De Havilland Aircraft Museum, London Colney
At Salisbury Hall, where the Mosquito was designed from 1939. Holds the prototype Mosquito W4050 and is the UK’s largest museum devoted to one maker.
The types
de Havilland aircraft you can see
| Type | First flew | Built | UK museums |
|---|---|---|---|
| de Havilland DH.53 Humming Bird | 1923 | 15 | 2 |
| de Havilland DH.51 | 1924 | 3 | 1 |
| de Havilland DH.60 MothCirrus/Hermes | 1925 | ~2,100 | 2 |
| de Havilland Puss Moth & Hornet MothDH.80A Puss Moth, DH.87B Hornet Moth | 1929 | 448 | 2 |
| de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth+ Queen Bee | 1931 | 8,868 | 12 |
| de Havilland DH.88 Comet | 1934 | 5 | 2 |
| de Havilland Dragon & RapideDH.84/89 | 1934 | ~930 | 7 |
| de Havilland MosquitoNF.II, FB.VI, B.35 | 1940 | 7,781 | 7 |
| de Havilland VampireF.1–T.11 & Sea Vampire | 1943 | ~4,400 | 30 |
| de Havilland Hornet & Sea HornetF.3, NF.21 | 1944 | 383 | 1 |
| de Havilland Dove familyDove, Devon, Sea Devon, Heron | 1945 | ~690 | 12 |
| de Havilland Venom & Sea VenomFB, NF, FAW | 1949 | ~1,400 | 9 |
| de Havilland Comet1A/2/4C | 1949 | 114 | 6 |
| de Havilland Sea VixenFAW.1/2 | 1951 | 145 | 14 |
| Hawker Siddeley 125 / Dominie | 1962 | ~1,700 | 7 |
| Hawker Siddeley Trident1C/2E/3B | 1962 | 117 | 9 |
The firm
de Havilland in brief
The firm later moved its headquarters and main factory to Hatfield, Hertfordshire. In September 1939 its Mosquito design team set up at Salisbury Hall, London Colney, and built the prototype there. The wooden Mosquito was followed by the Vampire jet and, in 1949, the Comet, the first commercial jet airliner. A large factory at Hawarden, near Chester, was acquired in 1948.
Hawker Siddeley bought the company in 1960. In 1963 it became the de Havilland Division of Hawker Siddeley Aviation, and DH designations gave way to HS. The name lives on in Canada through de Havilland Canada.
Where to go
Museums holding de Havilland aircraft
| Museum | de Havilland types | Adult entry | Airframes | Headline exhibit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| De Havilland Aircraft MuseumSt Albans, Hertfordshire | 14 | £12 | 35 | Mosquito prototype W4050, the original 1940 aircraft, in the place it was designed and first assembled. No other British museum has… |
| IWM DuxfordCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 7 | £29 | 146 | Concorde 101 (G-AXDN), the pre-production development aircraft and the fastest Concorde of them all at Mach 2.23 — plus an SR-71A… |
| National Museum Of FlightNorth Berwick, East Lothian | 6 | £15 | 47 | Concorde G-BOAA, which flew British Airways' first commercial supersonic service in 1976 and arrived here by barge and giant road-crawl… |
| Newark Air MuseumNewark, Nottinghamshire | 6 | £12.50 | 95 | Vulcan XM594, with cockpit tours occasionally given by former Vulcan aircrew, which reviewers describe with the reverence normally… |
| North East Land, Sea and Air MuseumsSunderland, Tyne and Wear | 6 | £7.50 | 46 | NELSAM in Sunderland mixes Vulcan XL319 (flew in when the airport still existed), a Pucará from the Falklands, trams, buses and a… |
| The Shuttleworth CollectionBiggleswade, Bedfordshire | 6 | £19.50 | 55 | The 1934 DH.88 Comet 'Grosvenor House', winner of the MacRobertson England–Australia air race, restored to fly; and the Edwardians —… |
| South Yorkshire Aircraft MuseumDoncaster, South Yorkshire | 5 | £7.50 | 109 | Doncaster's South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum sprawls across the old RAF Doncaster site: dozens of airframes and helicopters, strong… |
| Fleet Air Arm MuseumYeovil, Somerset | 4 | £21 | 97 | Concorde 002 (G-BSST), the first British-assembled Concorde, which made her maiden flight from Filton in 1969 and now headlines a hall of… |
| Midland Air MuseumCoventry, Warwickshire | 4 | £11 | 66 | Vulcan XL360 with cockpit access and volunteer-led tours (ask for the instrumentation talk), plus the Whittle jet heritage collection a… |
