Military aviation in the post war era was often fraught with danger and mishaps. During the cold war RAF fighters were regularly scrambled to intercept aircraft that had invaded controlled airspace, although these were usually false alarms.

The father of one of the volunteers at the museum was stationed in Germany in 1951 as an RAF DH Vampire FB5 pilot, and he shared this story.

“16 Squadron was parked at the end of the runway for a quick get-away to intercept any stray visitor from across the East German border. My formation got the call and we scrambled. We found the innocent airliner and returned to base early. Having not used much fuel my landing approach was a trifle slow for the unused weight, and I landed with a thump on the sharp edge of the newly concreted runway. We came to a halt in a very short distance, having shed two wing tanks and a pair of tyres. I leaped out and took some photographs, which were immediately confiscated as being potentially useful to the enemy!“

Luckily the photographs were later returned: