Royal Air Force museum in London

At the entrance to the museum, there is a replica of a full-size WWII aircraft on display. A Hurricane is at the entrance to the car park, and a Spitfire at the entrance for pedestrians.

I enjoyed tour of museums near London. I spent a day and a half visiting the RAF Museum and the Brooklands Museum. I had a fulfilling experience, sitting in the cockpit of a Spitfire at the former, sitting in a Harrier and a Concorde at the latter, and driving an old-timer sports car on a bank.

The Air Force Museum is free to enter, and there are many hands-on exhibits that convey a strong desire to teach children about aviation (military?) technology, which was impressive. It was a very advanced exhibit that not only had flight simulators and information about the structure of aircraft, but also taught visitors about the integration of information about satellites and reconnaissance aircraft, which are essential in today’s world, and how to use that information in battle. Well, the old man’s interest was not in that, but in the actual aircraft on display, including the World War II planes. There were the Bf 109E and Spitfire from the Battle of Britain directly, the night-fighter Me 110, which looked like a bombardier beetle, Avro Vulcan, which was as big as a playground, Hawker Tempest, which had a huge mouth like an idiot, and an amazing number of aircraft that you could never see all of, no matter how much you looked.

This is the Battle of Britain Corner. I like the square-winged planes, so I like the E-type Bf 109 in the photo. The tail fin struts are a bit tacky, but I don’t mind.

It’s the night-fighter type Me 110. The spiky antenna and the color of the fuselage (which is a little green due to lighting) make it look a bit like a grasshopper or a sow bug, don’t they? It was a fairly unremarkable aircraft, but the real thing is very powerful and cool.。

The Lancaster has a huge bomb underneath. The B17 is behind the P51. I’ve seen enough twin-engine and four-engine planes this time to gradually made me fun of them. However, it’s so dark here that I think it’s harassment for photographers! The aircraft are huge, and it’s tough to take photos with a 28mm f/2.8 lens. I’d like to have at least a 24mm lens, or even better, a wider-angle lens.

This is the Tempest with its mouth wide open. It looks like it would have a lot of air resistance, but it’s a high-speed aircraft that can reach speeds of up to 700kph. Looking at old photos of the exhibit with it being displayed suspended in mid-air, it seems that the way it was displayed changed quite a bit.

Stuka! Everything about it is rugged and fierce, and it’s cool. I wonder why I’m loving these German planes in UK though…. When the Rhine River dried up last year, I heard a Stuka with a skeleton was found in the riverbed near the Remagen Bridge.

The Balkan. It’s terrifying, the number of bombs lined up underneath it. The main wings are so wide that it looks like a football ground.

I rushed through the hall of modern jet aircrafts because I didn’t have much time. The smoothness of the Buccaneer stands out compared to the angular shapes of the Jaguar and Tornado.

This is it, the feminine, curvy beauty of the buccaneer. The glamourous erotic body line that undulates from the narrowing canopy to the tail.

Amidst the many gray and dark green aircraft, this one with its strangely pop-like coloring really stands out.

I could get on the Spitfire cockpit after following queue of preschool boys and their mothers. We received explanations from the friendly staff and had our photos taken. They also lent us flight caps and goggles.

I’ve taken a lot of photos, so please take a look at them in the gallery if you like.