Category: RAF Centenary Programme

100 years ago, on 1 April 1918, the Royal Air Force was formed along with a female branch of the service, the Women’s Royal Air Force, by merging together the two wings of the Air Service the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service.

As the Guardian reported on this day 100 years ago: ‘an old rivalry, which perhaps was not without its value as a stimulus to both sections, but which lost in confusion much more than it achieved by healthy competition, is ended in a single identity of uniform’. The Royal Air Force became the World’s first independent air force.

On the inauguration of the Royal Air Force, His Majesty the King George V sent the telegram to Lord Rothermere, the President of the Air Council saying:

‘Today the Royal Air Force, of which you are Minister in Charge, comes into existence as a third arm of the Defence of the Empire. As General-in-Chief I congratulate you on its birth, and I trust it may enjoy a vigorous and successful life. I am confident that the union of the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps will preserve and foster that esprit de corps which these two separate forces have created by their splendid deeds’.

His Majesty was right.

For 100 years, the RAF fearless servicemen and women have been involved in every major theatre of battle since the First World War and in countless crucial and dangerous missions after. The RAF has effected millions of lives, pushed scientific boundaries, driven innovations, served as the best example of unprecedented courage, valour and heroism and has become part of UK’s national identity.

On 1 April 2018, we celebrate the RAF’s 100 Birthday. The Centenary itself will be marked by a number of special events, activities and initiatives through the whole of 2018 including a Gala Concert at the Royal Albert Hall on 31 March and a Centenary Service in Westminster Abbey, a parade in The Mall and spectacular flypast over Buckingham Palace all on 10 July.

But on the for the day itself, 1 April, Royal Air Force Museum has prepared a spectacular celebration at both of its sites for all our visitors to reflect on the RAF’s history and achievements.

In London, we have planned a fantastic day out for you and all your family with theatre, talks, interactives, delicious meal and lots of fun. The Front of House Theatre Company will perform a brand new immersive and atmospheric performance bringing to life the incredible personal stories of real-life characters from 1918, such as Robbie Clarke and Grace Mary Berry, as well as involving the audience into drawing sketches with Lieutenant Indra Lal Roy and discovering the magic of flight in Claude Grahame-White’s Office.

London visitors will also be welcome to try on the flying jackets and uniforms in front of our beautiful aircraft and to discover the story of the Hendon airfield and aviation in Hendon. Our youngest visitors will colour special RAF Centenary paper flags; and families and friends are welcome to enjoy a delicious traditional Sunday lunch in our new restaurant, Claude’s.

London’s celebration will culminate with the arrival of the Centenary Baton Relay, a specially designed baton carried by the serving RAF personnel to 100 sites associated with the RAF in 100 days starting from the centre of London. Our site in London will be the first point on its journey across the globe and all our visitors are welcome to cheer on the Baton team, by waving their newly decorated flags.

At Cosford the celebration will last for 2 days, Sunday Easter 1 April and Monday Bank Holiday 2 April. Here, we have organised a range of exciting and thrilling events with living historians, interpreters, family activities and vintage vehicles – all of which will walk you through history, and help you explore 100 years of the Royal Air Force.

Cosford’s celebration will include the meeting with the originators of the Royal Flying Corps and the opportunity to see up close exactly what these young pilots had to do to defend our skies, and how this different it is from today. Marvel at the earliest flying technologies, from bi-planes to airships, discover by the stories of peacetime operations throughout history and the Royal Air Force’s wider community involvement, and get involved with our family friendly interactive talks, tactical mapping, and learn how to scramble to all manner of aircraft while exploring RAF missions around the world. Younger visitors will appreciate the opportunity to take a seat behind replica anti-aircraft guns, aim and fire in our ‘have-a-go’ anti-aircraft area. Visitors are also welcome to wonder at the skills of pilots in the new Jet Age; to practice their own Scramble to a Vulcan Bomber and to meet serving personnel from the RAF today.

All in all both sites will be offering visitors the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to discover the Royal Air Force in its amazing power and complexity on, arguably, one of the Royal Air Forces most historic of days.

The Spitfire 10K run was established at the RAF Museum, London in 2015 as part of the Battle of Britain 75 Anniversary, to remember the men and women who lost their lives during this highly significant moment in our history. The success of the event has enabled us to extend the offer to our site in Cosford. Since 2015 over 2,500 people have completed the Spitfire 10K.

This year the Royal Air Force marks it’s 100th Birthday. In this special year the Museum will be commemorating and inspiring future generations with the stories of the RAF.

Each runner who enters is given a very special name to wear during their run. This name holds incredible significance as someone who was fought and flew during the Battle of Britain. The RAF Museum aims to inspire people from all walks of life with the amazing stories associated with these names. Many of our runners will research the name and discover a story, and a life, they never knew. By running the Spitfire 10K with this name pinned to their running vest we are enabling these men and women to be remembered.

One runner commented:

‘I just wanted to say thank you so much for organising a great event…. I do a few 10K’s a year…. this was one of my favourite… I really liked running for someone who fell in the Battle of Britain. We researched the names when we got home and it really helped me keep going knowing I was representing someone.’ Sioned Mair Taylor.

Many runners choose to dress in style and run the Spitfire 10K in 1940s costumes or flying gear. It is a great day and an event that runners remember.

This year the Spitfire 10K will form part of a series of events taking place across the country celebrating and commemorating the history and achievements of the Royal Air Force and inspiring young people. It is an opportunity to raise vital funds for the RAF100 Appeal, which is a joint venture between the Royal Air Force and the four major RAF charities – the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund, the Royal Air Forces Association, the Royal Air Force Charitable Trust and the Royal Air Force Museum.

