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Post by Calum on Feb 15, 2013 17:38:45 GMT 12
We spent a couple of days in York, day 1 was really nice weather wise but the clouds rolled in the late afternoon. Day 2, Cam and I headed off to the Yorkshire Air Museum. This was large bomber base in World War II, home to French and Canadian bomber Squadrons among others.. Highlights included one of the two only surviving complete Halifax's, A Air Gunners (including Turrets) display, Victor and Nimrod (which they still run). There were 2 hangars of Aircraft, those inside were well looked after but he ones outside, in particular the Tornados , Harrier and Mirage had seen better days. Hopefully they'll get inside eventually. The Allied Air Forces Memorial is also there along with some of the WW II buildings, including the Tower, French Officers mess and barracks displayed as they would have been in the war. All in all it was certainly worth the visit, certainly more interesting than the York Minister ;-) Anyway, here's the link to the slide show |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 15, 2013 17:49:39 GMT 12
Not the only surviving Halifax, there is one at Hendon and one complete at Trenton, Canada.
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Post by Peter Lewis on Feb 15, 2013 18:39:56 GMT 12
Very nice selection.
Which Mossie is that?
Are the Hurricane and the 504 genuine or replicas?
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Post by Calum on Feb 15, 2013 18:59:58 GMT 12
Not the only surviving Halifax, there is one at Hendon and one complete at Trenton, Canada. The one at Hendon is hardly complete so it doesn't count.  I didn't know about the one in Canada, I'll have to modify my post |
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Post by Calum on Feb 15, 2013 19:03:33 GMT 12
Very nice selection. Which Mossie is that? Are the Hurricane and the 504 genuine or replicas? replica's I think Details here www.yorkshireairmuseum.org/ |
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Post by baz62 on Feb 15, 2013 22:00:04 GMT 12
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Post by Calum on Feb 15, 2013 22:05:13 GMT 12
Pleasure Baz, thought you'd like the Auster  |
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Post by Ykato on Feb 16, 2013 23:41:38 GMT 12
Great Pics  |
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Post by phil82 on Feb 17, 2013 3:46:17 GMT 12
I've been there. Elvington is, I believe, the longest runway in the UK! The Victor tanker used to do fast taxi-runs on specified days, and accidentally took off on one in 2008.
That Javelin is also quite a rare bird.
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Post by DragonflyDH90 on Feb 17, 2013 7:39:08 GMT 12
Been there too. I like York, nice city. I went to one of the Elvington Airshows ('05 I think) and it was great. The museum was very interesting, and the halifax very imressive.
It was great airshow with BBMF (Lanc, Hurri, Spitty etc), Jaguar, Tornado, F-16 (Royal Netherlands Air Force solo display - very, very impressive), Red Arrows, Hunter, Harrier, various other jets, few WWII machines, Skyraider firing rockets and the Victor doing its high speed runs. It was a great airshow.
I don't think the airshow runs anymore but the museum is still worth a visit. If up that way take the time to go to Leeds as well. The town is boring as heck but they hold the Royal Armoury which is one of the most impressive collection of ancient and modern arms and armour that you will see anywhere in the world (Tower of London asid). Absolutely amazing. They also hold weaponry demonstartions throughout the collection with guys doing sword displays in arenas (as well as lance, mace and a multitude of other weapons) and outside they hold jousting demonstrations, falconry demonstrations, weapon making and blacksmithing demos.
Whats more it is essentially free. free entry to the museum but the jousting, and falconry cost a little, very little.
Easy to spend a whole day there and still want to go back the next day.
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Post by phil82 on Feb 17, 2013 8:14:02 GMT 12
...and.......not forgetting that York is home of the National Rail museum and has on display the best collection or real steam engines in the world. Bar none!
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Post by Calum on Feb 17, 2013 9:40:15 GMT 12
...and.......not forgetting that York is home of the National Rail museum and has on display the best collection or real steam engines in the world. Bar none! Yeah we went to the Rail museum after the air museum. It's well worth a visit as well. The day we left the flooding started.... |
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Post by nuuumannn on Feb 18, 2013 22:55:36 GMT 12
Nice pics Callum, neat place; been there many times. Elvington is an example of what a bunch of (wealthy) enthusiasts can do with an abandoned airfield and a heap of hard work. A number of the aircraft there are reproductions as getting hold of originals of some of them is a bit difficult, including the Halifax, Avro 504 and Hurricane. There's also an S.E5a and a mock up of Yorkshireman George Cayley's glider. The Halifax has an original rear fuselage section and its centre section is from a Hastings that used to sit in the fire dump at not far away Dishforth, but the rest of it is made of wood and sheet metal. Nevertheless, it looks good. Note the Argentine markings on the Mirage; it was repainted on the 30th anniversary of the Falklands and is a French Air Force example.
The Hendon Hali should count as it is largely complete. It was shot down on a raid against the Tirpitz and crashed in a Norwegian fiord. The turret and one of its Merlins were restored before a decision to display it as it was found was made.
The longest is at Heathrow at 3902m, Elvington's is 3094m.
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Post by Calum on Feb 19, 2013 14:00:31 GMT 12
Don't get me wrong, I actually think the Hendon Halifax display is very moving. More so than a complete aircraft as it reminds you that a lot of these machines and their crews never came back
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Post by nuuumannn on Feb 20, 2013 0:59:38 GMT 12
No worries, Callum, I wasn't criticising you at all, just thought that Hendon's Halifax should count as being a survivor of the type, regardless of its state of disrepair. Until the example at Trenton was finished, it was the only surviving genuine Halifax. Trenton's was also recovered from a fiord and was in similar shape to Hendon's; the RAF museum just chose not to restore it, but to preserve it.
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