YORKSHIRE AIR MUSEUM
Preserved RAF WWII Bomber Airfield at Elvington
Where
can you go to see a WW2 Messerschmitt 109, Supermarine Spitfire, Handley
Page Halifax bomber and a nuclear
hydrogen bomb all in the same place?
The Yorkshire Air Museum on the former Bomber Command RAF base at Elvington
a few miles from the city of York in Yorkshire is recognized as one of
Europe’s best aviation history museums. The collection on display
ranges from Sir George Cayley’s 1853 man carrying glider, one of
the 
world’s first manned flight vehicles, to a DeHavilland
Mosquito Night Fighter, a replica of a rare Hurricane "Battle of Britain"
fighter,
to modern jets like the Harrier and Tornado. Also on display are a number
of bombs that were at one time loaded onto the planes which sortied over
Europe in WWII and the Cold War, including a Bouncing Bomb “Dambuster” which
skipped on the ground or water to impact fortifications
to bombs from
the atomic age (see RAF Tangmere Air Museum).
What’s
perhaps more unique at the Yorkshire Air Museum is the preserved buildings
of the WWII era airbase for a journey back to the
days of daily bomber runs across the channel to the heart of Germany’s
industrial Ruhr Valley (See Secrets) and later Berlin, remaining much
as it was. Originally
home to 77 Squadron RAF of No. 4 Bomber Group, the entire museum is
now a memorial to the French, Canadian and Australian
services that all were based at one time in the Elvington area. Unique
to RAF Elvington is that it was the only airfield in England entirely
operated by French flyers in the later years of World War Two. Yorkshire's
aircraft displays are not as big as the Duxford
Air Museum to the south, but maintains a more authentic WWII era feel.
Aces: A Novel of Pilots in the Battle of Britain from Both Sides
The
buildings include a restored Control Tower, Officer’s Mess,
RAF Regiment Airman’s Billet barracks, uniform display room, and
an Air Gunners memorial room, perhaps the only one of its kind in the
world, where docents who actually flew in the belly of the bomber beasts
will explain the turret gunners techniques and a few stories of survival
as well. There is also a memorial to the Women who served valiantly in
the air corps. In downtown York look for the local Bettys Cafe where
the bomber crews signed the Bettys mirror in the basement bar (see Bettys
Cafe Harrogate). And in the York Minster look for the astromomical
clock dedicated to the WWII Airmen of Yorkshire (see York
Minster Astronomical Clock).
The
old airfield at Elvington was overgrown with weeds and neglect in the
1983’s when a dedicated group of
volunteers began the work to restore and upgrade the buildings to much
as it was in 1944. The Yorkshire
Air Museum
was born and the displays have been in a constant state of growth ever
since. The museum is open every day except Christmas and
Boxing Day and holds a number of aviation events throughout the year
including a Battle of Britain Sunday in September. The Yorkshire Air
Museum is located off the A64 Leeds-York Bypass northeast of York center.
And on a visit you may hear the screaming roar of a Formula One Grand Prix Racing engine as the old airstrip, one of the longest in northern England, on the other side of the trees blocking its view is used as a secret testing facility for Renault’s F1 team cars. © Bargain Travel Europe
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Yorkshire
Air Museum
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See Also:
NORTH YORKSHIRE MOORS STEAM RAILROAD
RIPLEY CASTLE AND BOARS HEAD INN
LAKELAND
MOTOR MUSEUM
SECRET
NUCLEAR WAR BUNKER - CHESHIRE
