Imperial War Museum - Duxford

Mr. Dawson: [about planes approaching from behind] Spitfires, George. Greatest plane ever built.

Grenadier: You didn't even look.

Mr. Dawson: Rolls-Royce Merlin engines. Sweetest sound you could hear out here.

(Quote from Dunkirk 2017 film)

The Imperial War Museum in Duxford is one of the Imperial War Museums, and is located in Duxford, Cambridgeshire. It is the largest aviation museum in Britain. That means it has quite a pedigree. The museum is part of the historic Duxford Airfield, that was built in 1918, and saw action in both World Wars. The airfield played an important part during the Battle of Britain in 1940, and was the place of command post of the RAF’s 12th Fighter Sector. American Air Force moved in during the 1943, with their’s P-51s and P-47s. However, the airfield did not saw as much combat around itself, simply, it was too far up north. 

The RAF abandoned the airfield  in early 1960s and only after that it rose to real fame. The famous movie the Battle of Britain, from 1968, was filmed on it. Many of the airplanes that flew for the film are still in the hangars. 

Movie star: Hispano HA 1112 that had the "role" of Bf-109E in the 1968 movie "Battle of Britain". 

The museum (airfield) is huge and includes four different hangars and several other exhibition areas. I had only hours and it was not enough. The biggest hangar is called AirSpace and is dominated by big birds. Avro Lancaster and Avro Vulcan will caught your eye immediately. However, the biggest star of the hangar is the Concorde prototype. It really is a staggering piece of machinery. Too bad that it lives on only through the Concorde fallacy. 

Pre production model called G-AXDN

Avro Vulcan 

One hanger is dedicated to the Battle of Britain. In total three Bf-109E are exhibited, all of which flew sorties during the Battle, but were forced to land in England. 

Two Emils, with original 1940s camouflage. 

Spitfire Mk. IX

Cold Warriors - Hungarian MiG21 and British F4

The hangars have a lot of airplanes, so you cannot really see all of them in a proper manner, so you do get a feeling that the machines are somehow squeezed. Simply, there are too many of them and the space is limited. Unfortunately, that means you cannot see all history in the museum. 

The museum contains a real gem - completely intact command room from the Second World War. You can see how the hundreds of airplanes were coordinated with pretty basic technology. 

Command room of the 12th Fighter Group during the Battle of Britain

Getting a grip of what's happening: example - H 33 (hostile attack 33); 40+ (number of airplanes); 25 (height 25,000 feet)

By far the most interesting part of the airfield is the American Air Museum. Since the 1970s US slowly started to give old airplanes to the museum. Unlike the old hangars, where you do not even have enough light, the American planes are located in a real architectural marvel. 

The American Air Museum

A - 2 jacket flown by the B-17 pilot. 

The SR - 71 

The SR - 71 

U2 (PS I hate the band)

Unlike the rest of the museum, where the main attractions are "only" the airplanes, the American Air Museum offers really interesting exhibition that is dedicated to the people who flew the exhibited airplanes, or that served on the airfield. This is the time to make a political comment. One of the exhibited items was related to the 2003 Iraq Invasion. The description stated - "In the months and years that followed, questions were asked about the reasons for the conflict, the use of the intelligence that led to war, and the way the information was presented". Quite unclear statement for a pretty clear situation.

F - 111 & B - 52

The last part of the museum is called The Land Warfare Hall and which included all the WW2 classics together with the wide range of British armoured vehicles. 

British tank Grant, used by Bernard Montgomery at El Alamein. The tank has fake wooden barrels. General did not want to have fire power, instead he opted for communications - the tank was equipped with powerful radios. 

Is it getting late, and I need to finish writing this. Imperial War Museum at Duxford is really marvellous, and four hours that I had were not nearly enough for everything that museums offers. P.S. If you have 3000 pounds you can even fly in twin-seat Spitfire for 30 minutes.