Welcome to the Royal Air Force Museum. The Royal Air Force Museum is a massive site.
We've got almost a hundred aircraft. We have an extensive collection. It takes hours to see
but I'm going to give you a little preview and in just in a few minutes
we're going to go around the site ... so follow me!
The first aircraft to welcome you is this gate guardian Spitfire, because,
after all, the RAF Museum is based on a former RAF airfield: RAF Hendon, it even
participated in the Battle of Britain.
The first hangar is Hangar 1. This is also the main entrance and exit to the
Museum. Also very important, behind me is the shop and the café. So, when the Museum
visit is a bit long, you can always have a pit stop right here. Also, we have two
new exhibitions. The new exhibition is called RAF Stories and is very much
about the people in the RAF. Now this 'wall of hats' exemplifies what it's about.
It is the different roles that the personnel of the RAF in the past and now
had. So when people think about the RAF, they think about pilots but it's also
ground crew, it's mechanics, cooks, nurses, firefighters, all different roles and
they are all part of the Royal Air Force. This exhibition has four sections: Attack,
Defence, Support and Training. This is the Attack section and you should guess
because of all these bombs and missiles. Now, the biggest one is Blue Steel, it is a
massive nuclear missile. So, imagine in the 1960s there would be massive Vulcan
bombers and they would be heading towards the center of the Soviet Union.
They would drop a nuclear missile like this and that would go on its own like a
cruise missile towards the target. But luckily there's no more warhead in this one.
At the RAF Museum, we have a lot of aircraft. We have big missiles and bombs,
but sometimes it is the small things which are the most interesting. One of my
favourite objects is what is hanging just above me. This is a streamer. Now, in the
very early days like World War One, the aircraft didn't have radio yet. So, the
only way they could communicate with the troops on the ground was to write a
message on a piece of paper. Put that in this pouch right here and then throw the
streamer out of the cockpit. Then hopefully, the guys on the ground would
see it, take out the piece of paper and read the message. Very different from
your Whatsapp of today. At this exhibition, we have a lot of these
life-sized silhouettes, because as I said, it's very important that we tell the
story of the people in the RAF. Now, this is actually a very famous person. This is
none other than Lawrence of Arabia, the great hero of the First World War.
So, he fought in the Middle East against the Ottoman Empire, but after the First
World War, he actually just wanted to have a normal life again, so he joined
the Royal Air Force, actually under a fake name, because he didn't want to
be recognised. So, he was called TE Shaw. Now, he didn't fly aircraft but he
actually steered boats. And the boat that you see behind me is such an example.
The RAF used a lot of boats, either to tow flying boats or to do search and
rescue and he was very important in the development of these high speed launches,
This is probably one of the most impressive things in our Second New
Exhibition: RAF First to the Future. So, it deals with the RAF now, but also the
future and it talks about issues like drone warfare, for instance. So it's
completely interactive. You can find information from it, give your opinion,
share it with others. This is called our Debate Table.
When leaving Hangar 1, it's difficult to miss this Sunderland flying boat.
This massive aircraft was used
in the Second World War to hunt down German submarines. Now it's here in
Hangar 1 and what's really cool is that you can go inside. So let's have a look!
These are the upper deck crew positions where you can see the flight engineer's
seat. Next to this is the crew rest area with its two bunk seats and folding
table. Crew members would rest and eat here in shifts during their long patrol.
And this is Hangar 2. This is where we have our First World War in the Air Exhibition.
One of my favourite aircraft in this exhibition is this Caudron G3. As
you can see it looks just a little bit different from your modern aircraft and
in fact, there is a gap right there in the middle of the fuselage and the tail
section. It is a very light aircraft and its design is actually older than the
First World War. It's a 1913 design. There's a lot of other aircraft which
are very interesting so for instance this one this is the Sopwith Triplane.
Now, obviously as the name already suggests it's a triplane so instead of
being a biplane like most World War One aircraft, this one thought 'Well, I'll just do one more'.
So it has a triple set of wings which gave it extra lift.
Obviously, there's a lot of wing surface there, so it could climb very fast.
Also very interesting is this aircraft here. This is in fact the very first
fighter aircraft in the world. What makes it special is what you see right
there in the middle. That is the engine. So, the engine is actually pointed
towards the back. Now, the reason for that is that it would leave the front open
and you could actually put a machine gun right there in the front. And that was
the very first fighter aircraft in the world.
One of the things that fighter aircraft in the First World War had to
shoot down were the so-called German Zeppelins and that's what you see here.
Big airships, big balloons, that should be easy enough to intercept, but actually it
was quite difficult and sometimes they came up with very, very strange solutions
like you see here. Looks impressive ... not very effective.
