IWM Duxford
The USAAF’s 78th Fighter Group flew from Duxford and switched to P-51 Mustangs in December 1944. The American Air Museum stands on the site.
The types
North American aircraft you can see
| Type | First flew | Built | UK museums |
|---|---|---|---|
| North American HarvardII/III/AT-16 | 1935 | ~20,000 (family) | 10 |
| North American P-51 MustangD & CA-18 | 1940 | 15,586 | 6 |
| North American B-25 Mitchell | 1940 | 9,816 | 3 |
| North American SabreF-86A & Canadair CL-13 | 1947 | ~9,860 | 3 |
| North American T-28 TrojanT-28C | 1949 | 1,948 | 1 |
| North American F-100 Super Sabre | 1953 | 2,294 | 4 |
The firm
North American in brief
Its T-6 Texan, the Harvard in British service, ran to over 15,000 aircraft. In 1940 the British Purchasing Commission asked NAA to build Curtiss P-40s under licence. NAA offered a new fighter instead. The NA-73X prototype flew on 26 October 1940 and became the Mustang. A Rolls-Royce trial with the Merlin engine in 1942 turned it into a long-range escort. The B-25 Mitchell, F-86 Sabre and F-100 Super Sabre followed.
NAA merged with Rockwell-Standard in 1967 to form North American Rockwell. Boeing bought its defence and space businesses in 1996.
Where to go
Museums holding North American aircraft
| Museum | North American types | Adult entry | Airframes | Headline exhibit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IWM DuxfordCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 3 | £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… |
| Biggin Hill Heritage HangarWesterham, Greater London | 2 | £49 | 17 | A rotating dozen-ish airworthy and in-rebuild Spitfires plus a Hurricane and Buchón; the 'Sit in a Spitfire' add-on is the affordable… |
| Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage CentreSpilsby, Lincolnshire | 2 | £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.… |
| Midland Air MuseumCoventry, Warwickshire | 2 | £11 | 66 | Vulcan XL360 with cockpit access and volunteer-led tours (ask for the instrumentation talk), plus the Whittle jet heritage collection a… |
| Newark Air MuseumNewark, Nottinghamshire | 2 | £12.50 | 95 | Vulcan XM594, with cockpit tours occasionally given by former Vulcan aircrew, which reviewers describe with the reverence normally… |
| Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation MuseumBungay, Suffolk | 2 | £10 | 65 | Depends who you ask — the joy is the oddities. Come for the Bloodhound missiles and decoy rarities; stay for volunteer flight-simulator… |
| North East Land, Sea and Air MuseumsSunderland, Tyne and Wear | 2 | £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… |
| 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… |
| 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… |
| Bournemouth Aviation MuseumChristchurch, Dorset | 1 | £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… |
| East Essex Aviation MuseumClacton-on-Sea, Essex | 1 | Free | 1 | An aviation museum inside a Martello tower at Point Clear: crash-site recoveries (including a P-51 engine with pilot's story attached)… |
| Fleet Air Arm MuseumYeovil, Somerset | 1 | £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… |
| Hooton Park HangarsEllesmere Port, Cheshire | 1 | £9 | 45 | Hooton Park's 1917 Belfast-truss hangars — among the finest WWI aviation buildings surviving — hold aircraft, buses and a printing museum… |
| 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… |
| Royal Air Force Museum MidlandsShifnal, Shropshire | 1 | Free | 78 | TSR-2 XR220, one of two survivors of the most gifted aircraft Britain ever cancelled, sharing floor space with the stainless-steel… |
| South Yorkshire Aircraft MuseumDoncaster, South Yorkshire | 1 | £7.50 | 109 | Doncaster's South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum sprawls across the old RAF Doncaster site: dozens of airframes and helicopters, strong… |
| 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… |
| Wings Aviation MuseumHaywards Heath, West Sussex | 1 | £13 | 25 | The Wings Museum near Balcombe displays Eastern Front and D-Day aircraft archaeology in crash-site dioramas — raw, unpolished and… |
Questions
Frequently asked
Was the Mustang designed for the RAF?
Yes. It began with a 1940 British Purchasing Commission request, and the RAF’s first Mustang squadron formed in January 1942.
What is a Harvard?
The RAF name for the North American T-6 Texan trainer. Over 15,000 T-6s were built, and several are kept flying in the UK.
What happened to North American Aviation?
It merged with Rockwell-Standard in 1967, later becoming Rockwell International. Boeing bought its defence and space units in 1996.