The aim of the Appeal is to raise money for the RAF family and to create a lasting legacy as we celebrate 100 years of the Royal Air Force in 2018.

If you would like to enter the Spitfire 10K there is still time to register at either London or Cosford. The races take place on the 1 and 2 September 2018. For more information about the cost of entry, times, t-shirts and sponsorship please visit our website.

Students from Rycotewood Furniture Centre in Oxford are currently working with the Royal Air Force Museum to develop a series of public seating as part of this year’s RAF Centenary.

Rycotewood Furniture Centre has been a highly respected institution for the past 75 years and holds on to its strong roots in skilled craftsmanship and woodworking. Live projects such as this one aim to provide students with real experience in the industry and are crucial to their educational development.

The inspiration for this project stems from the furniture manufacturing industry having a long and distinguished association with the Royal Air Force. As part of the war effort during the First World War, the furniture industry turned its skills to aircraft production and as a result, they equipped the Royal Air Force ranks with such famous aircraft types as the Sopwith Camel, the de Havilland Mosquito and the Airspeed Horsa troop-carrying glider. In turn, the furniture industry also underwent a huge shift.

Wartime necessity provided a powerful impetus for change away from hand tools and a look towards mechanisation. For many furniture makers, the requirements of military contracts often encouraged the simplified processes of working. New techniques that would go on to shape today’s furniture industry include batch production joinery, the introduction of large scale production of single items and high-precision engineering methods are a few examples.

The collaboration between the two industries spurred huge change all round and this project aims to pay homage to this relationship.

The students working with the Museum are currently in their first year of a BA in Furniture Design and Making and undertaking their first live project. This project ran for six weeks, in which time they produced extensive sketchbooks and a series of scale models representing their designs. Back in November, students, their tutors and representatives from the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers came down to the Museum to view the exhibitions and take stock of the venue.

The main aspect of this brief was for students to find something within the Museum that inspired them, whether it was the aircraft itself, the people behind the RAF or perhaps the grounds and local area. The Museum gave a series of presentations about the Centenary and students were then free to wonder the Hangars, sketch and explore what intrigued them. I paid a visit to the College a fortnight later and was thrilled to see what everyone had taken away from the Museum.

The students’ inspiration spanned for the engineering and physics of flight, to women in the RAF and even the RAF motto. Further development then went into their designs before sketch models were made. When I made my second visit a few weeks ago, students had finished the project and had laid out a series of scale models made from various materials including wood, Perspex, cloth and metal.

An exhibition of this work will be held in the Museum’s Art Gallery based in London from 14 March until September 2018.

RAF Inspired is part of the Historic Hendon project that is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Preparations for the RAF Centenary development at the RAF Museum London have provided many challenges for the Museum’s Cosford based Conservation Centre (MBCC) team. Over the past eighteen months some fifty individual aircraft moves have taken place across both our London and Cosford sites, including several airframes which have been rotated into our Reserve Collection at Stafford.

The work involved has ranged from the complete dismantling of airframes to simple repositioning of aircraft within their existing display environments. Each aircraft has its own individual needs and requirements; so much planning is needed prior to any move. This task involves consulting the relevant air publications to ensure any work is in accordance with procedures and practices relevant to each particular type, the compilation of the necessary Risk Assessment and Method Statement documents plus consultation with a wide range of stakeholders across the Museum to ensure everything flows with the minimum of disruption.

To aid this task we’ve been using the specialist knowledge and expertise of several external organisations such as GJD Engineering who dismantled and moved our Heinkel He 111, Messerschmitt Bf 110 and Junkers Ju 88. We’ve also been fortunate to receive support from the de Havilland Aircraft Museum at Salisbury Hall near St Albans. In a great example of inter-museum collaboration and volunteering partnership, a specialist team from Salisbury Hall recently assisted with the move of our de Havilland Mosquito B.35 TJ138 from ‘Milestones of Flight’ to the Bomber Command Hall. This was necessary as there is not sufficient space on-site to transfer the aircraft, in a complete state, between the respective buildings.

The Mosquito needs no introduction to the readers of our online blog but it is worth noting that it was originally designed as a high speed unarmed bomber relying on its performance to outpace defending fighters. This was a revolutionary concept when first proposed to the Air Ministry but, despite initial opposition, the Mosquito went on to become arguably the most versatile military aircraft of all time, a true ‘Jack of all trades’ but master of each and every one.

The primary structure of the Mosquito airframe was built of wood, an anachronism in the age of the metal monoplane but one which made great sense to de Havillands for they were well versed in building high performance wooden monoplanes such as the 1934 Comet Racer and the 1937 Albatross high speed mail plane/airliner. Wooden construction allowed a prototype to be produced quickly and utilised a vast untapped wood working industry for quantity production.

In this respect, the Mosquito was unique for a front-line combat aircraft as it was designed to be produced by the non-traditional aircraft industry i.e. cabinet makers and furniture manufacturers who, once they’d mastered working to the extremely high tolerances required, turned out Mosquitoes in their thousands. Additionally, as a non-strategic material, wood construction made very little demand on the hard-pressed metal industries of the day and allowed dispersed production across a wide range of sub-contractors.

Due to the intensity of the MBCC work programme, in January 2017 we approached the de Havilland Museum for assistance with the dismantling and move of the Mosquito. They were only too willing to assist and the Chief Engineer of their Mosquito Restoration Team, Gerry Mears, visited RAF Museum London for a series of meetings with MBCC Manager Darren Priday – through these a plan was put together and a method statement/risk assessment compiled for the aircraft to be moved later in the year. The de Havilland Museum is Britain’s oldest established aviation Museum and first opened its doors to the public on May 15 1959.

