Tour of Britain's transport heritage

[apteryx]

A boutique tour company in Hamilton, Calder & Lawson Tours, will next year be taking a tour focussing on Britain's transport heritage: Trains and boats and planes. It kicks off with the Flying Legends Airshow at RAF Duxford on 7 July 2018. Other aviation visits include the Solent Sky Museum in Southampton, Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton, and the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. A free day in London would allow a visit to the RAF Museum at Hendon.

[apteryx]

An updated itinerary is available here.

[nuuumannn]

A pretty comprehensive tour that covers a lot of ground and some fascinating sights; a very interesting itinerary.

[nuuumannn]

I've just been looking at Torii Tours' itinerary for their 2018 UK tour and it is more aviation oriented. There are five airshows, Flying Legends, Yeovilton Air Day, RIAT, Farnborough and Shuttleworth and lots of museums and sights, including Yorkshire, Newark, the BBMF, Just Jane, Solent Sky, the obvious candidates, Hendon, Yeovilton, Duxford, Cosford. It does cover the month of July and is over 10 Grand Australian, but looks fantastic.

[flyinkiwi]

Having just recently visited some of those locations I wholeheartedly agree with the above selections. I'd add the London Science Museum to the list, the collection they have in their Flight section is surprisingly good.

[nuuumannn]

the collection they have in their Flight section is surprisingly good.

Yes indeed, and considerably historic. The Atlantic crossing Vimy, the Schneider Trophy and S.6B that won it, the very first reproduction of the Wright's original 1903 Flyier built (by de Havilland apprentices from drawings made of the original that was in the Science Museum's care from 1912 to 1946), a P.1127 prototype, Britain's first jet, the Gloster E.28/39 etc. The Science Museum collection on display at South Ken is only a small part of what they hold; there's an outstation at Wroughton, Wiltshire, but it is only open to the public on certain days of the year. Well worth getting to see.

[Dave Homewood]

I visited the Science Museum years ago, 1996/97, and the entire museum was just excellent. There's so much to see there. I loved it.

[flyinkiwi]

The other museum of note that I went to was the Kent Battle of Britain Museum located at the site of the old RAF Hawkinge airfield near Folkestone. The collection of WW2 memorabilia, crashed aircraft parts and period pieces is worth the drive out there. Also Hawkinge was used as a filming location for the 1969 Battle of Britain movie (the airfield where Michael Caine had his squadron) and many of the locals appeared as extras. One of them had the foresight to bring his camera and his photos are a fresh perspective on a movie we've all seen many times. The downside is that photography is strictly prohibited - I didn't bother to ask why.

[30sqnatc]

Nov 22, 2017 8:50:20 GMT 12 flyinkiwi said:

The downside is that photography is strictly prohibited - I didn't bother to ask why.

To stop the Germans stealing the RAFs defence secrets It does seem to be a strange rule for historic items.

[Peter Lewis]

The restriction is generally because they want you to buy their postcards.

[nuuumannn]

It does seem to be a strange rule for historic items.

The restriction on photography at Hawkinge is well known and is due to extreme paranoia by the owners of the museum, but with apparent reason. The site has been broken into and stuff stolen on multiple occasions, with break-ins taking place with supposed knowledge of the site's security measures, so to prevent possible thieves from photographing the cameras and sensors, the owner has put a blanket restriction on photography. It's a bit extreme and it hasn't prevented break-ins, but there's a kind of logic to it, I guess. It's a shame, because it's an impressive collection of stuff - the largest gathering of privately recovered WW2/BoB relics in Britain, not to mention the neat scale mock-ups, now joined by the Boulton Paul Heritage Society's Defiant that incorporates bits from an original aircraft.