This is North London, we're in a place called Hendon and this is the Royal Air Force museum
with a massive collection of planes.
Look, look.
Plane, planes, plane, another plane, big plane, small plane.
You know you're a long way out of London when the Underground turns into an overground.
Where is this place?
Sorry excuse me, hello mate, how do I get into the museum?
So Jacq's decided to hit the shops and galleries in London today, I didn't really want to do
that so instead I thought I'd bring you guys up here.
This is the Royal Air Force museum with a massive collection of planes.
Let's go take a look around.
This is a Supermarine Spitfire F24 this, it was in service from 1946 to 1952.
Apparently this was going to be used in the Battle of Britain movie but it wasn't in the
end, must've failed the audition.
Even just looks fast doesn't it, it's a cool aircraft.
If you've been spending time down at Oshkosh last week you'd probably seen a few of these
flying around I reckon, they're normally up there.
This is a Harvard, one of the trainers used a lot by the American Air Force.
Flying banana.
Alright so now it's time to find the simulator which I think is just over, oh.
This one, this is a Lockheed Hudson built in 1942 but then, guess where it was shipped
to.
This was flown in Australia from 1942 in the second world war, after that is was registered
I think as a civilian aircraft it says it was VH-SMM.
Flew for John Fairfax and Sons and then came back here in 1982 and it's been in the museum
ever since.
Look at the Kangaroo again.
That is the happiest helicopter I think I've ever seen.
I haven't seen it yet, friends tell me it's good.
So when I was a kid and I'm sure all other pilots out there are the same as me, I used
to love putting Airfix kits together of planes.
One of my favourites that I remember also one of the hardest because there were so many
parts, was this, the Lancaster Bomber.
I always found the hardest thing with the models were the propellers though.
I don't know about you but they always used to snap so easily on mine, or I'd tread on
them, so I trod on them a few times.
And I remember this so always one out of your four engines was inoperative at any one time.
The other tricky bit was this bit at the back where the gunner sits those little machine
guns were really fiddly and always broke as well.
The tail was pretty tricky too from what I remember.
So this is a great example of one of the RAFs Phantoms, it flew for around 25 years, just
under 25 years service, top speed, just over 2100 Km/h.
A little bit faster than the Cirrus.
So I just wanted to stop and take a moment just to say something because coming to a
place like this not only is it great to appreciate all the brilliant aviation technology and
really geek out on some of the planes here, but it's a really humbling moment to take
a second and stop and appreciate what some of the men and women did 50 to 100 years ago
in some of the biggest battles we've ever seen as human beings.
And so I think it's really important to just take a minute or two in a place like this
and just be thankful for all the people who, some of whom put their lives on the line for
us and some of whom paid the ultimate price just so we can enjoy the freedom that we have
today.
Alright, let's keep going.
Camouflage everything.
What bins?
No no, I won't be able to fit it in my luggage and Jacqui will kill me.
Well that was so good.
And just as a brief epilogue and a travellers tip remember the RAF Museum is based in London
and even when they say it's not going to rain...