Based at the 17th Century manor house of Salisbury Hall near London Colney, the house was originally employed by de Havilland’s as a design centre for the Mosquito and five examples, including the original first prototype, were constructed there before quantity production transferred to the company’s main Hatfield Headquarters. The choice of Salisbury Hall was made for purely practical reasons, the house offered peace and security for the design team, away from the inevitable disturbances of the busy Hatfield factory plus the ever-present threat of enemy bombing.

The first prototype Mosquito, W4050, made its maiden flight from Hatfield on 25 November 1940 and served as a ‘test bed’ and research aircraft until its retirement in December 1943. Through what has to be termed a ‘miracle of deliverance’ W4050 survived to become the first exhibit (back at the land of its birth) at what was then known as the Mosquito Aircraft Museum.

In 1970 another Mosquito joined the fold, TT.35 TA634, and this was complemented by the fuselage of FB.VI TA122 in 1978. Since then the Museum has grown to encapsulate all things de Havilland and remains the only place in the world where one can see three Mosquitoes in one location. The Museum is undoubtedly the UK centre of expertise on all things Mosquito, both from a technical and practical perspective. The in-house Mosquito Restoration Team have overseen the restoration and conservation of the TT.35 TA634, original prototype W4050 and are now in the final stages of completing FB.VI TA122, a truly international project encompassing parts from all over the world. In August 2017 the team oversaw the dismantling and reassembly of Tony Agar’s Mosquito NF.II HJ711 for its move from the Yorkshire Air Museum (Elvington) to the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre at East Kirkby, as such they are extremely familiar with the type!

Work on dismantling the Hendon Mosquito airframe began on Monday 11 September 2017. MBCC technicians Ian Osborne, John Warburton and Mick Griffiths headed up the RAFM contingent, overseen by Ian in his capacity as Deputy Manager of the MBCC. Led by Gerry Mears, the de Havilland Museum team consisted of Tony Markham, Roy Thomas, John Hatton, Malcolm Poulton, Dave Cox and Barry Tucker (all volunteers, the de Havilland Museum team enrolled as RAFM volunteers for the duration of the operation). Additional and very welcome assistance was provided by Sqn Ldr Rick Lipscomb of RAF Heritage Branch.

The de Havilland team also provided the specialist equipment required for the task including jacks, wing and fuselage trestles, fuselage/wing lifting beam plus the all-important ‘jury-strut’ necessary to brace the fuselage during its removal from/re-assembly to the wing. During the week prior to dismantling of the airframe, preparatory work had been undertaken by the MBCC including the removal of engine cowlings spinners, propellers plus the engines – this preparatory work was invaluable.

The team’s first task was to prepare the aircraft for removal from its display support frame in Milestones of Flight, once this has been accomplished the airframe could be lowered to the ground for dismantling to begin in earnest. The display support frame elevated the Mosquito some 10ft above floor level, this made the removal operation challenging as it would need to be a two-crane lift, one lifting the wing and centre fuselage while the other supported the aft fuselage at bulkhead number 5. Once the aircraft was suspended the support frame would be moved away and the aircraft safely lowered to the floor. Added to the challenge was the relatively confined space of Milestones.

However, by the end of Monday 13 September the airframe had been prepared in readiness for the lift which successfully took place on Wednesday 15. The team then prepared the airframe ready for the fuselage to detach from the wing. For strength, lightness and simplicity, the Mosquito wing is constructed in one piece and measure some 54ft from tip to tip. The fuselage and wing are connected by just four bolts, two (referred to as ‘Joint A’) on the forward top surface of the wing (accessible from the aft cockpit area) and two on the rear spar (‘Joint B’).

Once the fuselage had been lifted from the wing a jury-strut had to be installed to brace the ‘wing gap’ as this is the weakest point of the fuselage structure. On Friday 15 September this critical operation took place and, despite some initial complications, all went well and the fuselage was lowered into its bespoke transport cradle ready for transfer to the Bomber Command Hall. The wing was then lowered onto its transport cradle and moved to Bomber Command later that afternoon.

Following the weekend break, the de Havilland team began transferring the remaining Mosquito airframe components to the Bomber Command Hall on Monday 18 September, the fuselage following on the morning of Wednesday 20 September. During Wednesday afternoon reassembly of the Mosquito began in Bomber Command Hall, the aircraft now positioned to the port side of our B-17G Flying Fortress. Due to the restricted space available for the crane, re-uniting the fuselage to the wing presented some challenges but this, the trickiest part of the operation, was successfully carried out and the team finished work at 18.30.

Over the next couple of weeks the de Havilland team completed the reassembly of TJ138, the aircraft being lowered back onto its undercarriage on 13 October. As previously mentioned, this whole operation is a great example of inter-museum collaboration and volunteer partnerships – we are extremely grateful to the de Havilland Museum for looking after this iconic aircraft for us so well.

This blog was previously published in the winter 2018 edition of RADAR, the Museum’s Membership Magazine.

Over the last two years, the RAF Museum has been exploring and strengthening its links to local history. A key organisation to the history of RAF Hendon is 120 Squadron Air Training Corps (ATC), and through the Historic Hendon Project the Museum has been working with the Squadron to explore opportunities for volunteering and storytelling.

The Air Training Corps aims to promote and encourage interest in aviation and the Royal Air Force among young people. 120 Squadron have had a very long association with the RAF Hendon site, and was the longest resident unit at RAF Hendon (1949 – 1988).

