Museums are ranked by how many early jet airframes their inventories list, cockpits and replicas included. Each museum page has the full checklist.
museums with early jet aircraft
| Museum | early jet airframes | Adult entry | Airframes | Examples | Headline exhibit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Yorkshire Aircraft MuseumDoncaster, South Yorkshire | 50 | £7.50 | 109 | Westland-Bell Sioux AH.1 XT242 Bristol Sycamore HR.14 XE317 Cessna 140 cockpit section G-BTYX |
Doncaster's South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum sprawls across the old RAF Doncaster site: dozens of airframes and helicopters, strong… |
| Newark Air MuseumNewark, Nottinghamshire | 43 | £12.50 | 95 | Avro Ashton 2 forward fuselage WB491 Avro Shackleton MR.3/3 WR977 Avro Vulcan B.2 XM594 |
Vulcan XM594, with cockpit tours occasionally given by former Vulcan aircrew, which reviewers describe with the reverence normally… |
| The Gliding Heritage CentreAlton, Hampshire | 34 | Donation | 72 | Slingsby T.8 Kirby Tutor G-ALPE Slingsby T.30A Kirby Prefect G-ALLF Slingsby T.34 Sky BGA.698 |
Lasham's Gliding Heritage Centre: Europe's finest vintage-glider collection, most of them airworthy and actually flown, with free… |
| Midland Air MuseumCoventry, Warwickshire | 31 | £11 | 66 | Avro Vulcan B.2 XL360 Armstrong Whitworth Sea Hawk FGA.6 WV797 Boulton Paul P.111A VT935 |
Vulcan XL360 with cockpit access and volunteer-led tours (ask for the instrumentation talk), plus the Whittle jet heritage collection a… |
| Fleet Air Arm MuseumYeovil, Somerset | 27 | £21 | 97 | Westland Dragonfly HR.5 VX595 Westland Dragonfly HR.5 WN493 de Havilland Sea Vampire I LZ551/G |
Concorde 002 (G-BSST), the first British-assembled Concorde, which made her maiden flight from Filton in 1969 and now headlines a hall of… |
| Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation MuseumBungay, Suffolk | 27 | £10 | 65 | English Electric Canberra T.4 WH840 English Electric Canberra B(I).8 nose section XM279 English Electric Canberra B.2/6 nose section WG789 |
Depends who you ask — the joy is the oddities. Come for the Bloodhound missiles and decoy rarities; stay for volunteer flight-simulator… |
| South Wales Aviation MuseumBarry, Vale of Glamorgan | 26 | £10 | 73 | Avro Shackleton MR.3/3 WR974 de Havilland Sea Devon C.20 XK895 de Havilland Australia DHA-3 Drover G-APXX |
The resident Harrier and a growing VC10/Tornado-era collection, most with steps and open canopies. Kids exit wearing thousand-yard grins. |
| IWM DuxfordCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 22 | £29 | 146 | Avro Vulcan B.2 XJ824 Gloster Javelin FAW.9 XH897 Handley Page Hastings C.1A TG528 |
Concorde 101 (G-AXDN), the pre-production development aircraft and the fastest Concorde of them all at Mach 2.23 — plus an SR-71A… |
| Royal Air Force Museum MidlandsShifnal, Shropshire | 22 | Free | 78 | Bristol Britannia 312 G-AOVF Hawker Hunter F.6A XG225 Hawker Hunter FR.10 XF426 |
TSR-2 XR220, one of two survivors of the most gifted aircraft Britain ever cancelled, sharing floor space with the stainless-steel… |
| The Helicopter MuseumWeston-super-Mare, Somerset | 22 | £15 | 108 | Agusta-Bell 47G-3B1 Sioux AH.1 XT190 Bell 47H G-AZYB Bristol Sycamore Mk.3 G-ALSX |
G-LYNX, the modified Westland Lynx that took the absolute helicopter world speed record (249.09 mph) in 1986 and holds it still; parked… |
| North East Land, Sea and Air MuseumsSunderland, Tyne and Wear | 21 | £7.50 | 46 | Avro Vulcan B.2 XL319 Hunting Jet Provost T.4 XP627 Hunting Jet Provost T.3 nose section XN503 |
NELSAM in Sunderland mixes Vulcan XL319 (flew in when the airport still existed), a Pucará from the Falklands, trams, buses and a… |
| East Midlands AeroparkDerby, Leicestershire | 20 | £5 | 35 | Armstrong Whitworth (Gloster) Meteor TT.20 WM224 Gloster Meteor NF.13 cockpit WM367 Avro Vulcan B.2 XM575 |
