[Miscellaneous] Midlands Air Museum

As it was a nice day today, I decided to do something a little different to get myself out of the house for a while. Since I moved back to Coventry I've discovered quite a few interesting sounding museums that I want to visit, and I thought that it was the perfect opportunity. A museum might not sound the best place to go on a summer's day, but this one was mostly open air. It was also the closest one to my house, which may or may not have played a part in my choice!

The Midlands Air Museum is a small, volunteer-run museum right next to Coventry Airport. It's more of a collection of aeroplanes than a 'proper' museum, with the majority of the exhibits being planes on display outside. But it's' no less interesting for that.

It's not a terribly assuming building. But the true gems are sitting outside, behind the hangar. (Credit: David Brown)

There are a couple of more 'museumy' bits indoors. On entering you go through an exhibit about Sir Frank Whittle and the history of the jet engine. I found that very interesting, and it turns out that I share a birthday with him! Upstairs there's an exhibit on the history of the aviation industry in Coventry, with a small bit about the effects of World War 2. Sadly I didn't quite have enough time to look around this bit properly, but it seemed well put together and quite interesting.

Of course the stars of the museum are the planes themselves. With Sir Frank being a Coventrian himself, it was no surprise to see A Gloster Meteor inside the hanger, but it was quite cool nonetheless to able to climb inside the spare cockpit that they had alongside. I also got the chance to sit in the pilot's seat of their Harrier cockpit, which was really cool. I love the Harrier as an aircraft (it's an amazing concept and piece of engineering), and it was noticeable how much things had changed from the Meteor cockpit to the Harrier's.

A Gloster Meteor on display inside the hangar. I didn't get to sit in that one, but there's another Meteor cockpit there

that you can get in. It's rather cramped! (Credit: David Brown)

Outside there were various British and American planes, including two different Lightnings, an F4-F Phantom (another of my favourite planes), and a Sabre. There were some more unusual things there as well, including a Polish aircraft that I'd not heard of before but which was quite cool, and an MI-24 Hind helicopter, which has to be one of the most iconic flying machines of the Soviet Union.

The Hind is, in my opinion, one of the most iconic military helicopters of all time. That dual-bubble canopy is

unmistakable. (Credit: David Brown)

The star of the museum though is easily the Vulcan bomber. It dwarfs everything else at the place (there's even a smaller aeroplane under its wing!), and takes up a substantial portion of the real estate. The Vulcan was made for a dark purpose - as part of the V-Bomber trio (which also included the Victor and the Valiant), it was a key piece in the UK's nuclear deterrent. Fortunately it was never called on to deploy in that capacity, but it did see action during the Falklands war. Yet in spite of this background, there's just something about it that makes it a beautiful aeroplane. I think it's partly the delta wing design; most planes with that design look cool, but I think it's also the particular proportions of the Vulcan that make it very, very pretty. A reminder of the ugliness that hides beneath that beauty is appropriately on display next to the Vulcan at the museum, with the shell of one of its nuclear missiles placed underneath the wing.