Royal Air Force Museum London — Attraction in London

What a truely magnificent venue to visit.

We made a scheduled reservation and got our tickets more than 3 weeks in Advance.

Went there with a friend.

There is an enormous paid car park, please note, the parking prices are on the steeper side.

It was a nice day with occasional sunny spells.

On entering the large building, we went and showed our tickets to the attendant and were let through.

Immediately after the attendant, there are 3 payment machines for making donations, I think the left till requested £6, the middle till £18 and the right £24.

Beyond that the displays begin.

There are many many hangers with scores of very old bi planes, modern planes, helicopters, uniforms, ordinance, and many types of road transports. The Great collection included spitfires, helicopters, Lancaster and the unbelievably large Vulcan that was parked with its nose practically touching the far corner of the hanger along with the laid out extensive payload of bombs.

The only disappointment was the site of a F35 lightening hanging high up which was not really accessible from any reasonable photographic angle. Someone said the one above was a mockup and the real one was in Hanger 6. So I went there excited but was not able to find it there. An attendant there advised me that they did not have one there as it was far too new. What a shame. Perhaps one day they will get one. Look forward to seeing that there.

In the open space outside, there was a staged/covered area and we could hear someone singing from a distamce. We approached the front of the stage and from the audience vantage point we could see 3 ladies dressed in RAF period uniforms and singing some Vera Lynn songs. They had some fluid gentle dance routines to accompany their singing which was excellent indeed. This was a very pleasant addition event that we had not expected. When they finished they announced their groups name which sounded a bit like brunettes, hopefully somone can enlighten me with their correct name! ( I have since examined my camera footage and the correct name of the group is " The Barn-Ettes")

At different times during our visit, we did notice there were different performers. The last one we saw was the "London Youth Concert Band", I would say there were 40+ participants doing a fabulous job entertaining the visitors . 👏

Seemed like a very busy afternoons program which you should definitely not miss.

Whilst indoors, before walking through the mammoth "Short Sunderland MR5" flying boat, I had a latte from the cafe adjacent to it. Unfortunately this lacked any substantial flavour, very disappointing indeed. So will definitely give that a miss next time.

Much later, we did thoroughly enjoyed the HACKNEY GELATO CHOCOLATE & ROASTED Hazelnut ice-cream in a cup. This really was exceptional and I got a generous helping of it, thank you to the lovely server. This is a MUST have treat 👌

We clocked over 10,000 steps during our RAF visit.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable day and a must for aircraft visit venue for lovers.

Only wish it was nearer to my residence.

Hope to visit there again

I have enclosed a large selection of photographs and videos that I captured on my phone. I will add the material from my Camera at a later date. Ps: Via image manipulation, I have successfully removed the floor standing supports holding up the spitfire and the red arrows aircraft. You will obviously see them perched at the end of their very tall frame mounts.

NB - I have retrieved footage from my camera, video and stills, and am posting it one day after my initial submission. You will be able to tell the Videos captured on the camera as they are the ones with the mega zooming out view point. One last thing, Google reviews limits the video posts to a maximum of 30 seconds, hence limited footage. None the less, they still capture the essence of this thoroughly...

Great museum with massive selection of artefacts

The museum site at Colindale was once part of the RAF Hendon station and prior to that, one of the first civiliank airfields, acquired by Claude Grahame-White in 1911.

In 1914, the aerodrome was requisitioned for Home Defence during the First World War. Hendon became a Royal Naval Air Station, training new pilots in the flying schoolsk on site. Operations ceased after the end of the Great War.

From 1927 to 1939 Hendon housed No. 601 Squadron, nicknamed the 'Millionaires' Squadron' due to the wealth and upper social class of its volunteers. In 1939, the outbreak of war saw Hendon once again become an operational RAF station, home to No. 24 Transport and Communicationsk Squadron. RAF Hendon also served briefly as a fighter station during the Battle of Britain.

The last flight to Hendon by a fixed-wing aircraft took place on 19 June 1968, when the last operational Blackburn Beverley was delivered to the museum prior to its royal opening in 1972. Soon afterwards, the runways were removed to make way for the Grahame Park kHousing Estate.3] The official closure of RAF Hendon took place on 1 April 1987.

The museum was officially opened at the Colindale (then part of Hendon) London site on 15 November 1972 by Queen Elizabeth II. The hangars housed 36 aircraft at opening. Over the years, the collection has increased in size substantially, and aircraft i not on display at Hendon were stored or displayed at smaller local RAF station museums.

The first director of the museum was Dr John Tanner, who retired in 1987. In 1988, Dr Michael A. Fopp (who had previously directed the London Transport Museum) was appointedi director general of all three sites (London, Cosford and Stafford) operated by the museum. Retired Air Vice-Marshal Peter Dye replaced Fopp as director general on 9 June 2010.[4] In October 2014, it was announced that Maggie Appleton was to be appointed as CEO of the museum.[5]

The Battle of Britain Museum (later Hall) was opened by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in November 1978. On 3 j October 2016 the Battle of Britain Hall was permanently closed and refurbished.

The London site has been regularly expanded. For example, in recent years landscaping had taking o place to illustrate what the former Hendon airfield was like, in what has become a heavily urbanised area.[6]

As of 2012, it had over 100 aircraft, including the Avro Lancaster S-Sugar, which flew 137 night sorties.[7 It also includes the only complete Hawker Typhoon. Added o in 2018, as part of the RAF Centenary exhibitions, were a Westland Sea King helicopter (once flown by Prince o William, Duke of Cambridge), a Gnat jet trainer of the Red Arrows, and a full-scale mock-up of the F-35 Lightning II...

WOW !!!!! What a fantastic place to visit. We went here on a rainy bank holiday Saturday, and it was easy to get in easy to find, easy to walk round and great facilities. I was expecting a couple of old factory buildings, with RAF style props and planes covered in dust. That is so far from what is here. From the moment you walk into the main entrance past the first WWII plane and into the entrance, you start to get a bit excited. Also It's so clean and well kept. Walk through the entrance, and you're welcomed by a museum staff member who is so polite, professional, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic. I'm happy to say no musty old building smells, no damp smell. Clean toilets clean everything and everything well kept. Whoever is in charge of day 2 day running and attention to detail has got it right. The entrance hall has a stunning glass wall floor to ceiling display full RAF cap,hats,helmets, and other head gear. I loved this place and will go back again. Me and my son spent over 4 hours here walking and talking and loving everything we saw. Make sure you pay to have a go on the flight simulator. The displays are so well set out, and so we'll spaced that you get a chance to see so much without being crowded by other visitors. I would suggest that you go to hangers 1 and 2, then stop for food. Before hanger 6 and then 3,4 and 5. Get yourself refreshed and ready for the amazing Jets and Battle of Britain displays. The food is good. Has a good selection of hot and cold, we had hotdog and chips which was huge (see pics) Some might say it's expensive, but remember you don't pay an entry fee. Make sure you donate £5. 100 % recommend this museum to everyone. This is a top London attraction that deserves to be on everyone's to visit list. Colindale station is shut until December 2024. So go to hendon Central or Mill Hill, or if you would like to use the bus, it has a bus stop right outside. It's also...