East Midlands Aeropark: a Vulcan, Nimrod R1 and Buccaneer parked on grassy mounds overlooking EMA's runway — half museum, half premier… |
| Yorkshire Air MuseumYork, North Yorkshire | 20 | £17 | 54 | Gloster Meteor F.8 WL168 Armstrong Whitworth Meteor NF.14 WS788 Slingsby T.7 Kirby Cadet TX.1 RA854 |
Halifax 'Friday the 13th' — the world's only complete Halifax reconstruction, honouring the type that flew from this very field —… |
| MorayviaForres, Moray | 19 | £8 | 35 | Antonov An-2 Red 14 Avro Vulcan B.2(MRR) cockpit section XH563 BAC Jet Provost T.4 cockpit section XS176 |
Nimrod XV244 (complete, and the crew who operated her sometimes give the tours) alongside a Sea King in RAF SAR yellow — the machine that… |
| De Havilland Aircraft MuseumSt Albans, Hertfordshire | 18 | £12 | 35 | de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB.6 J-1008 de Havilland DH.115 Vampire T.11 XJ772 de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB.5 VV217 |
Mosquito prototype W4050, the original 1940 aircraft, in the place it was designed and first assembled. No other British museum has… |
| Boscombe Down Aviation CollectionSalisbury, Wiltshire | 17 | £13.50 | 49 | Bristol Sycamore HR.14 (Mk.3) WA577 de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk T.10 WD321 Armstrong Whitworth Meteor NF.11 (mod) nose section WD790 |
The Lancaster cockpit reproduction tour, and a test-and-evaluation pedigree collection you can physically inhabit rather than admire… |
| Ulster Aviation Society (Maze Long Kesh)Lisburn, County Antrim | 17 | By appointment | 63 | de Havilland Vampire T.11 WZ549 English Electric Canberra PR.9 XH131 English Electric Canberra B.2 cockpit section WF911 |
The Shorts family — SC.1 vertical take-off research aircraft included — plus a Buccaneer, Phantom, Wildcat, and a newly arrived AV-8… |
| City of Norwich Aviation MuseumNorwich, Norfolk | 16 | £9 | 33 | Avro Vulcan B.2 XM612 Cessna 401 G-OVNE Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche N30NW |
City of Norwich Aviation Museum at Horsham St Faith: Norfolk's largest, ~30 airframes including a Vulcan and Nimrod with bookable… |
| Royal Air Force Museum LondonLondon, Greater London | 15 | Free | 88 | Hawker Siddeley Gnat T.1 XR977 BAC Jet Provost T.5A XW323 de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk T.10 WP962 |
Avro Lancaster R5868 'S-Sugar' — 137 operations, the RAF's highest-scoring surviving heavy — under the same roof as a Vulcan, a… |
| National Museum Of FlightNorth Berwick, East Lothian | 14 | £15 | 47 | Aero S-103 (MiG-15bisSB) 613677 Armstrong Whitworth Meteor NF.14 G-ARCX Avro Vulcan B.2A XM597 |
Concorde G-BOAA, which flew British Airways' first commercial supersonic service in 1976 and arrived here by barge and giant road-crawl… |
| Bournemouth Aviation MuseumChristchurch, Dorset | 12 | £10 | 29 | Avro Vulcan B.2(MRR) nose section XH537 BAC Jet Provost T.5A XW310 de Havilland Vampire T.11 XE856 |
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… |
| Hooton Park HangarsEllesmere Port, Cheshire | 12 | £9 | 45 | Gloster Meteor T.7 WH132 de Havilland Vampire T.11 XD624 English Electric Canberra PR.7 cockpit section WT520 |
Hooton Park's 1917 Belfast-truss hangars — among the finest WWI aviation buildings surviving — hold aircraft, buses and a printing museum… |
| Solway Aviation MuseumCrosby on Eden, Cumbria | 12 | £8 | 21 | Avro Vulcan B.2 XJ823 BAC Jet Provost T.4 XS209 de Havilland Vampire T.11 WZ515 |
Vulcan XJ823 with pre-bookable crew-compartment visits; a Phantom, Lightning and Canberra (whose three-crew cockpit reviewers describe as… |
| Tangmere Military Aviation MuseumChichester, West Sussex | 11 | £15 | 23 | de Havilland Vampire T.11 XH313 Gloster Meteor F.4 EE549 Hawker Hunter F.3 WB188 |
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;… |
