Although I have now lived in west London for two and a half years, I still have not had much time to explore the area. I did not work one day of the Bank Holiday at the end of May, so I decided to use this day to explore a local attraction. The attraction that I decided to visit the RAF Museum in Hendon, which is less than a 25-minute drive from where I live. This year marks 100 years of the RAF (Royal Air Force), and they have recently opened up a new museum this year to celebrate. I never got to see the museum before its renovation and new buildings, so i am unsure of how it looked. However, I will post some photographs below.
I certainly recommend this attraction as there is something for everyone here. The new building contains information about the different people employed by the RAF and the different skillsets. It also shows some vehicles, weapons, cameras, uniforms, and items from the wars from personal possessions to printed material. The building also contains several interactive features such as the ability to design your own aircraft for different reasons (long distance, speed, etc) and to participate in a bombing of a target with minimum casualty due to intelligence information. There were quite a few other interactive games/features to help learn about skills needed in the RAF, but I only looked at a couple of these.
One of the most interesting items in the museum is a piece of fabric from "The Red Baron's" plane. It was finally shot down, and the plane was looted for souvenirs.
The new museum building has a new cafe with seating and a new gift shop. Unfortunately, they did not sell postcards, but they sold a lot of replica materials from the wars and model kits, RAF merchandise, and Red Arrows merchandise.
The next building to visit is a short walk away, and it is a small brick building with a hangar attached. It is dedicated to World War I and historical aircraft. It and one of the other buildings was my favourite part of the museum. A certificate signed by the king at the time marks the end of the war, and old planes were on display along with some personal possessions, propaganda, guns, items from enemy planes, and other items. The building also contained a switchboard.
After visiting the older hangar with the World War I planes, the next hangar was also a modern one and contained modern aircraft. The years covered were from 1950 to the present day. There was less on display in this hangar, but the planes are much larger.
The final hangar had the most planes, and these date from World War 2. Many different types of planes are on display from this era and there is a documentary about the Battle of Britain and the chance to sit inside a Spitfire plane and be told what the different controls do.
The RAF Museum is located in Hendon/Colindale, and it is outside of central London but can be accessed via taxi or a walk from Colindale tube station on the northern line, which is a twelve minute walk away from the musuem. The museum is free to visit. If arriving by car, there is a small cost for parking. To get the most out of the museum, I recommend spending at least half a day here and looking at the areas that interest you as there's so much to see that you can not possibly see it all. There are also cafes on site.
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