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De Havilland Aircraft Museum (London Colney)

Florian Buechting Museums & Exhibitions No Comments

de Havilland Aircraft Museum

12 GBP
de Havilland Aircraft Museum
4.3

Rating

 4.3/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Superb exhibition
  • Fantastic staff, had some really nice chats
  • Recent renovations (after my visit)

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Quite out of nowhere
  • Limited Space

The De Havilland company is a huge name in the aviation history, especially regarding British aviation history. Close to the original Hartfield production grounds, the village of London Colney North of the UK capital hosts the unique de Havilland Aircraft Museum. I already visited the site, which is currently getting additional showrooms, in summer 2019. I decided to publish this posting now due to its winter closing. In the meantime, there have been significant refurbishing and renovations at the museum grounds, though.

This posting comes with 216 major size pictures in designated section of the travel gallery.

 

de Havilland Museum – Location & Admission

Colney is a Northern suburb of London. The museum is South of the village’s center, close to the M25. There is a bus stop, Salisbury Hall, quite close to the museum, but overall, I would recommend to go for a rental car to visit the museum. You likely need to have GPS to find it, the signposting is definitely subject to improvement. There is sufficient parking space at the museum.

Adult admission is 10.90 GBP. For UK taxpayers, there is also a Gift Aid option for 12 GBP. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:30 to 17:00 hrs. The museum is in winter closure, roughly mid-November til mid-February.

 

de Havilland Museum – The Exhibition

Before you get in touch with quite a bunch of historic airplanes, you can first explore some engines and the history of the de Havilland company – their family story as welll as a wall of all the planes produced.

 

The Mosquitoes & Other Military Airplanes

De Havilland DH98 – that is the branding of the most important exhibits in the museum. There are several versions of the Mosquito, even a prototype one. No need to argue, the WWII military planes are the stars at London Colney.

However, there are a lot of other military airplanes. Some are even exhibits of the pre-WWII period, like the DH53 Humming Bird or the DH88 Comet Racer. The museum even owns a De Havilland helicopter, the Cierva C.24 Autogiro.

 

Civil Aircrafts

The museum owns quite a selection of civil aircrafts as well. One of the largest ones is a BAe 146-100, which is stored without wings in the museum. Some other aircrafts is the DH114 Heron or the DH121 Trident. Tehre are also two cockpit simulators used for crew training. A very special plane is the beautiful DH106 Comet 1A. Most of the exhibits are accessible and you can at least have a good view of the cockpits, which was my very special highlight of the visit. The museum is also about to restore some other historic models and owns a flight simulator.

 

de Havilland Museum – Services & More

Close to the entrance, the museum drives a quite nicely sorted store with aviation articles. Furthermore, you can grab a snack or a drink in this area. Parking at the museum is for free

 

de Havilland Museum – The Gallery

In fact I visited the museum in summer 2019. I dated the gallery with 216 major size pictures to February 2020, where the review is finally published. You find the pictures in the travel gallery:

 

de Havilland Museum – My View

The de Havilland Museum was one of the most interesting aviation places I visted in 2019. So many planes to explore, so much history and also such a friendly and amazing staff – even if you are not into aviation at all, you may give this lovely place a try. To me, it is a definite Top Pick!

 

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