| Army Flying MuseumStockbridge, Hampshire | 10 | £18 | 43 | de Havilland Canada Chipmunk T.10 WG432 Bristol Sycamore HR.14 XG502 Saunders-Roe Skeeter AOP.12 XL813 |
Middle Wallop's Army Flying Museum covers everything the Army has flown from observation balloons to Apaches, with superb dioramas and a… |
| Jet Age MuseumGloucester, Gloucestershire | 10 | Donation | 15 | Gloster Meteor F.8 WH364 Gloster Meteor T.7 VW453 Armstrong Whitworth Meteor NF.13 WM366 |
Gloucestershire's jet-age shrine (free!) beside Staverton airport: Gloster heritage from the E.28/39 replica to Javelins, with… |
| RAF Manston History MuseumRamsgate, Kent | 10 | £7 | 22 | Avro Vulcan B.1 nose XA893 Canadair CT-133 Silver Star G-BYOY de Havilland Chipmunk T.10 WP772 |
RAF Manston's history museum spans 1916 RNAS days to Cold War Meteors, with strong 1940s room-sets — and it sits next door to the… |
| Solent SkySouthampton, Hampshire | 10 | £14 | 23 | Saunders-Roe SR.A/1 TG263 Supermarine Swift F.4 cockpit section (procedures trainer) Supermarine Swift F.7 XF114 |
Supermarine S.6A N248, the 1929 Schneider Trophy racer from the bloodline that begat the Spitfire — parked beneath its descendant for… |
| Brooklands MuseumWeybridge, Surrey | 9 | £24–£27 | 32 | Vickers Viscount 806 G-APIM Vickers Viscount nose section XT575 Vickers Viking 1A G-AGRU |
Concorde G-BBDG, the British production-test aircraft, bookended by a Wellington bomber dredged out of Loch Ness in 1985 and the only… |
| Gatwick Aviation MuseumGatwick, Surrey | 8 | £12.50 | 16 | Avro Shackleton MR.3 WR982 Percival Sea Prince T.1 WP308 de Havilland Venom FB.50 J-1605 |
Avro Shackleton WR982 (the £5 guided tour is unanimously endorsed) and a live-engined English Electric Lightning. There's also… |
| Airworld Aviation MuseumCaernarfon, Gwynedd | 7 | £7 | 10 | Hawker Hunter F.1 WT694 de Havilland Vampire T.11 XK623 Hawker Sea Hawk FB.5 WM961 |
Airworld at Caernarfon Airport (RAF Llandwrog, birthplace of the RAF Mountain Rescue Service): Hunter, Vampire and the world's only… |
| Stoneykirk Aviation MuseumStranraer, Dumfries and Galloway | 6 | £6 | 9 | Avro Vulcan B.1 nose section XA903 de Havilland Vampire T.11 cockpit section XE921 English Electric Canberra T.4 nose section WE191 |
Stoneykirk: one enthusiast's cockpit collection on a Galloway croft, Vulcan included, with tea, cakes and a perfect 5.0 rating — the… |
| Trenchard MuseumAylesbury, Buckinghamshire | 6 | By appointment | 6 | Slingsby Cadet TX.1 RA905 Slingsby Grasshopper TX.1 WZ772 de Havilland Chipmunk T.10 WB626 |
The Trenchard Museum at RAF Halton tells the story of the RAF's apprentice scheme — 'Trenchard's Brats' — on the working base where… |
| Avro Heritage MuseumStockport, Greater Manchester | 5 | £9 | 14 | Avro Vulcan B.2 XM603 Avro Vulcan B.2 cockpit section XM602 English Electric Canberra TT.18 cockpit section (in store) WK118 |
Vulcan XM603 — the only all-white Vulcan on display anywhere, in original anti-flash nuclear livery — plus walk-in Lancaster and Nimrod… |
| Suffolk Aviation Heritage MuseumIpswich, Suffolk | 5 | £5 | 5 | Hawker Hunter F.6 XG274 de Havilland Vampire T.11 XD506 English Electric Canberra PR.7 nose section WH798 |
Kesgrave's Suffolk Aviation Heritage Museum: a Vampire, Jet Provost and Hunter plus a strong Falklands room, run with infectious… |
| Bentwaters Cold War MuseumWoodbridge, Suffolk | 4 | £7.50 | 9 | Gloster Meteor F.8 WH453 Hawker Hunter GA.11 XE707 Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star 19252 |
Bentwaters Cold War Museum occupies the actual USAF hardened command post — war room, battle cabin and decontamination showers intact —… |
| Farnborough Air Sciences Trust MuseumFarnborough, Hampshire | 4 | Free | 16 | Hawker Hunter T.7 WV383 Hawker Hunter T.7 XL563 English Electric Canberra B(I).6 nose WT309 |
FAST at Farnborough guards the birthplace of British aviation science — Cody, the RAE, wind tunnels — with sit-in Harrier, Puma and Lynx… |