| South Wales Aviation MuseumBarry, Vale of Glamorgan | 4 | £10 | 73 | The resident Harrier and a growing VC10/Tornado-era collection, most with steps and open canopies. Kids exit wearing thousand-yard grins. |
| Boscombe Down Aviation CollectionSalisbury, Wiltshire | 3 | £13.50 | 49 | The Lancaster cockpit reproduction tour, and a test-and-evaluation pedigree collection you can physically inhabit rather than admire… |
| East Midlands AeroparkDerby, Leicestershire | 3 | £5 | 35 | East Midlands Aeropark: a Vulcan, Nimrod R1 and Buccaneer parked on grassy mounds overlooking EMA's runway — half museum, half premier… |
| Gatwick Aviation MuseumGatwick, Surrey | 3 | £12.50 | 16 | Avro Shackleton WR982 (the £5 guided tour is unanimously endorsed) and a live-engined English Electric Lightning. There's also… |
| Hooton Park HangarsEllesmere Port, Cheshire | 3 | £9 | 45 | Hooton Park's 1917 Belfast-truss hangars — among the finest WWI aviation buildings surviving — hold aircraft, buses and a printing museum… |
| MorayviaForres, Moray | 3 | £8 | 35 | Nimrod XV244 (complete, and the crew who operated her sometimes give the tours) alongside a Sea King in RAF SAR yellow — the machine that… |
| Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation MuseumBungay, Suffolk | 3 | £10 | 65 | Depends who you ask — the joy is the oddities. Come for the Bloodhound missiles and decoy rarities; stay for volunteer flight-simulator… |
| Royal Air Force Museum MidlandsShifnal, Shropshire | 3 | Free | 78 | TSR-2 XR220, one of two survivors of the most gifted aircraft Britain ever cancelled, sharing floor space with the stainless-steel… |
| Solent SkySouthampton, Hampshire | 3 | £14 | 23 | Supermarine S.6A N248, the 1929 Schneider Trophy racer from the bloodline that begat the Spitfire — parked beneath its descendant for… |
| Tangmere Military Aviation MuseumChichester, West Sussex | 3 | £15 | 23 | Hawker Hunter WB188 in one-off scarlet, in which Neville Duke took the world air speed record to 727.63 mph off this coast in 1953;… |
| Airworld Aviation MuseumCaernarfon, Gwynedd | 2 | £7 | 10 | Airworld at Caernarfon Airport (RAF Llandwrog, birthplace of the RAF Mountain Rescue Service): Hunter, Vampire and the world's only… |
| Bournemouth Aviation MuseumChristchurch, Dorset | 2 | £10 | 29 | The sit-anywhere policy itself — one entry fee, no per-cockpit charges, a full BAC 1-11 flight-deck sim in a shed, and thousands… |
| City of Norwich Aviation MuseumNorwich, Norfolk | 2 | £9 | 33 | City of Norwich Aviation Museum at Horsham St Faith: Norfolk's largest, ~30 airframes including a Vulcan and Nimrod with bookable… |
| Jet Age MuseumGloucester, Gloucestershire | 2 | Donation | 15 | Gloucestershire's jet-age shrine (free!) beside Staverton airport: Gloster heritage from the E.28/39 replica to Javelins, with… |
| Royal Air Force Museum LondonLondon, Greater London | 2 | Free | 88 | Avro Lancaster R5868 'S-Sugar' — 137 operations, the RAF's highest-scoring surviving heavy — under the same roof as a Vulcan, a… |
| Solway Aviation MuseumCrosby on Eden, Cumbria | 2 | £8 | 21 | Vulcan XJ823 with pre-bookable crew-compartment visits; a Phantom, Lightning and Canberra (whose three-crew cockpit reviewers describe as… |
| Stoneykirk Aviation MuseumStranraer, Dumfries and Galloway | 2 | £6 | 9 | Stoneykirk: one enthusiast's cockpit collection on a Galloway croft, Vulcan included, with tea, cakes and a perfect 5.0 rating — the… |
| Ulster Aviation Society (Maze Long Kesh)Lisburn, County Antrim | 2 | By appointment | 63 | The Shorts family — SC.1 vertical take-off research aircraft included — plus a Buccaneer, Phantom, Wildcat, and a newly arrived AV-8… |
| Wellesbourne Wartime MuseumWarwick, Warwickshire | 2 | £1.50 | 3 | Wellesbourne's underground WWII battle HQ bunker plus a compact museum — and, crucially, shared turf with Vulcan XM655, the most complete… |
