AP 118 · No. 10 Section I · Museums 1943–1957
Era hub · 1943–1957

Where to see early jet-age aircraft in the UK

Britain’s first jet, the Gloster E.28/39, flew from Cranwell on 15 May 1941. The Meteor was the only Allied jet fighter to see service in the war. The gazetteer’s early jet age runs from 1943 to 1957. It covers Meteors, Vampires, Hunters, Canberras and early V-bombers, plus that period’s helicopters, gliders and trainers.

62
Museums
673
early jet airframes
56
Types

Museums are ranked by how many early jet airframes their inventories list, cockpits and replicas included. Each museum page has the full checklist.

Where to go

museums with early jet aircraft

Museumearly jet airframesAdult entryAirframesExamplesHeadline 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…
The era

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.

What to see

Early jet age types on display

1943de Havilland Vampire391943Gloster Meteor491944Hawker Sea Fury41944de Havilland Hornet & Sea Hornet21945Bell 47 / Sioux71945Cessna, Piper & the American light aircraft171945de Havilland Dove family151946de Havilland Canada Chipmunk311946Percival Prentice31946Handley Page Hastings31946Supermarine Attacker11946Westland Wyvern11947Bristol Sycamore141947Vickers Valetta & Varsity81947Hawker Sea Hawk141947EoN Olympia & the Elliotts gliders91947de Havilland Canada Beaver41947North American Sabre31947Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-1541947Airspeed Ambassador11947Antonov An-211947Saunders-Roe SR.A/111948Saunders-Roe Skeeter161948Slingsby glider family661948Westland Dragonfly & Widgeon91948Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star91948Saab J 29 Tunnan11948Vickers Viscount71948Supermarine Swift71948Handley Page HP.115 & the research one-offs61948Percival Pembroke & Sea Prince91949English Electric Canberra561949Avro Shackleton91949de Havilland Venom & Sea Venom141949North American T-28 Trojan11949de Havilland Comet91949Avro 70721950Blackburn Beverley31950Avro Ashton11950Percival Provost101950Scottish Aviation Pioneer & Twin Pioneer31950Republic F-84F Thunderstreak21951Hawker Hunter541951Dassault Mystère IV41951Gloster Javelin81951Boulton Paul P.111 & Short SB.521951Vickers Valiant51952Avro Vulcan201952Handley Page Victor101952Bristol Britannia51953Westland Whirlwind (helicopter)321953North American F-100 Super Sabre41954Hunting Jet Provost421954Fairey Delta 2 / BAC 22121955Folland Gnat121957Saab Safir & Fouga Magister2
Questions

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.

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloster_Aircraft_Company
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Whittle
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Duke