| Montrose Air Station MuseumMontrose, Angus | 4 | £10 | 14 | Gloster Meteor T.7 WF825 de Havilland Sea Vampire T.22 XA109 Hawker Hunter F.1 WT619 |
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 | 4 | Free | 6 | Gloster Meteor T.7 nose WA630 English Electric Canberra PR.3 nose WE173 Hawker Hunter F.2 nose WN907 |
Robertsbridge Aviation Society — a village-hall-sized museum of recovered WWII relics and six jet cockpit sections, curated with… |
| Speke Aerodrome Heritage GroupLiverpool, Merseyside | 4 | Free | 7 | Bristol Britannia 308F G-ANCF Percival Prince 6E G-AMLZ Grumman AA-1 Yankee G-SEXY |
Speke Airport Museum — Speke Aerodrome Heritage Group keeps airliners, including a Dan-Air 748 under restoration, on Liverpool's gorgeous… |
| The Shuttleworth CollectionBiggleswade, Bedfordshire | 4 | £19.50 | 55 | de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk 22 G-BNZC Percival Provost T.1 G-KAPW Elliotts Primary EoN BGA580 |
The 1934 DH.88 Comet 'Grosvenor House', winner of the MacRobertson England–Australia air race, restored to fly; and the Edwardians —… |
| Romney Marsh Wartime CollectionRomney Marsh, Kent | 3 | £8 | 5 | English Electric Canberra B.2 nose section WH657 English Electric Canberra PR.9 nose section XH136 de Havilland Vampire T.11 XK625 |
The Romney Marsh Wartime Collection at Brenzett: a former Women's Land Army hostel stuffed with locally dug aircraft archaeology from the… |
| Sywell Aviation MuseumNorthampton, Northamptonshire | 3 | Free | 5 | Hawker Hunter F.2 WN904 de Havilland Chipmunk T.10 cockpit WG419 de Havilland Vampire T.11 nose section XD599 |
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 | 3 | £13 | 25 | de Havilland Canada Chipmunk T.10 WD377 English Electric Canberra TT.18 nose section WK127 Hunting Jet Provost T.3 nose section XM468 |
The Wings Museum near Balcombe displays Eastern Front and D-Day aircraft archaeology in crash-site dioramas — raw, unpolished and… |
| Aerospace BristolBristol, Gloucestershire | 2 | £20 | 14 | Bristol Sycamore HR.14 XL824 Bristol Britannia 101 forward fuselage G-ALRX |
Concorde G-BOAF, the last Concorde ever built and the last ever to fly (26 November 2003, into Filton, forever). You can board her.… |
| Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight Visitors CentreLincoln, Lincolnshire | 2 | £12.50 | 11 | de Havilland Canada Chipmunk T.10 WG486 de Havilland Canada Chipmunk T.10 WK518 |
Lancaster PA474 — one of only two airworthy Lancasters on Earth — when she's home (she periodically visits Duxford for deep maintenance,… |
| Cornwall at War Museum, DavidstowCamelford, Cornwall | 2 | £7 | 8 | Hawker Hunter F.6 XG164 de Havilland Vampire T.11 nose section XK627 |
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 | 2 | Free | 2 | Hunting Jet Provost T.4 XP556 de Havilland Vampire T.11 cockpit XE946 |
Cranwell Aviation Heritage Museum: the RAF College story (and Whittle's jet experiments here) told free, small and interactively — a… |
| Hucknall Flight Test MuseumNottingham, Nottinghamshire | 2 | By appointment | 3 | Hunting Jet Provost T.3 nose section XN492 Armstrong Whitworth Meteor NF(T).14 (stored) WS760 |
Hucknall Flight Test Museum, on the aerodrome where Rolls-Royce flew testbeds from 1934 (and hoisted the Flying Bedstead into history),… |
| RAF Coltishall Heritage CentreNorwich, Norfolk | 2 | Free | 5 | Gloster Meteor T.7 (composite) WL332 Hawker Hunter T.7 nose section N-302 |
RAF Coltishall's guardroom museum, curated by veterans of the base — the Jaguar force's spiritual home, free to enter on open days, with… |
| The Vulcan Experience (XH558)Doncaster, South Yorkshire | 2 | £12 | 2 | Avro Vulcan B.2 XH558 English Electric Canberra B.2 WK163 |
The Vulcan Experience at Doncaster is the retirement home of XH558 — the last-flying Vulcan — with underwing tours, cockpit visits and… |
