Well that was interesting, many names brought back memories. First I was stationed for a while at Cosford, coldest camp I was ever on. My father had spent time there in the war. Later he was invalided out of the forces and worked on De Haverland's Mosquitos. After the war he and I were in the Royal Observer Corp in the fifties so my knowledge of different planes goes back a long way. Wish I could go to see the museum as I could go round on my mobility scooter, what a distance to walk. Have continued my interest in planes and see a lot on RU-vid these days. Sometime the Beluga goes over my house in Devon. Thank you for your visit an video.
The Blenheim/Bolingbroke is one of several aircraft sent up from Hendon so obviously not been re erected yet. A lot of the Hendon aircraft were stripped down and checked for corrosion I believe
I read that the test flight hangar was going to be closed but I didn't think some of the war in the air aircraft would be moved in there. I'm shocked tbh. I guess it's no longer a test flight hangar. There going to have to move a lot more exhibits though to make room for that wellington for may
A superb collection of interesting aircraft and extremely nicely presented, really top quality. RAF still top notch, but needs to be bigger, all our forces need a lot more money spent and it’s a priority as we now see.
Thank you for sharing this fascinating tour. Nice to see the Kestrel of the tripartite evaluation squadron there. An often forgotten aircraft in the P1127/Harrier story and incidentally the first aircraft the full Hawker Siddeley title.
Thank you for the tour. Brought back happy memories of when I worked there as a student, some 40 odd years ago. My, has it changed so much! Far more exhibits there now.
Great video excellent museum, some great historical aircraft that saved this country and the world back in 1940, also how advanced Britain was in the 50s and 60s, with the TSR2 and the Vulcan and V force bombers. Thanks for sharing.
I went two week later and was told the first two hangers were been rearranged that was why there was a mixture of planes. I served at RAF Cosford back in 1971 and went back in 1978 as i was in communications, ah the good old days 😉
I read that the test flight hangar was going to be closed but I didn't think some of the war in the air aircraft would be moved in there. I'm shocked tbh. I guess it's no longer a test flight hangar. There going to have to move a lot more exhibits though to make room for that wellington for may
Great! Thanks for showing this. Must be about 30 years ago since I was last there. Loved seeing the Fiesler Storch back then (still have the photo with daughter stood in front) because I had only ever seen that plane in Commando comics! 😂 [p.s., for those who don't know, Churchill liked it too and used a captured one.]
I haven’t been to RAF Cosford since the summer of 2021, it looks like they have added some brilliant stuff since I was there (mainly the chinook and harrier) so I’ll definitely have to go back there this summer…
If you go around the end of may early June you'll be in for a big surprise. The massive change in the war in the air and test flight hangar is ultimately making room for the completed Vickers Wellington which will be back on display when the new bomber command exhibition opens in may (also the reason the Blenheim/Bolingbroke is now at Cosford too)
I'm wondering if they could track down a copy the RAF News from 1978 that did a centre feature of 2 Squadron RAF Laarbruch. Big ask I know. But my Brother, Graham Gill, an Aden Veteran, who was wounded in that conflict, got back to good health and continued his RAF carreer, served in 2 Squadron at Laarbruch. until he demobbed in 1980.
Cool upload, i had no idea about that Fairey Delta 2 until this video. I looked it up and to see just how important that thing was to aviation history was crazy. How i didn't know about it until now is insane.
Cosford used to house a dozen of Britain's prototype and development aircraft, like the Hawker P.105 + series, which bridged the gap between the Hawker Seahawk and the Hawker Hunter.
14:38 Polaris Penetration Aid Carrier!! The black conical thing is one of two nuclear warheads, the black and brown tubes are chaff launchers and the bay with the stainless steel tank contains various chemical batteries and I think the roll thruster which used Hydrazine as a propellant. We were told that 1 ppm was enough to kill you!! This was a British modification to the American Polaris missile that was intended to replace the third warhead the Americans had with equipment that made the two warheads look like about 50 warheads as it came over the horizon towards the enemy✅ Built by many company’s, but Sperry Gyroscope, Bracknell was the one I worked for. Test launches at Woomera in Australia. Thruster testing at RAF Westcott (PERME) north of Aylesbury. Lots of clever engineers involved✅ Lettuce Curtis used to walk through our offices with an air ministry briefcase chained to her wrist! The project was called”Chevaline”, and was stopped by Margaret Thatcher, because of cost overruns, and the impending purchase of Trident. Just the ramblings of an old man, but check Lettuce out, because she must have had a life and a half!! She flew Lancasters and Spitfires, so that’s already an enviable bucket list. Those were the days.
