Boscombe Down Aviation Collection — Attraction in Laverstock

We enjoyed a great day here with two of our grandsons who are eight and six years old. This museum is very special in various ways. The opportunity to actually climb in and sit in so many cockpits is perhaps unique in the UK. The number and quality of the volunteer guides present is tremendous. All who we spoke to were generous with their time and knowledge and were very good at relating to and engaging with the two boys as well as us. This included Group Captain Ron Burrows who is a retired A&AEE chief test pilot at Boscombe Down. We were fortunate that he happened to be there on the day we visited. It’s a real privilege to spend time with all these people who between them have such a breadth and depth of knowledge and experience.

I do however make a plea to the trustees/management of Boscombe Down Aviation Collection Ltd: PLEASE review the suitability of your website which is clearly of a very old design, layout and functionality. As such, with over 60% of internet traffic now being on mobile devices, it’s effectively non-functional for people using these. Responsive web design became the norm at least 10 years ago. Your site is also using the old http protocol rather than https which has become the norm for security reasons. A lot of ordinary devices and the cybersecurity they are using now often reject or at least put a check on any website that is using http (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) rather than https (using a Transport Layer Security or Secure Sockets Layer certificate).

Google is perhaps coming to your rescue in terms of immediate information and reviews when people do an initial search, but your website is working against you in a rather negative way, especially as the information on it (that I looked at on a laptop after giving exceptions to my security) is important and very useful.

Given too that you are seeking to engage with schools/educational establishments as well as the general public, a website with modern design and up-to-date functionality is...

I had to go to Salisbury today For all the different things there are Rivers, cathedral, town centre, medieval history. I highly recommend going to the aeroplane museum as it was better than I thought it would be. There is a range of planes from vintage to the evolution of war planes. I wasn't able to see all of them as I didn't have time so missed out on the vintage planes. But the best thing about it almost all the planes you can go inside and sit in them. Even better again you can touch buttons, switches, knobs, levers and all sorts. In which some of the planes had battery's to make some of the millions of things you could find to see if they worked or not. Without realising as I was trying to figure out all the different instruments. I was imagining myself as all the different roles of flight crews. I'm normally an antisocial person and don't really enjoy going out. But today at Boscombe down aviation was the best day I've had in a long time. The staff were amazing and all of them filled with amazing story's or know Almost anything about the planes and what they have done or been used for. They made me feel relaxed enough to not notice my anxiety and comfortable to become lost within imagination. I can't wait to go back already and start with the vintage planes an what looked like the Wright brothers plane.

Sorry for the essay but today was so fun if you guys are in Salisbury. Its totally worth the experience and absolutely a great day out.

P.S it is also next to a small active runway so the possibility of seeing planes in flight. Sadly I didn't get to see any but the rest...

What a fantastic afternoon we had at this wonderful collection. From our initial huge friendly welcome from Graeme, to the friendliness, knowledge and enthusiasm from Alan and Will, we were encouraged to sit in the cockpits of these amazing aero-beasts and to ask all the questions we wanted.

For my husband, a former RAF and civil pilot, who now sadly has developed Alzheimer's, this visit really made him happy and brought back some great memories for him as a lot of the aircraft type he flew on were represented amongst the exhibits. He thoroughly enjoyed his visit and for me it was a total joy to see him so happy and engaged.

This really is a superb collection of aircraft. The Lancaster cockpit was amazing to see and think of what they achieved during the war. The Royal Flying Corps dedicated room houses an incredibly interesting collection of memorabilia, beautifully exhibited.

But overall, what really makes this museum so special is the obvious dedication and enthusiasm of its lovely volunteer staff - THANK YOU so much guys!...