Today we had a day out, driving to Duxford just outside Cambridge to visit the Imperial War Museum. Duxford is an operating airfield, and an aircraft museum displaying everything from WW II fighter planes to airliners, but focusing on British ones. There is one display hall devoted to American aircraft as well. There were hundreds of people there for the day, and there was continuous activity in the sky as all sorts of historic aircraft took off and landed, or buzzed the airfield at low altitude. It was like a mini airshow. You could pay to have a ride in some of them, but we didn't.
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| It was a nice day, although a bit blustery. |
I know of many of these old aircraft, but found that up close they are generally much larger than I had imagined. Those on display here are ingeniously packed into several large halls with their wings cunningly intertwined like a huge jigsaw puzzle. They are several layers deep with the smaller ones under the big ones or suspended from the ceiling on wires.
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| The Lancaster bomber. |
When I was growing up there was always a photo in our home of a Lancaster bomber with a couple of hundred men lined up on its wings and on the ground for a group photo, taken during World War II of the New Zealand Squadron 75 which was based in England. Somewhere in that photo was my uncle Gerry (Gerald) who flew in one of these bombers over Germany, as the wireless operator. He took part in night raids over Germany, when sometimes over a thousand bombers at once would conduct raids on German cities. It was very interesting to see a real Lancaster bomber up close.
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| This is the nose of the Concorde. |
They also have one of the few surviving Concordes, the supersonic English/French airliner which operated for 27 years between Europe and the USA until economics, noise complaints, and a disastrous accident ended its career about 2003. Today there are still no supersonic airliners.
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| Sue below the engine exhausts. |
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| Inside. This was a test Concorde, fitted with test equipment and fewer seats. |
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| The cockpit - not complicated at all. |
My father was stationed in Noumea for part of the war, where as a technician he serviced and repaired the radio equipment on the aircraft operating there. One he told us about was the Catalina flying boat, able to land on water or land. He remembered feeling seasick having to work inside these planes in the 40 degree heat while they slopped about at anchor smelling of oil and kerosene. I assembled a kitset model of one, so I knew what it looked like. Today I saw a real one for the first time, which was quite exciting. They are a weird looking aircraft.
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| The Catalina. |
Duxford also has a larger Sunderland Flying Boat on display, which I believe were among the first aircraft to fly to New Zealand as commercial airlines, landing on Auckland Harbour at Hobsonville, from about 1940. I see that today there is a new housing development at Hobsonville called "Sunderland".