Very nice very rapid video. Speaking as an American, who defibitely does not have nearly as much familiarity with British aircraft sd would be nice; I hope you can go back another time with a slower pace and either accompanied by video of the identifying placards or narration, at least of the names and period they represent. Abd I would not bother with the display cases. As unfortunately they don’t show up well on video. Please excuse the typos, fat fingers get in the way.
Never been to Cosford. I have Duxford, Shuttleworth and Hendon fairly close and visit often. Cosford is where they restore many classic aircraft? Love how they have posed the Lightning… in its usual ‘vertical’ flying position 😄
My father was stationed here for a bit during WW2 with either No. 1 or No.3 MU. [ maintenance unit] he said he saw a proto type Spit. crash there somewhere. Thoughts were, that after going into a vertical climb, the pilot ' blacked out' due to the G forces.
At approx 18 mins into video is RAF Devon VP952 in front is a picture of a Devon flying over Deptford power station VP958 my dads flying that, also flew over St Pauls and Tower Bridge on the same day 1957. Metropolitan Communication sqn Hendon remember the station closing and moving to Wildenrath. Still have his pilot log books
I remember my uncle being based at st athan during the 80s alot of the ww2 aircraft were stored there and I had the pleasure of seeing some of these aircraft being run up!! On an open day distinctly removed the fw190 and the owl
I visited St Athens in the late eighties, on a course, got to sit in those German aircraft, Me410, FW190, plus a Storch. in another Hangar they had all the Spitfire gate guardians that had been removed from various stations. Lots of which I had worked on during my time on BBMF in the 70's
On allmy trips to the uK I would hire a car , however due to the problems of trying to find a parking spot in LondonI, I decided to do all my travelling my train and mapped out times, places and touring to see as many museums as possible in the planed month I would be there. I had never been to Gosford Museum so included it in my touring around. As luck would have it the walk from the station to the museum was long and wet (drizzling rain) NO one bother to give me a lift. However the trip was certanly worth it.
Honestly it's better you go to Cosford, as it's an RAF airfield and houses a worthwhile museum. Gosford is a fictional country house, and might be frustrating by comparison. ;-) For Cosford, the mainline trains out of the West End stations go toward Birmingham, and one of the stops is Albrighton, from which station you can walk to RAF Cosford museum.
Cosford is only up the road from me - It just needs some of the exhibits getting some much needed TLC. Not much has changed there over the years either.
Well it's a brilliant (and not display over-crowded) museum just an hour away from me so I'll be going along there this Summer and chipping in my voluntary £20:00 for the privilege. The V2 rocket system is particularly interesting as they used to (and since the re-modelling I hope they still do) have a lot of the ancillaries on display. IMO, Cosford's guided missile/rocket collection as a whole needs to be displayed more prominently as it's got some real 'jems' in there.
Hendon museum now shares the aircraft from Cosford, as that Me262, Me410 in this video and the two Japanese planes (a Ki45 and a Ki100 (unique in the world)) are now more often seen at Hendon than Cosford.
I heard that Fulton block, acommodation for airmen, was restored and could house a thousand people. It was semi-derelict when I was housed in it back in 1976, and the tarpaper shack lines were mostly used for storage. Haven't seen the domestic site since then.
How would you like someone clambering on when you're 60, 70, 80 years old ?. And has was already said......certain persons will try to damage or steal parts.
@reecemccarron9601. Many years ago I used to work at Cosford in the Museum Society and my main interest was the refurbishment of the PBY Catalina. At that time the aircraft was based inside that hanger due to the fact that the paint was unsuitable for it to be outside. Due to other commitments I was unable to continue working at the Museum. On my last visit, as a normal paying customer I noticed that the Cat had now been moved to its present position and I was aghast at the state the aircraft was then in, the grey paint was flaking off and the `day-glo` paint-work on the nose and wing floats was also missing in large patches. I noticed on your film that the Cat appeared to be in a very presentable show condition and was wanting to ask you if that was the actual case or was it still looking shabby?.
