Museums are ranked by how many First World War airframes their inventories list, cockpits and replicas included. Each museum page has the full checklist.
Where to go
museums with First World War aircraft
| Museum | First World War airframes | Adult entry | Airframes | Examples | Headline exhibit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Air Force Museum LondonLondon, Greater London | 15 | Free | 88 | de Havilland DH.9A F1010 Albatros D.Va Replica 'D.7343/17' Avro 504K E449 |
Avro Lancaster R5868 'S-Sugar' — 137 operations, the RAF's highest-scoring surviving heavy — under the same roof as a Vulcan, a… |
| The Shuttleworth CollectionBiggleswade, Bedfordshire | 9 | £19.50 | 55 | Avro 504K G-ADEV Bristol F.2b Fighter G-AEPH Bristol M.1C replica G-BWJM |
The 1934 DH.88 Comet 'Grosvenor House', winner of the MacRobertson England–Australia air race, restored to fly; and the Edwardians —… |
| Stow Maries Great War AerodromeChelmsford, Essex | 8 | £12 | 11 | Avro 504K H2311 Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2e replica G-CJZO Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a scale replica G-BMDB |
The aerodrome itself: 24 listed RFC buildings, plus flying examples of Great War types on event days (a Fairey Swordfish cameo got… |
| IWM DuxfordCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 7 | £29 | 146 | Airco DH.9 D5649 Airco DH.9 E8894 Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8 F3556 |
Concorde 101 (G-AXDN), the pre-production development aircraft and the fastest Concorde of them all at Mach 2.23 — plus an SR-71A… |
| Fleet Air Arm MuseumYeovil, Somerset | 6 | £21 | 97 | Short 184 forward fuselage 8359 Sopwith Baby N2078 Sopwith Pup replica N6452 |
Concorde 002 (G-BSST), the first British-assembled Concorde, which made her maiden flight from Filton in 1969 and now headlines a hall of… |
| Brooklands MuseumWeybridge, Surrey | 4 | £24–£27 | 32 | Vickers Vimy replica (flying transatlantic replica) NX71MY Sopwith Camel F.1 replica G-BFCZ Avro 504K replica BAPC.177 |
Concorde G-BBDG, the British production-test aircraft, bookended by a Wellington bomber dredged out of Loch Ness in 1985 and the only… |
| Yorkshire Air MuseumYork, North Yorkshire | 4 | £17 | 54 | Avro 504K replica H1968 Port Victoria P.V.8 Eastchurch Kitten replica Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c replica |
Halifax 'Friday the 13th' — the world's only complete Halifax reconstruction, honouring the type that flew from this very field —… |
| Aerospace BristolBristol, Gloucestershire | 3 | £20 | 14 | Bristol F.2B Fighter (original frame) Bristol F.2B Fighter replica Bristol Scout D replica |
Concorde G-BOAF, the last Concorde ever built and the last ever to fly (26 November 2003, into Filton, forever). You can board her.… |
| Montrose Air Station MuseumMontrose, Angus | 3 | £10 | 14 | Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2a replica 471 Sopwith Camel F.1 replica B7320 Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a 7/8-scale replica G-SEVA |
The 1913 fabric itself, plus the resident ghost stories (Montrose is Britain's most famously haunted airfield, a claim the volunteers… |
| Royal Air Force Museum MidlandsShifnal, Shropshire | 3 | Free | 78 | Bristol M.1c replica C4994 Sopwith Pup N5182 Sopwith 1½ Strutter replica A8226 |
TSR-2 XR220, one of two survivors of the most gifted aircraft Britain ever cancelled, sharing floor space with the stainless-steel… |
| Hooton Park HangarsEllesmere Port, Cheshire | 2 | £9 | 45 | Sopwith Baby replica BAPC.137 Sopwith Camel scale replica BAPC.567 |
Hooton Park's 1917 Belfast-truss hangars — among the finest WWI aviation buildings surviving — hold aircraft, buses and a printing museum… |
| Solent SkySouthampton, Hampshire | 2 | £14 | 23 | Avro 504J replica Wight Quadruplane replica N546 |
Supermarine S.6A N248, the 1929 Schneider Trophy racer from the bloodline that begat the Spitfire — parked beneath its descendant for… |
| Army Flying MuseumStockbridge, Hampshire | 1 | £18 | 43 | Sopwith Pup N5195 | Middle Wallop's Army Flying Museum covers everything the Army has flown from observation balloons to Apaches, with superb dioramas and a… |
| Boscombe Down Aviation CollectionSalisbury, Wiltshire | 1 | £13.50 | 49 | Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2b (replica) BAPC 332 | The Lancaster cockpit reproduction tour, and a test-and-evaluation pedigree collection you can physically inhabit rather than admire… |
| Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation MuseumBungay, Suffolk | 1 | £10 | 65 | Felixstowe F.5 nose section BAPC.390 | Depends who you ask — the joy is the oddities. Come for the Bloodhound missiles and decoy rarities; stay for volunteer flight-simulator… |
| Tangmere Military Aviation MuseumChichester, West Sussex | 1 | £15 | 23 | Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5A cockpit replica | 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;… |
The era
First World War, 1914–1918
The RAF Museum London has the deepest collection, 14 airframes, including DH.9A F1010 and Bristol F.2b E2466. Shuttleworth flies originals, among them S.E.5a F904 (G-EBIA) and Sopwith Pup G-EBKY. IWM Duxford has seven, including B.E.2c 2699 and R.E.8 F3556. The Fleet Air Arm Museum has Sopwith Baby N2078 and the forward fuselage of a Short 184.
- The RAF Museum London is free, and much of its First World War collection is in Grahame-White’s relocated factory building.
- Stow Maries flies First World War replicas on event days.
- In Scotland, Montrose Air Station Museum has B.E.2a, Camel and S.E.5a replicas on an aerodrome dating from 1913.
What to see
First World War types on display
1912Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.261913Avro 50461914Caudron G.311914Vickers F.B.5 ‘Gunbus’11914Bristol Scout31915Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2b11915Handley Page O/100 & O/40011915Short 18411915Sopwith Baby21915Sopwith 1½ Strutter11916Bristol F.2b Fighter51916Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.821916Sopwith Camel71916Sopwith Triplane31916Bristol M.1C21916Sopwith Pup61916Wight Quadruplane11917Airco DH.9 / DH.9A31917Albatros D.Va21917Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a81917Sopwith Dolphin11917Sopwith Snipe11917Fokker Dr.I11917SPAD XIII11917Vickers Vimy11917Port Victoria Eastchurch Kitten11917Felixstowe F.511918Fokker D.VII1
Questions
Frequently asked
Where can I see First World War aircraft in the UK?
The RAF Museum London has 14, Shuttleworth eight, and Duxford and Stow Maries seven each. Fifteen museums in the gazetteer have at least one.
Can you see First World War aircraft fly?
Yes. Shuttleworth keeps originals such as S.E.5a G-EBIA in flying condition, and Stow Maries flies replicas on event days.
Is there a First World War airfield you can visit?
Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome in Essex, a 1917 home-defence airfield with at least 24 original buildings.