120 Sqn was formed in March 1938, with their headquarters on Brent Street, before moving to St. Mary’s School on Greyhound Hill in 1940. In 1949, 120 Sqn absorbed 1154 Mill Hill Sqn and 410 Edgware Sqn, and moved into four deserted huts on the northwest corner of RAF Hendon. 120 Sqn moved to join 617 Volunteer Gliding School (VGS) in one of the hangars that now forms the northern end of the RAF Museum’s main building (Hangar 4) – 120 Sqn had half of the hangar, and 617 Sqn had the other half.

In 1969, ahead of the opening of the RAF Museum, 120 Sqn moved again, this time into purpose building accommodation on Aerodrome Road, behind the Grahame-White Watch Tower (then in its original location, before its was moved onto the RAF Museum site in 2010).

RAF Hendon closed in 1988, and so two years later 120 Sqn moved into a new purpose-built Headquarters near Watling Park. They are still there now, under the leadership of Officer Commanding Flight Lieutenant RAFVR(T) Anthony Fernandes.

Cadets from 120 Sqn have had a presence at the RAF Museum site for many years. In 2016, they had an opportunity to go out into the community to represent the Squadron, the RAF, and the Museum as part of the Historic Hendon Project, funded by Heritage Lottery Fund and John Lyon’s Charity. Cadets supported the Museum at community events during 2016 and 2017, attending uniform and working with local families on fun craft activities, such as making craft helicopters and gliders, and running codebreaking activities. Reception was incredibly positive from residents, who were thrilled to see young men and women in full uniform helping out, and it had a huge value in connecting local people in Colindale and Hendon to the RAF heritage of their home.

120 Sqn Cadets also contributed material in the co-curation workshops run by the Museum in 2017. As part of a project, to tell different stories from the history of Hendon, Cadets made collages from historic material. Several of the stories highlighted by the Cadets were more personal, about themselves and their Squadron, reflecting the comradeship on display in the Squadron.

This was nicely summed up by Corporal Eghosa Igori, who says “120 is quite a close unit – I’m comfortable and friends with everyone here”. This highlights an important function that the Air Cadets serves, bringing young people together to have fun and learn new skills. The collages produced by the Cadets helped to identify stories that will influence site interpretation produced by the Museum as part of the Historic Hendon Project.

Soon one Cadet from 120 Sqn will be a permanent fixture at the Museum. We are producing a silhouette of Taila-leigh Grose as part of our new galleries and exhibitions.

With silhouettes in the exhibitions drawn from 100 years of RAF history, Taila-leigh will represent the importance and role that the Air Cadets play in the RAF. Her thoughts sum up the role of the Air Cadets, and why 120 Sqn is such an important presence in the RAF Museum community: “Even though cadets is about discipline, they also challenge you to your limits… like flying, it’s like a different experience because you’re pushing your boundaries and doing stuff you’ve never done”.

In 1943, during the Second World War, the RAF Hendon airbase had three runways and covered approximately 200 acres of ground. The airfield was roughly rectangular, with the perimeter tapering on the southern end and expanding at the North end.

Fast-forward to 2018 and the RAF Museum is approaching the end of it Centenary Programme of works. Part of the works involves a substantial renovation of the Museum site to create a sense of place, and bring back echoes of the original airfield. Grass has been laid across the site, just as there would have been on the site dating back to the opening of the London Aerodrome by Claude Grahame-White in 1911. Historic RAF buildings on the site have been refreshed, and the six hangars that house the Museum’s aircraft collection have been linked by a track-way that takes its inspiration from the perimeter of RAF Hendon – roughly rectangular in shape, and smaller at one end tapering into a larger opposite end.

Pathways have been installed across the grass inside the perimeter track, following the alignment seen in the original runways. From the air, the inspiration in the design is clear to see and prompts a comparison between historic photographs, and the layout of the RAF Museum site.

Alongside paying tribute to the layout of the original airfield, the Museum has added some interesting new features. One of these is the incorporation of a ‘swale’. A swale is a low tract of marshy land, and ours is an artificial swale that has been introduced to assist with flood prevention in Hangar 5 (Bomber Command Hall). The swale will manage the water runoff, and we will be planting around it.

Also of interest is a new playground for children. Designed by Flights of Fantasy, it will contain play equipment based around iconic aircraft such as the Spitfire and Tornado, and will include a playhouse replica of the Grahame-White Watch Tower. The playground will be set on a site next to Claude’s Restaurant that also echoes the layout of the old airfield perimeter track – a mini-airfield inside our mini-airfield!

Historic RAF Hendon buildings dating to the 1930s have been refreshed and now serve Museum purposes. Building 52, a former Mess Hall and Store, has been completely renovated into a new restaurant, called Claude’s. Future interpretation that tells the story of the site’s history of pageants and flying events will be installed as part of the Historic Hendon project. Building 69 has also been refreshed, and the former parachute packing building has become the Museum’s new volunteer hub.

Tying these elements together, we are developing a map of the site, and several digital trails that tell stories of Hendon. The map will help visitors to find their way around the site, moving from hangar to hangar. Digital trails, focussing on Historic Hendon and 601 Squadron, will tell stories that bring the site to life for visitors. Material from our archives including image, video and audio will be available to explore in a trail format via smart devices. The trails will link disparate stories from the history of Hendon together with our display collection of aircraft and ephemera, taking you on a journey across the site and across history.

The transformation of London’s site has been supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund
plus other generous supporters.

With the recent handover of Hangar 1 by SDC a group of the RAF Museum’s senior staff, including the Chief Executive, found out what it would be like to be a contractor working at the Museum today…..

We were required to attend an induction session given by Ryan Lee, Site Manager from the Hub, who are fitting out three new permanent exhibitions which will open later in 2018 to mark the RAF’s centenary. The new exhibition spaces are now under The Hub’s management, and all sub-contractors and Museum staff entering have to follow the rules and safeguards to the letter.

