Yorkshire Air Museum

[nuuumannn]

A terrific place, the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington is famous for one thing, its Halifax recreation, which in the flesh is an impressive beast. The Halifax is one reason to visit, there are plenty more...

YAM is on the grounds of the former RAF Elvington and is very evocative.

YAM 01

Like the other museums I've posted recently, YAM has a few unique aircraft, including the only Dassault Mirage IV outside of France.

YAM 03

A YAM stalwart is the privately owned, active Handley Page Victor Lusty Lindy, which is regularly run on Elvington's massive runway.

YAM 08

With a focus on Yorkshire aviation, Elvington has three Buccaneers built at Brough, this one a former 1991 Gulf War veteran.

YAM 23

The Halifax recreation is largely built around a Hastings wing and centre section, with a Halifax rear fuselage section and wooden framework clad in metal. The interior is now constructed as authentically as possible, and the aircraft is still a work in progress in the strive for accuracy.

YAM 25

This is the original section of Halifax, which came from a B.II that crashed on Stornoway and was recovered by a few hardy individuals for the express purpose of recreating a Halifax. YAM was essentially started with this purpose in mind.

YAM 31

A Beautifully restored Waco CG-4A Hadrian assault glider.

YAM 34

Interesting selection of RAF bombs, from L to R: 12,000lb Tall Boy, 500lb Mk.2 GP, 1,000lb Mk.4 GP, 400 Kt WE.177 tactical nuclear bomb.

YAM 52

Elvington is home to a number of memorials, including a room dedicated to 609 (West Riding) Sqn, Auxiliary Air Force, within which is this panel from Wg Cdr Roland Beamont's Hawker Typhoon, which carried the squadron motto "Tally Ho"

YAM 58

YAM has a memorial to air gunners, with examples of turrets on display, including this Boulton Paul Type C turret, fitted to early model Halifaxes and Hudsons.

YAM 62

Not far from Elvington was the Howden airship station, which was one of the largest in the UK and was the departure point of the Cardington built airship R.38/ZR-2, when it broke up over the Humber estuary in 1921. Howden is also where the Airship Guarantee Company built the R.100.

YAM 66

There is also a Barnes Wallis memorial at Elvington, although Wallis was not a Yorkshireman, he designed and worked on the airship R.100, the 'successful' airship of the doomed Imperial Airship Scheme. A model within the Wallis Room.

YAM 73

More images here: www.flickr.com/photos/147661871@N04/albums/72157716969557808/with/50626312171/

Thanks for looking.

[planecrazy]

Great stuff, those Victors are crazy looking things, look like they would go okay as a boat.

[pjw4118]

Good to see again , lots of aircraft and the Nissen huts are full of material too. Certainly a two day visit. Thanks for reminding me.

[shorty]

Regarding the Halifax, some information I have been looking for (and can't find on the net) is what are the differences between the Halifax and Hastings wings/centre section?

[Calum]

How is the Harrier, Tornado and Mirage IIIE? They were looking pretty sad in 2012 when I visited

I agree though it's a great museum in a great setting

[Brett]

Shorty,

The Hastings used Halifax wings, but with an all-new circular fuselage that was pressurised. If the recreation uses a Hastings fuselage centre section then they probably cut and modified it into the Halifax profile.

[Dave Homewood]

I asked the Halifax guru Karl Kjarsgaard (have a listen to the latest WIONZ Show if you do not know about him), and he sent me this to post:

Hi Dave Yes, the Halifax and Hastings wings are BOTH 5 piece wings ( 1 center section, 2 outer wing panels, and 2 intermediate wing sections). The center-section on both Halifax and Hastings are almost identical (29 feet). The Outer wing panels are identical. (25 feet) The DIFF. in wing distance is in the intermediate wings (small wing section between the inboard and outboard engines). The Halifax intermediate wing is 9 feet between inboard and outboard engines. The Hastings intermediate wing is 13 feet between engines. So 4 feet on the port side and 4 feet on the starboard side means 8 feet total diff. from wing tip to wing tip. Cheers, Karl Kj.

[nuuumannn]

Nov 23, 2020 14:10:55 GMT 12 Calum said:

How is the Harrier, Tornado and Mirage IIIE? They were looking pretty sad in 2012 when I visited. I agree though it's a great museum in a great setting

There's photos of all four (two Tornadoes) in the link at the bottom of the images I posted. The Mirage has had a refurbish and looked good at the time I took the pictures (two years ago). The first time I went, back in the mid '90s, not long after they had officially unveiled the Halifax, the two-seat Hunter was a bit of a mess, but it looks real smart in its refurbished state.

[nuuumannn]

Excellent info on the Halifax wing from Karl, Dave. A comparison view of the two types, out of interest, starring the Hastings at the Newark Air Museum.

DSC_0128

YAM 29

There are still traces of the Halifax's centre section's Hastings origins if one looks closely. Along the underside of the wing trailing edge were a row of access doors on both types, the Hastings doors had small corrugations in them, which were not present on the Halifax. You can see the doors just forward of the flap in this image, with a view of the same area of the Hastings for comparison.

YAM 25

DSC_0077

[shorty]

Thanks for all this, the (very!) long term plans is to build a R/C Hastings which I intend to base on a Halifax plan, main fuselage portion will be a foam cylinder, Don't hold your breath, it will be a long way off, but at least people won't be asking "Which is your Hastings?"when it's done.

[nuuumannn]

Dec 2, 2020 18:49:25 GMT 12 shorty said:

Thanks for all this, the (very!) long term plans is to build a R/C Hastings which I intend to base on a Halifax plan, main fuselage portion will be a foam cylinder, Don't hold your breath, it will be a long way off, but at least people won't be asking "Which is your Hastings?"when it's done.

Pictures when you're done, Shorty! If you want help with panel lines and stuff, I did a walkaround of the Newark Hastings, so let me know if there's an area you need to see.