Fleet Air Arm and its museum a trip report

[Kapitan]

The Fleet Air Arm Museum Yeovilton

I have been to many museums in my time mainly ones that involve ships and submarines and also aircraft, well one museum i hadn't yet been to was the Fleet Air Arm museum in Yeovilton Somerset, i had debated for a while if i should go and if it was worth the long drive the pictures made it look pretty small and it was one of them is it worth the 3+ hour drive each way.

Well one text message started the ball rolling, a friend of mine who has in recent years been on many escapades with me "Papa Jo" asked if i fancied going to Duxford, now i had recently been so i wasn't keen on visiting it again in such a short time frame, so i made a counter suggestion the Fleet Air Arm Museum neither of us had been there before, the offer was quickly accepted.

So its a 0600 start the journey will take 3 hours 30 minuets and pass by Stone Henge on the A303, now the journey itself was unremarkable except we later learnt that stone henge is a dam rip off ! £21.50 to get in and see a pile of stones in a field no thank you! other than that the route along the M25 and Dartford M3 A303 passed us by uneventfully, we arrived exactly 3 hours and 30 minuets of total driving given its a sunday the roads were clear (people probably just going to bed hung over from the night before) so we had half hour to kill and we needed to stretch our legs.

At the entrance to the museum are two anchors one from HMS Ark Royal 1955-1979 the other HMS Eagle 1951-1972



The Royal Naval Air Service was formed in 1914 it later became the Fleet Air Arm in 1924 the home based for the fleet air arm is at Yeovilton in Somerset here you can learn fixed wing and rotary aircraft, it is home to the training centers and also active squadrons.

with the disbandment of the last harriers back in 2010 the FAA mainly flies helicopters such as the Lynx and Merlins however this year marks a major turning point for the Royal navy and also the FAA, a full return to fixed wing aircraft on board an aircraft carrier, with the commission of the HMS Queen Elizabeth R08 and later the HMS Prince of wales the return of fixed wing aircraft and their deployment is secured, the new carriers will be armed not just with helicopters but also F35B (a bad choice IMHO), the two new carriers should last the next 50 years and are of reasonable size much larger than anything that has gone before.

But what are we here for today? well we are here to find out about the fleet air arm and its history and what its future role is.

Walking through into the first hall it is a very impressive sight i must say and it is home to some of the earliest aircraft and some helicopters.



The shorts S.27 i wouldn't want to fly this thing i must admit



The "Jaberwock" a splendid looking bi-plane armed with rockets shows the lengths people went to try and arm these aircraft in the early days


Probably the ugliest helicopter made IMHO the Dragonfly



Probably the most recognizable Helicopter the seaking also one of my favorite aircraft of all time

I have to say the layout is quite well organised there is a walrus sea plane (see my album) in the hanger along with the helicopters and the Short S.27, then we move on into another part of the hanger, and here is a mock up of a U boat conning tower i must say it is well done albeit inaccurate but the effort level is spot on.



The F4U Corsair probably the most recognized carrier aircraft of the war especially for the USN

This hanger houses the world war two and Korean collection there are sea fires and oddly a Mig 15 in North Korean colors many more aircraft dot the hanger including the wreckage of a blackburn Skua

I have to say i am quite impressed by the collection so far



Taken from the viewing gallery and Merlin display in hanger two this is only 1/2 the aircraft some are below us

In this hanger there are a collection of bells and models and again it is a very good layout and it is done for a purpose because at the end of it you "board" a helicopter for a "flight back in time" to the 1970's and HMS Ark Royal.



HMS Ark Royal's bell on display along with quite a few others

Now this is the bit that really did impress me the most! they have managed to use the building very well and the props and projectors too after your flight you land on HMS Ark Royals flight deck it even feels like a flight deck and looks like a flight deck i have to say this is by far the best attempt ever!

every so often an aircraft comes in to land or takes off a projection of this is played at either end and what i didn't know at the time is that there is a tour through this virtual aircraft carrier as well as its "flight stations" your guided the entire way through takes around 45 minuets but it is worth waiting it is all in sequence who ever created this i take my hat off to them!



From forward looking aft you see a collection of Jets laid out on the "flight deck"



The flight deck showing the layout of the aircraft with an F4 on the catapult.



The bridge of HMS Ark Royal and the CIC

The way this has been laid out is extraordinary, the next part after leaving the carrier area inside a lift so you watch a little movie and then your lowered on an aircraft elevator down to the lower levels to the future area of the FAA here there are models including design concept models for the QE carriers i personally think we should have built a conventional lay out like the USN and had catapults and Arresting gear this would have allowed inter operation between the USN French Navy and the UK as well as other smaller carrier countries, this would have meant the UK could have possibly landed French Rafales or American F/A18 we could have also deployed E2C Hawkeyes but alas out politicians don't think this way.



The left is the design we have gone for in our new carriers to the right the one i think we should have gone for the traditional layout

moving on we enter the final era hanger 4 here there is concorde 002 two harriers the GR9 and FRS1 varients and also a couple of prototype aircraft.



As you can see concorde dominates this area it is the only supersonic passenger aircraft to be a commercial success

Probably one of my afvorite aircraft the Harrier which has been an icon for many years known as the Jump Jet it has been one of the most successful aircraft deployed it has served in many air forces and navies around the world notably the USMC who purchased this and operate them from the USN LPA's these will be replaced by the F35B.



Brand new and unproven in combat the Harrier went on to dominate the South Atlantic war taking down many Argentine aircraft including super sonic mirage III with no air to air losses taken the world took note including the United States.


That concluded my tour the whole museum we had completed in four hours and was it worth the drive? absolutely and i highly recommend the museum its one of the best for interaction i have ever been too and it is most certainly the most gifted in creating exhibits.

I think that this museum was a fantastic addition to my extensive collections and there are plenty of pictures available for you to see to make your own mind up.

Hope you enjoyed the tour but do go there in person it really is something else!

[Eichhörnchen]

Fantastic post as usual, mate. I wonder whose idea it was to put a Mig-15 in the FAA museum

I think one of the prototype aircraft you referred to at the end was an Avro 707... I'll have to go and look that up

Great photos, too

[sonicninja]

fantastic shots shipmate thanks for sharing

[fumo30]

Originally Posted by Eichhörnchen

I wonder whose idea it was to put a Mig-15 in the FAA museum

It must've been the same guy who handed the RR-nene jet engines over to the soviets.


Nice pics.

[Jimbuna]

Been far too long since I last visited there....thanks for sharing