Ryan has seen lots of visitors, including staff who think it’s fine ‘just to pop in for five minutes’ (surely he can’t have been talking about RAF Museum staff?). We were told to remember that there is yellow and red card health and safety system – three strikes and you can’t come back on site – so I started listening really closely.

As well as understanding the protective clothing needed to work on and visit the site, we are told to treat the beautiful new interior like we would our own homes, that listening to the radio is OK but headphones are a no-no, as is any dodgy language. Finally we were urged to always make sure that we flushed after we finished! It made me realise the huge range of issues there are when you are running a complex site well and safely.

I’m so looking forward to seeing the new exhibitions come to life over the next few months, but I’ll be wearing the right kit, walking in the right places and certainly won’t be using bad words – thanks Ryan.

In the latest of a regular series of video blogs that look at the changes taking place at our London site as part of the Museum’s RAF Centenary 2018 Transformation Programme, we interview Head of Collections Ian Thirsk and ask him why the arrival of Westland Sea King HAR3 is such an important edition to the Museum’s collection.

Sea King Helicopter HAR3 will be telling an important part of RAF’s story in London’s Hangar 1, which will open to the public summer 2018. It was one of the RAF’s last dedicated Search and Rescue helicopters, retiring from active service in 2016.

We will be posting more video blogs talking about what is happening at our London site over the next few weeks, so keep visiting this section of our website.

In the latest of a regular series of video blogs that look at the changes taking place at our London site as part of the Museum’s RAF Centenary 2018 Transformation Programme, we take the protective covers off the Sunderland Flying Boat.

The Sunderland Flying Boat will be one of the first large objects that visitors will be able to view as they use the Museum’s new Main Entrance from summer 2018…and, as before, they will be able to explore its interior.

We will be posting more video blogs talking about what is happening at our London site over the next few weeks, so keep visiting this section of our website.

Historic Hendon is a Heritage Lottery Funded project that involves the Museum working in partnership with our local community to develop interpretation and activities that reference the local area’s unique airfield heritage.

The process as undertaken has enabled the Museum to look at a new way of telling stories through Co-Curation. I have previously written about the genesis and research of the RAF Museum’s Historic Hendon project here.

Co-Curation is a process that involves Museum staff, volunteers, visitors, and members of local community groups working together to discover and identify key themes that help tell the local story of the RAF in Hendon.

This previous blog explored the Co-Discovery part of the project, and this blog will focus on the next part of the process: Co-Design.

Co-Design involves the local community and RAF Museum staff identifying stories and narratives using the material identified in the Co-Discovery workshops. The Co-Design sessions were held at the RAF Museum and in community locations, and were led by our design team Aberrant Architecture. The workshops were interactive and artistic, involving making narrative collages. The aim was to encourage participants to identify or tell stories they felt were important, and that linked to the most popular themes identified in Co-Discovery.

In Co-Discovery, participants were investigating parts of the Historic Hendon collection that linked to eight different themes. We collected data on what the most popular themes were to participants, with the most popular themes emerging as ‘Early Days of Flight’, ‘Hendon as a Visitor Attraction’, ‘Women of Hendon’ and ‘Beyond the Airfield’.

Using the data we had collected as a guide, the most popular elements of the themes were combined and explored in more depth. New material was researched, bringing new images, stories and objects into the project to provide deeper context. For example, the most popular Co-Discovery theme was ‘Women of Hendon’, so in Co-Design there were more stories and images relating to the various roles of women at Hendon available to use and explore. Additionally, local stories recorded during the Co-Discovery process were turned into sound bite quotes.

This left us with five themes to explore in Co-Design:

1. Design and Manufacture
2. Life and Legacy after the Airfield
3. Military Base
4. Training and Learning
5. Visitor Attraction

Each theme was explored twice. We looked to link up the themes to groups that would want to tell relevant stories. For example, we worked with cadets from the 120 Squadron ATC (Air Training Corps) for the ‘Training and Learning’ theme, as they are currently learning all about the Royal Air Force in their capacity as cadets.

We ran ten workshops in total, hosted in various locations including the RAF Museum, the Barnet Multicultural Community Centre, Pulse Community Flat, ARTiculate Community Fair, the Grahame Park One Stop Shop, Chandos Arms pub and the 120 Squadron ATC HQ. There were 76 participants across the ten sessions, with 84 collages created in total.

During each Co-Design workshop, the participants were asked a central question, such as ‘how would you tell the story of Hendon as a visitor attraction?’ Participants explored material from the Historic Hendon collection that related to the theme of the session. The historic material was on sheets with an image and a caption. For each session there were around 30 different images. Participants then cut out the images and stuck them onto a four-panel sheet, making a collage. The aim of the collage was to build a narrative using the images that the participants felt helped tell the story of Hendon. The workshop leads from the RAF Museum and Aberrant Architecture helped participants to explore and discuss the stories, and participants presented their stories back to the group, the workshop leaders, or to each other individually at the end of the session.

The ten workshops had input from a diverse section of ages, backgrounds, abilities and localities. The groups included staff from the RAF Museum at every session, enabling Museum staff to discuss ideas with local people, and to tell them stories about local history. Many stories were identified during Co-Design; some personal, some historical, and some thematic. Themes started to emerge across the sessions, with ideas around making things, skills transfer and togetherness coming to the fore across the five themes. Analysis of the collages has shown us some of the most popular stories, objects and themes which crop up multiple times. We have also seen specific narratives emerge from each theme. For example, in the Design and Manufacture theme, the culture of the Grahame-White Company and the transfer of skills by the female workforce during the First World War came to the fore, exemplified by objects such as a thimble used for sewing aircraft fabric, and a monogrammed cup and saucer of the GW company.

