East Coast Weekend Part Four - Flixton Aviation Museum

The Norfolk & Suffolk Aviation Museum at Flixton, near Bungay, turned out to be a gem of a place. We visited as they were holding a Seventieth Anniversary of the Battle of Britain event.

One of the first things we spotted was the famous bat of my old squadron - IX(B) Squadron.




They have a Valetta transport plane that visitors can look round. It is so comfortable and luxurious inside, much better than the Hercules and Tristar planes that Dad was ferried around in.



Lots of enthusiasts in period dress turned up, and Sam loved the vehicles they brought.

De rigeur, Sam scooted up the RAF Honington climbing wall.

A beautiful example of a Green Goddess fire engine was there too.

The new areas of the museum are only half-full of exhibits at the moment, but contain lots of fascinating bits and pieces, like this gyrocopter.

Sam was delighted to find another Fokker (see Hendon museum for more info).

And Dad was amazed to discover a model of a Tornado in the livery of his first ever squadron - TWCU at Honington. Yes, I used to keep the flying hours records for this very plane, ZA541. Marvellous.

RAF Museum Hendon - Bomber Hall

Next up was the Bomber Hall. Sam had been wildly excited about seeing an Avro Lancaster, as it is his very favourite aeroplane. When we found the Lanc the expectation wasn't in vain. I was brought up not far from RAF Coningsby, where the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight is based, so I've seen the Lanc flying past many times, either outbound to, or inbound from, various airshows. Sam hasn't had that pleasure, so standing underneath one was heaven for him. It's big, isn't it! Look at the size of that bomb bay.




7,377 Lancs were made, and they averaged just 21 missions before being lost. The average age of each crewman was just 22.




The Bomber Hall was fantastic. We spotted one of the Buccaneer aircraft that was in service when I joined up - 25 years ago, a quarter of a century! Above is a pic of an accurate recreation of Barnes-Wallace's design office. The accompanying film show is sobering yet pride-inducing.


One amazing discovery was the Queen Mary transporter below. It's almost certain that Sam's Grandad drove this very vehicle, as he spent many years ferrying broken up aircraft around the world. His tales of driving the awesome Queen Mary were often a wonderful highlight of summer family barbecues.

And amazingly, we discovered that the example of the Tornado GR1 in the museum has the tail number ZA457. The tail number is like the registration plate of a car, unique. ZA457 was one of the aircraft flying when I joined my first posting in the RAF, at RAF Honington. I clearly remember recording, in longhand, and with a pencil, the flying hours that the Tonkers flew every day. It's now in a museum. Fantastic!