Welcome

Welcome to the oldest aviation museum in the UK dedicated to the preservation and display of de Havilland Aircraft. The de Havilland Aircraft Company played an important role in the history of aircraft development in 20th century Britain. The de Havilland company created world beating aeronautical innovations including many iconic aircraft such as the de Havilland Mosquito – “The Wooden Wonder”, the Comet – the world’s first jet airliner, the Tiger Moth – the “backbone “of the RAF’s training aircraft in WWII and the Airspeed Horsa Glider – used extensively by our airborne troops in 1944 during D-Day, Arnhem and the Rhine crossing.

We are a “working museum” where we actively restore de Havilland Aircraft so you are likely to see our volunteers at work, who are always willing to answer your questions.

The de Havilland Aircraft Museum is mostly staffed by unpaid volunteers who perform a wide range of tasks according to their skills.

Volunteers Wanted!

The de Havilland Aircraft Museum has ambitious expansion plans and as a “working” Museum where the visiting public are encouraged to get close up to the aircraft and engage with our friendly volunteers needs more volunteers to support our mission to restore, preserve and display de Havilland Aircraft and artefacts. Right now there are opportunities for people to help by applying to become a Steward, working at site maintenance and restoration.

One of current projects is the restoration of our Comet 2R nose-it’s a very significant exhibit being one of the original Cold War ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) “Snooper” aircraft used to listen to radio transmissions in the Soviet Bloc. The long-term plan is to completely restore the nose section internally and externally, but the emphasis at this moment is on replacing the badly decayed wooden bulkhead that forms the weather seal at the rear of the section. We need additional volunteers with some woodworking experience to supplement the Comet R2 team who sre available on a Wednesdays.

If you think you could help us by giving a little of your time we would like to hear from you.

Please complete the Volunteer Application Form which can be downloaded here or by e-mailing Mike Nevin-Trustee on volunteers@dehavillandmuseum.co.uk

We need your support in our quest to build a new hangar.

Many of our aircraft are on display outside and exposed to the weather including the last example of the Comet 1A-the world’s first Jet Airliner. To ensure their survival we need to protect these aircraft and the construction of a new large hangar is essential if we are to continue the restoration process.

The Museum has been granted planning permission to build a large Hangar that will replace a smaller building and it will enable us to protect more of our aircraft that are currently displayed outside. We have applied to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant of £1.5Million-the hangar will cost over £2.2million.

We have already used our own funds to prepare the foundations.

However we need your help to raise a further £700,000 that will enable the museum to secure funding which will enable complete the hangar.

You can make a donation to the Hangar fund by clicking here

Sir Geoffrey de Havilland Hangar virtual tour

https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=gkQaxUt6Fcr