We are now moving from the Co-Design phase of the project to designing the installations to go onto the green space on the Museum site. Several ideas have been put forward for this, and we are looking to use the site interpretation that tells the story of Historic Hendon to let people define their own use of the green space. This includes ideas for installations that can be flexible and moveable to the needs of the users, as well as having multiple uses.

One such idea came out of the Co-Design sessions – the idea to print the collages onto fabric, and to sew them together as a community picnic blanket for use at the Museum or as bean-bags that would tell the story of our local area.

An idea like this demonstrates the value of a project like this – bringing the community to the heart of the work we are doing, involving them in decision-making, and telling stories suggested by local residents.

You can now view another outcome from this work our interactive Historic Hendon poster.

Historic Hendon is a Heritage Lottery Funded project that involves the Museum working in partnership with our local community to develop interpretation and activities that reference local area’s unique airfield heritage.

The process undertaken has enabled the Museum to look at a new way of telling stories through Co-Curation. I have previously written about the genesis and research of the RAF Museum’s Historic Hendon project here.

Co-Curation is a process that involves Museum staff, volunteers, visitors, and members of local community groups working together to discover and identify key themes that help tell the local story of the RAF in Hendon.

This blog will focus on the first part of this process: Co-Discovery.

Co-Discovery involves the local community ‘discovering’ the history local to them through a series of workshops that were held at the RAF Museum, and in community locations. The workshops were fun and interactive, including model making and crafting, and were led by our design team, Aberrant Architecture. During development of the Historic Hendon project, it was identified that many local people did not know that they were living on a former airfield.

The Co-Discovery sessions sought to mitigate this, and to engage local people with their shared history. Most importantly, we wanted our residents to work closely with Museum staff, and to help us to tell their story.

We started by identifying images, objects, stories, and people stories from the Historic Hendon collection that related to eight key themes:

– Auxiliaries and the Lost Hangar – stories of the Auxiliary Air Force Squadrons based at Hendon, including the famed 601 ‘Millionaires’ Squadron and the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAFs)

– Beyond the Airfield, looking at the impact of the RAF history on the wider local communities in Colindale and Hendon

– Design and Manufacture of aircraft, other vehicles, and even a bedspread made from purloined aircraft fabric!

– The Early Days of Flight, looking at the impact of Claude Grahame-White and the opening of the London aerodrome

– Training and Learning, featuring material relating 120 Sqn ATC – our resident Air Training Corps
Hendon as a Visitor Attraction, with a focus on the Hendon Pageants, and of course the Royal Air Force Museum

– Women of Hendon, from the wartime contributions by WAAFs to the women who frequented the glamorous air shows of the 1930s, to the women sewing aircraft parts in Grahame-White’s factories

– The First and Second World Wars, and stories of what happened in Hendon at the time, including the first night air defence of a city, and residents living through the blitz.

Participants looked through each table of material. This gave the participants a chance to explore the collection at their own pace, identifying stories, images and objects that they related to and thought best told the story of Hendon. Volunteers and staff were on hand to talk through specific stories and answer any questions. Using a sheet, participants then graded which themes were the most interesting to them, with a mark out of ten. This allowed us later to tot up the scores, and find out which themes went down best. The score were actually very close across the board, except for the ‘Women of Hendon’ theme, which emerged as the clear winner!

Participants then worked one-to one with RAF Museum staff using a second sheet. Firstly, they contributed their thoughts, reactions, and personal stories on the back of the sheet. Then on the front, they drew a ‘Squadron Logo’ that summed up Hendon to them. Some chose emblems associated with the history of RAF Hendon and Claude Grahame-White. Others approached it from a more personal view, using local buildings, people, and personal stories in their squadron logos.

We held three workshops at the Museum, then three in community locations: The One Stop Shop on the Grahame Park Estate; the Barnet African and Caribbean Community Centre; and the Chandos Arms pub on Colindale Avenue (which definitely, definitely means going to the pub counts as work). Some people attended after seeing adverts at the museum or from our host partners, whereas some people happened luckily be there on the day. One man remarked ‘I didn’t think when I came in today I would be able to contribute to the Museum….this has sparked memories from growing up that I didn’t remember, which I’m now realising had a huge effect on me’.

In total sixty people took part across six sessions, sharing their stories, ideas and opinions. We heard from new arrivals, from people who had lived here for over forty years, and from people who had lived in the local area many years ago before moving away. Some of my favourite stories included: a lady who used to skateboard on the former runways as a child; a gent who built rafts and sailed on the Welsh Harp aged 10 (despite not learning swim till he was 38!); a lady who thought the most inspiring thing about Colindale was her ‘local hero’ Jan, the Community Outreach Work at the One Stop Shop; a man who shared a photograph of his late brother who was a Navigator in a Hercules; and a lady who brought a scrap book with her to show us the designs for the murals she helped paint around Grahame Park.

The result of the sessions was a research drawing, by designers Aberrant Architecture. The drawing represents a mix of the key themes from the workshops, and incorporates key stories and objects from the sessions, including the red socks of 601 Squadron, the Grahame-White ‘Half Cup’, and the termination letter of Miss Elizabeth Cox.

Co-Discovery is the first part of the Historic Hendon project, with work continuing in a ‘Co-Design’ phase. So far it has been very successful, and a great opportunity for us to engage with local residents, and to link up with some wonderful local partners to help deliver the sessions. We have now begun to identify the themes that the community feel best tell the Hendon story, as we begin to look at ways to tell Historic Hendon stories on the museum site through displays designed in partnership between the museum and the local community.