| Yorkshire Air MuseumYork, North Yorkshire | 2 | £17 | 54 | Halifax 'Friday the 13th' — the world's only complete Halifax reconstruction, honouring the type that flew from this very field —… |
| Bottisham Airfield MuseumCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 1 | £6 | 4 | Bottisham hosted the 361st Fighter Group's Mustangs; the museum's restored buildings, Mustang connections and WWII jeep rides make it… |
| Cornwall at War Museum, DavidstowCamelford, Cornwall | 1 | £7 | 8 | Cornwall’s big WW2 / military museum on the old RAF Davidstow Moor Coastal Command field — aircraft, military vehicles, humour intact,… |
| Cranwell Aviation Heritage MuseumSleaford, Lincolnshire | 1 | Free | 2 | Cranwell Aviation Heritage Museum: the RAF College story (and Whittle's jet experiments here) told free, small and interactively — a… |
| Croydon Airport Visitor CentreCroydon, Greater London | 1 | £10 | 1 | Airport House at Croydon was the world's first purpose-built airport terminal with the world's first air traffic control tower; the… |
| Farnborough Air Sciences Trust MuseumFarnborough, Hampshire | 1 | Free | 16 | FAST at Farnborough guards the birthplace of British aviation science — Cody, the RAE, wind tunnels — with sit-in Harrier, Puma and Lynx… |
| Kent Battle of Britain Museum TrustFolkestone, Kent | 1 | £12 | 8 | Hawkinge is hallowed turf: the closest fighter station to France in 1940, now the Kent Battle of Britain Museum with the world's largest… |
| Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage CentreSpilsby, Lincolnshire | 1 | £13.50 | 11 | Lancaster NX611 (taxiing now, returning to flight one day, they swear) and Mosquito NF.II HJ711 — the only running Mosquito in Europe.… |
| Montrose Air Station MuseumMontrose, Angus | 1 | £10 | 14 | The 1913 fabric itself, plus the resident ghost stories (Montrose is Britain's most famously haunted airfield, a claim the volunteers… |
| Robertsbridge Aviation SocietyRobertsbridge, East Sussex | 1 | Free | 6 | Robertsbridge Aviation Society — a village-hall-sized museum of recovered WWII relics and six jet cockpit sections, curated with… |
| Romney Marsh Wartime CollectionRomney Marsh, Kent | 1 | £8 | 5 | The Romney Marsh Wartime Collection at Brenzett: a former Women's Land Army hostel stuffed with locally dug aircraft archaeology from the… |
| Runway Visitor Park, Manchester AirportAltrincham, Greater Manchester | 1 | £6–£15 | 5 | Concorde G-BOAC, British Airways' flagship (the 'OAC' registration was no accident), enthroned in her own glass hangar with tours from… |
| Speke Aerodrome Heritage GroupLiverpool, Merseyside | 1 | Free | 7 | Speke Airport Museum — Speke Aerodrome Heritage Group keeps airliners, including a Dan-Air 748 under restoration, on Liverpool's gorgeous… |
| Suffolk Aviation Heritage MuseumIpswich, Suffolk | 1 | £5 | 5 | Kesgrave's Suffolk Aviation Heritage Museum: a Vampire, Jet Provost and Hunter plus a strong Falklands room, run with infectious… |
| Sywell Aviation MuseumNorthampton, Northamptonshire | 1 | Free | 5 | Sywell Aviation Museum: a POW-hut-sized, free museum on Britain's loveliest Art Deco aerodrome, where resident Spitfires and a Mustang… |
Questions
Frequently asked
Where was the Mosquito designed?
At Salisbury Hall, London Colney, Hertfordshire. The design team moved there in September 1939, and the prototype W4050 was built nearby. It is now back on show at the De Havilland Aircraft Museum on the same site.
When did de Havilland stop being a separate company?
Hawker Siddeley bought it in 1960. In 1963 it became the de Havilland Division of Hawker Siddeley Aviation, and new types took HS designations.
Was the de Havilland Comet the first jet airliner?
Yes. The Comet first flew in 1949 and was the first commercial jet airliner. Comets and Comet sections survive in several UK museums, listed on this page.