| Wellesbourne Wartime MuseumWarwick, Warwickshire | 2 | £1.50 | 3 | Percival Provost T.1 WV679 de Havilland Vampire T.11 XK590 |
Wellesbourne's underground WWII battle HQ bunker plus a compact museum — and, crucially, shared turf with Vulcan XM655, the most complete… |
| Biggin Hill Heritage HangarWesterham, Greater London | 1 | £49 | 17 | Cessna L-19 Bird Dog 51-12471 | A rotating dozen-ish airworthy and in-rebuild Spitfires plus a Hurricane and Buchón; the 'Sit in a Spitfire' add-on is the affordable… |
| British Phantom Group & Bristol Britannia XM496 (Kemble)Cirencester, Gloucestershire | 1 | Seasonal | 5 | Bristol Britannia C.1 XM496 | A working restoration compound at Cotswold Airport (Kemble): the only place on Earth with F-4J, K and M Phantoms together, plus Britannia… |
| Croydon Airport Visitor CentreCroydon, Greater London | 1 | £10 | 1 | de Havilland DH.114 Heron 2D G-ANUO | Airport House at Croydon was the world's first purpose-built airport terminal with the world's first air traffic control tower; the… |
| Kent Battle of Britain Museum TrustFolkestone, Kent | 1 | £12 | 8 | Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 tail section VW589 | 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 | English Electric Canberra E.15 nose section WH957 | Lancaster NX611 (taxiing now, returning to flight one day, they swear) and Mosquito NF.II HJ711 — the only running Mosquito in Europe.… |
| RAF Defford MuseumWorcester, Worcestershire | 1 | £18 | 1 | English Electric Canberra B.2 cockpit and forward fuselage WD956 | RAF Defford's museum at National Trust Croome tells the secret radar-flight-trials story — TRE's airborne laboratory squadrons — from… |
| Rolls Royce Heritage TrustDerby, Derbyshire | 1 | By appointment | 1 | English Electric Canberra B.15 cockpit section WH960 | The Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust's Derby collection: the jet engine's family tree in the metal, from Eagle to Trent, toured by people who… |
| Stow Maries Great War AerodromeChelmsford, Essex | 1 | £12 | 11 | Grumman AA-5B Tiger cockpit section | The aerodrome itself: 24 listed RFC buildings, plus flying examples of Great War types on event days (a Fairey Swordfish cameo got… |
| Vulcan Restoration Trust (XL426), SouthendSouthend-on-Sea, Essex | 1 | £10 | 1 | Avro Vulcan B.2, live and taxiable XL426 | XL426 herself, ex-Scampton display aircraft, whose APU-powered control-surface demos let visitors in the cockpit actually waggle a… |
| Wight Aviation MuseumSandown, Isle of Wight | 1 | Free | 2 | Saunders-Roe Skeeter AOP.12 XL765 | Free volunteer-run museum on Sandown airfield covering the Island's surprising aviation industry — including a full-size Black Arrow… |
Early jet age, 1943–1957
It is the most widely held era, at 62 museums. The South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum at Doncaster has the most, 44, and Newark has 41, including Vulcan XM594 and Shackleton WR977. Tangmere keeps Hunter WB188, in which Neville Duke set a world air speed record of 727.63 mph on 7 September 1953. The Jet Age Museum at Gloucester covers Gloster’s Meteors and Javelins.
- Vulcan cockpits: Newark runs tours of XM594, and the Midland Air Museum opens XL360.
- XL426 at Southend is kept taxiable; XH558 at Doncaster is seen on pre-booked visits only.
- The Gliding Heritage Centre’s 27 gliders of the period count here too.
Early jet age types on display
Frequently asked
Where can I see a Vulcan in the UK?
Among others: Newark (XM594), Coventry (XL360), Norwich (XM612), Duxford (XJ824), Southend (XL426), Woodford (XM603) and Doncaster (XH558).
Which museum has the most early jets?
The South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum, with 44 airframes from 1943–1957, followed by Newark with 41.
Where is the Hunter that set the world speed record?
Hunter WB188 is at the Tangmere Military Aviation Museum near Chichester.