If you would like to see the Historic Hendon poster in full, it is currently on display in the Museum’s Main Entrance.

Explore the electronic version of the poster here. To discover its fascinating stories just click on the open book symbol located next to the item you would like to learn more about.

Historic Hendon is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

In 2018 The RAF Museum is celebrating the Centenary of the Royal Air Force through a multi-million pound transformation of its site, with new displays and exhibitions. One of the key parts of the Centenary plan is to tell the story of ‘Historic Hendon’, focusing on sharing the historical significance of the Museum’s site as the London Aerodrome and RAF Hendon.

The Museum has been working with local people and community partners over the last year to develop interpretation and activities that reference the site and
the local area’s unique airfield heritage. Historic Hendon is supported by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, to help develop some of these activities, which has presented some exciting opportunities for the Museum to look at a new way of telling stories.

The key vision in the Historic Hendon interpretation project has been to bring local visitors to the heart of our site. With the re-design, a large new green space will be created in the middle of the Museum site, with a perimeter track that echoes the former airfield track linking all of our buildings together. As a free entry site, we are keen to encourage local people to come and visit, and spend time using the new space. Intrinsically, this linked the green space and the community together. It followed that the stories we told in the green space at the heart of the site should also relate to our local community, and tell the local story of ‘Historic Hendon’.

I came to the Museum in March 2016, to take up the first ever community-focussed post at the RAF Museum. The Museum had worked with the local community on a regular basis prior to this, but I soon set about talking to our local stakeholders and visitors.

Two things overwhelmingly emerged from months of conversations:

1. Many in the local community did not know that the RAF Museum existed despite our prior efforts!
2. Even more people did not know that they lived on what used to be an airfield!

The RAF Museum’s London site is situated on the former location of RAF Hendon, but the history of the area as an airfield goes much further back than the RAF. In 1909 Everett & Edgecombe built a small aircraft on the site, and in 1911 Claude Grahame-White purchased the land, established a flying school, and named it the London Aerodrome.

Later the land was purchased by the government in 1925, and RAF Hendon came into being. The last aircraft landed at Hendon in 1968, and the Museum opened in 1972 in four of RAF Hendon’s former hangars. The aerodrome was slowly broken up and sold off as land for housing, with the Grahame Park Estate being constructed, and new residents moving to the area from all over the world – something we are seeing again in the modern day as 10,000 new homes are currently under construction in Colindale. Reminders of the airfield still survive through historic locations and buildings such as Aeroville, Aerodrome Stores and the Officer’s Mess (which is now student halls!); through road, house, and building names; and of course, through the
memories of local residents.

We knew that the key way to tell these stories on-site was through our collections. We have an incredible collection of over 3,000 objects that relate to the history of Hendon and Colindale, including images from 1911 when the site was a grass field, all the way through to construction of the Grahame Park Estate and RAF Museum in the 1970s and 1980s. These objects and
images spark memories and fascination for many of our local community, who still remember the site as a base and will remember events in the local area – my own dad even remembered going to the last Hendon air display in the 1960s! I thought it important to find out what local people wanted from the Museum, what they knew already about local history, and how we could work together to tell local stories.

In February 2017, we hired Aberrant Architecture, a design company based at Central Saint Martins College in London, to work on the project alongside the Museum Interpretation & Exhibitions team. Aberrant Architecture proposed a two-part process of ‘Co-Discovery’ and ‘Co-Design’ workshop sessions involving staff, volunteers, visitors, and members of local community
groups working together to discover and identify key themes that help tell the local story of the RAF in Hendon.

In total six Co-Discovery workshops were held at the Museum and in community locations including The Chandos Arms pub, the One Stop Shop on Grahame Park, and the Barnet African and Caribbean Association. Inviting the community to discover, identify and design the stories they were interested in rather than dictating to visitors the stories we wanted to tell signified an important change in the Museum’s approach to storytelling: bringing local people to the heart of the site to tell their stories.

Historic Hendon is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund

In this blog Paul Hudson-Knight talks to Martin Morgans about the stories he’s discovering for Extraordinary Editions’ RAF Anthology

Currently I am busily delving through the archives at the RAF Museum and the Air Historical Branch preparing the RAF Centenary Anthology to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Royal Air Force in 2018.

I know that I am going to find stories of valour, of courage and of heroism under fire. I know also that I will find stories of mavericks, oddballs and contrarians, but I never anticipated finding the extraordinary story of Flight Lieutenant Ralph Henry Lucky – a P.O.W (Prisoner of War) who was anything but, which I discovered in the archives of the Air Historical Branch.

Ralph Henry Lucky was born in 1896, he lived in Northampton and in peacetime England he was an agricultural inspector – an ordinary man living an ordinary life – until the war came and the RAF took in men from a huge variety of occupations and gave them new ones. The agricultural inspector became an Intelligence Officer and Interpreter.

On the 14 February 1941 Lucky was part of a group that parachuted in to Calitri in Italy in order to blow up a viaduct. Unfortunately, at this point, Ralph’s luck ran out and he and his party were captured. A few weeks short of his 45th birthday and having done his bit you could have forgiven the Flight Lieutenant if he had sat out the war, but no, Ralph Henry Lucky was made of sterner stuff.

Lucky by name but not by nature, Ralph was not just a serial escapee, it turns out he was the surreal master of the unlikely plan, the most brazen opportunist and an eternal optimist. But I’ll let him tell you the story in his own words.

‘On approximately 9 January 1942 at Campo 27 I sprinkled mustard powder inside my underwear which I wore for three days and nights. I then had my back scrubbed until the flesh was raw. On approx. 13 January I reported sick and the Italian doctor diagnosed scabies. He sent me under escort to Florence for treatment.