This is also the home of one of the very first airfields in the world. Back in
1911, somebody called Claude Grahame-White
bought a very big piece of land and he built the very first airfield called
London Aerodrome, and this is his office right here. Well, not really, it's a
replica and it's completely derived from this photograph.
There used to be a RAF station right here at the Museum, called
RAF Hendon and we still have a lot of the historical buildings and we're still
using them but for different purposes. So for instance, this has become a
restaurant but we also have workshops and a volunteer centre. But just next to
the restaurant. But just next to the restaurant, that's where the outdoor play area is. Kids absolutely love that.
So, the RAF museum is great for families!
And this is our third new exhibition. This is called RAF in an Age of Uncertainty'.
It tells the story of the RAF from the Falklands throughout the
Gulf War until now. It has a lot of really cool jet fighters in it. This is probably
the most famous one. This is the Harrier Jump Jet. It is the only successful fighter
jet to be able to take off vertically.
So now we are in Hangars 3, 4 and 5. This is where we have most of our
aircraft and the ones right here in front, they are probably the four most special ones.
These are our 'fighter four', these are four aircraft which actually
participated in the Battle of Britain. So, this one is a Hawker Hurricane. This was
the standard RAF fighter aircraft during the Battle of Britain and right there in
the back, that is the famous Spitfire. More famous but actually it was not the
standard fighter aircraft during the Battle of Britain. And this is the nemesis,
this is the German Messerschmitt 109. Now, what's more is that you can go
on a guided tour, led by experts who will tell you everything about the Battle of
Britain and will tell you more about these amazing aircraft.
What is very special here at the RAF Museum is that we have a Spitfire that
you can actually go into. So the cockpit right there of that Spitfire is
open for the public. For only 10 pounds you can get into the Spitfire, have a
Museum expert telling you what every button, lever, dial does in this authentic Spitfire.
The story of the Royal Air Force is not only of men. Also women were
a part of the RAF or in this case, the Air Transport Auxiliary. During the
Second World War there was a civilian organisation which main task was to
transport aircraft from the factories to the squadrons. Now originally, that was
all-male but they soon realised 'well we also have some female aviators as well
so why not use them?' So, this lady right here is Rosemary Rees, she was one of the
first eight female pilots to be used in that role. It was a very dangerous role:
up to ten percent of the pilots died even without seeing any combat.
Because there was a little bit of a disdain for female capabilities, they were told they
could only fly little biplanes, but Rosemary Rees, she said 'that is fine but give me
the opportunity to show what I can do'. She entered the service in 1940. By 1945
she was allowed to fly any land plane in the RAF, from little biplanes to
Spitfires to big Lancaster bombers and even more remarkably, she flew one of the
very first jet fighters. So this is a Vampire jet, one of the very first in the
world and Rosemary Rees one of its very first pilots.
Together with the Spitfire this is probably the most famous of all the RAF
aircraft. This is the Avro Lancaster, the most well-known of all the heavy bombers
of the RAF in the Second World War. It's an impressive aircraft to see even for
today's standards. Just look at that bomb bay, look at that bomb which is
underneath! So, the Lancaster could exceptionally carry a 22,000 pound bomb.
That was the biggest bomb of the entire Second World War, even the atomic bombs
dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were actually lighter. This specific
Lancaster has a very peculiar history, because what you see here is all the
bombing missions that it went on. That should be a total of 137 missions. On
average, the Lancaster, including its crew, would survive for only 20 missions,
so this was one very, very lucky Lancaster.
As beautiful as it may look on the outside,
there's actually an opportunity to have a look inside, albeit virtually.
Our newest addition is this Virtual Reality Dambusters Experience.
In it you can experience the Dambusters Raid on the German Ruhr valley dams of 1943
So, let's have a look!
The Virtual Reality Experience is actually a combination of a virtual
reality headset with a physical set. This resembles the interior of a Lancaster
bomber which participated in the Dambusters Raid. So, there are two positions.
This is the wireless operator position and the one that I'm standing at is the
navigator's position. Inside you will actually feel the interior, feel the
radio set and even when you look at your hands suddenly they are covered in
gloves. So it is a very interesting but especially accurate representation of
what it must have been like during the Dambusters Raid in 1943.
So, that was the tour of the Royal Air Force Museum. Now of course, this was just a sample,
a teaser of what we actually have. We have an amazing site, an immense amount of
aircraft and exhibits, so plenty to see. If you want to find out more, come to
the RAF Museum. We're very easy to reach with public transport, just from Colindale tube station
on the Northern Line. And also check out our website and follow us on
YouTube, Facebook and Twitter and Instagram.
Bye!