is mainly beginners in terms of understanding the RAF, so it’s important that we talk in an accessible way and everything that we are sharing is based on tip-top research and the story is pinned to today so it’s grounded in the reality’.

Visitors, on the day, were excited and inspired by the new galleries. They appreciated our forward-thinking approach and the authenticity of all the objects as well as the interactive experiences available on the site.

Special guest Deputy Commander Operations, Air Marshal Stuart Atha remarked: ‘Telling stories is what the RAF Museum is all about and I think that the RAF Museum has done us proud at the way they have translated the RAF’s 100 years of history into the fantastic spaces that you see today.’

Guests were also treated to a breath-taking musical performance from The Jive Aces accompanied by two of The Satin Dollz, The Duettes and one half of Twin Swing near the Sunderland Flying Boat. Their rip-roaring and energetic music and much-loved songs were so irresistibly infectious, that many of our guests couldn’t help but rock up on the dance floor switching different dance styles to the amazement of the younger generations.

The celebration also featured the Presentation of the Bomber Command Association National Standard which very symbolically happened under our amazing Avro Lancaster. The presentation gathered a lot of current and former Bomber Command personnel, including the true war heroes, who flied Lancasters as young as 17.

As a RAF Museum Trustee and former Harrier Force Commander Malcolm White said: ‘To parade the Standard under the Lancaster recognises the past and but in our view, cements the future. In that respect for everyone who served in Bomber Command and indeed those at the Museum who have supported the Association this is a very special moment’.

The celebration also provided all our guests with a precious chance to meet their colleges and to catch up with them. Maybe not 100, but at least 60-70 years of the RAF was represented on this day on our site by the real-life characters and their amazing stories.

It was, and will continue to be, a unique and invaluable privilege for us to welcome all of them and turn the celebration in a truly memorable and sentimental gathering. As Air Marshal Stuart Atha stated: ‘The RAF 100 is about you. It is about saluting you, thanking you for your service, and commemorating those who have sacrificed their lives’.