I was dressed in an Italian-made RAF uniform which was easily convertible to look like that of an Italian Air Force officer. I also wore a beard.

On the journey to Florence I persuaded my escort to take me round to see the sights before we went to the hospital. On arrival I got him to carry my suitcase, which was very heavy. We walked around the city until dusk, and in a crowded main street I spoke to a woman while my escort was momentarily separated from me. I asked this woman to get a taxi and meet me outside a nearby barber’s shop. She mistook me for an Italian Air Force officer.

A few moments later I escaped from my escort and went to the barber’s shop where I had my beard removed. I had only a 500 lire note and the barber had no change. I then said the lady waiting in the taxi would have change and the barber sent his son to her. The woman came to the door of the shop, which was left open, and my escort, who had raised the alarm, happened to pass at that moment and saw me. I was then recaptured.

I was taken to the hospital where I was brought before the Colonel and accused of an attempt to escape. I denied this and stated that as I had been a P/W for two years I only wished to have the company of a woman. The Colonel sympathised with me and said he would send me to another hospital where there were Red Cross nurses.

There I made a rope of my sheets and fastened it to my bed placed across the window. I tested the rope before attempting to lower myself from the window, but the sheets broke as the fabric was rotted with bleaching chemicals. I was not punished for damaging the sheets but a guard was placed in the room until my discharge and return to Campo 27 on approximately 17 January.’

Was the redoubtable Flight Lieutenant disappointed? We shall never know for sure, but was he down hearted? Most assuredly not and he continued to use both his unusual knowledge of everyday chemicals and his mastery of Italian in his efforts to escape.

‘At the end of Jan 42 I investigated the possibilities of escaping from Campo 27 by attending the Roman Catholic Church services in the monastery adjacent to the camp. I reported my discovery to Cmdr. Brown, R.N. the S.B.O. Cmdr. Brown took charge of preparation of a hole through the wall from the camp into the monastery.

A few days later Cmdr. Brown and Lt. Deane-Drummond began making a hole. They made some noise and an alarm was raised, but they were not discovered at work. In the subsequent investigation I was suspected of being the instigator of the attempt and was sentenced to thirty days in solitary.’

Foiled once again, but the Flight Lieutenant didn’t let it get him down and I suspect spent his thirty days in solitary concocting his next, somewhat unfortunate, plan.

‘In August 1942 at Campo 5 I rubbed blue ointment on my face for about a week and then reported sick, stating that I had a sinus. I was taken to the hospital at Alessandria. I was x-rayed and the film of mercury appeared on the plate in such a way that sinus was diagnosed. An operation which was later performed spoiled my chance of escaping from the hospital – and I now have a sinus.’

Undeterred, but now breathing better than ever, it was a while before the Flight Lieutenant was able to make another attempt. You will note that he was now being moved through the camp system; most likely he was gaining a reputation as a serial escapee. By late 1953 he was in Austria.

‘On 19 September 43 at Stalag XVII I obtained a French forage cap. At approximately 1200 hrs. that day I walked through the gate of the camp wearing the cap, battledress trousers, a dark blue pullover and a dark blue raincoat, and I had a false French P/W working pass.’

Ralph spent the next two weeks walking and working his way across Austria, tending cows, digging potatoes and eventually cleaning railway carriage windows in Villach. On 3 October he snuck abroad a train bound for Italy, but again his luck didn’t last.

‘Some time later the train stopped and filled with German soldiers and civilians. My presence was discovered and the alarm given. Two S.S. guards appeared and I was kicked on the head. I then stated that I was an RAF officer whereupon the guard stood to attention and my treatment afterwards was fair. On 5 Oct I was escorted to Stalag XVIII.’

The Flight Lieutenant’s patience finally wore out. He had spent nearly three years in captivity and had been indefatigable in his attempts to escape. By now he had been moved to Germany and this time he left nothing to chance.

‘At the beginning of Nov 43 at Stalag Luft I I decided to put myself in a condition to pass the repatriation medical board. I did not acquaint anyone of my intention.

On approximately 23 Nov I began to smoke cigarettes containing crushed aspirin. A few weeks later I was taken into the camp sick quarters suffering from palpitations and a murmur of the heart. During the time I was in sick-quarters I stole a small quantity of Benzedrine tablets and two caffeine capsules, which I kept for use prior to the electro-cardiogram test, which I heard to be the basis of the heart trouble diagnosis.

In Jan 44 I was taken by ambulance to hospital for the test. Several hours before the test ensued I consumed six half-grain Benzedrine tablets, and in a few minutes before the test I crushed one of the caffeine capsules in my handkerchief and swallowed the contents. The electro-cardiogram test showed that I suffered from myocarditis.’

Flight Lieutenant Ralph Henry Lucky was repatriated on September 13 1944 and on arrival he was examined by a heart specialist – who found no sign of heart trouble.

The RAF Centenary Anthology will chronicle the 100 year history of the RAF from its inception to the present day, taking the very best material from the archives and presenting it full size and in full colour, to tell the story of the RAF as it has never been seen before.

This magnificent, leather bound volume will commemorate a century of service and sacrifice, whilst celebrating the spirit and values of those who have served.

The RAF Centenary Anthology is open to subscribers now, all subscribers receive the book at a considerable discount and have their names listed in the book.

To support the RAF Centenary Anthology please email: mm@extraordinaryeditions.com or call 020.7267.4547 or you can write to: Extraordinary Editions, 126 Leighton Road, London , NW5 2RG

Further information may be found at: www.extraordinaryeditions.com