Tangmere Aviation Museum

During the Easter break, both last year and this year, we paid a visit to Tangmere Aviation Museum (they have so much on display that one visit really isn't enough to take it all in!). This blog post combines pictures and information from these two visits (and there will be more visits in the future, I'm sure).

Lots of displays and other information on a wide range of airplanes, including, obviously, Spitfires.

This is a replica of a cockpit from a Mark IX Spit.

And, of course, they have a Merlin engine on display!

And then there is this display, around a replica of the Spitfire prototype.

And, no, I don't mean this scale model ...

... I mean a full-size replica!

Next to the replica aircraft is a 'replica' of RJ Mitchell, sitting at his desk.

And the display also includes some design drawings.

I came across this small display of 'sweetheart brooches', very similar to the brooch I got from Penny!

Hot chocolate in the small cafe comes with a Spitfire silhoutte!

Finally, among the Spitfire-related objects in the museum is this cockpit rear-view mirror.

And this is the picture that just had to be taken ...

1938 Spitfire

The very first Spitfires had a 2-bladed prop, and it took me quite some time before I could add a model of a 1938 Spitfire, with 2-bladed prop, to the collection.

It's a model of K9789, the third Spit ever produced, and I couldn't find a picture of this particular aircraft.

Unlike many of my models, this model has a pilot in the cockpit.

I like to think it's Jeffrey Quill, Supermarine's most famous test pilot. He writes about flying this specific aircraft in his book: