Museums are ranked by how many interwar airframes their inventories list, cockpits and replicas included. Each museum page has the full checklist.
Where to go
museums with interwar aircraft
| Museum | interwar airframes | Adult entry | Airframes | Examples | Headline exhibit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Gliding Heritage CentreAlton, Hampshire | 31 | Donation | 72 | Manuel Crested Wren replica Manuel Willow Wren BGA.162 Abbott-Baynes Scud III G-ALJR |
Lasham's Gliding Heritage Centre: Europe's finest vintage-glider collection, most of them airworthy and actually flown, with free… |
| The Shuttleworth CollectionBiggleswade, Bedfordshire | 28 | £19.50 | 55 | ANEC II G-EBJO Avro Tutor G-AHSA Avro Anson 19 G-AHKX |
The 1934 DH.88 Comet 'Grosvenor House', winner of the MacRobertson England–Australia air race, restored to fly; and the Edwardians —… |
| IWM DuxfordCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 11 | £29 | 146 | Miles Magister I G-AFBS Avro Anson I N4877 Avro 671 Rota I HM580 |
Concorde 101 (G-AXDN), the pre-production development aircraft and the fastest Concorde of them all at Mach 2.23 — plus an SR-71A… |
| Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation MuseumBungay, Suffolk | 8 | £10 | 65 | Avro Anson C.19 VL349 Colditz Cock glider replica Schleicher Grunau Baby 3b glider BGA.2384 |
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 LondonLondon, Greater London | 8 | Free | 88 | Avro Rota K4232 Bristol Bulldog MkIIA K2227 Gloster Gladiator II forward fuselage (salvaged remains) N5628 |
Avro Lancaster R5868 'S-Sugar' — 137 operations, the RAF's highest-scoring surviving heavy — under the same roof as a Vulcan, a… |
| De Havilland Aircraft MuseumSt Albans, Hertfordshire | 7 | £12 | 35 | Cierva C.24 G-ABLM de Havilland DH.53 Humming Bird fuselage J7326 de Havilland DH.82A Tiger Moth G-ANRX |
Mosquito prototype W4050, the original 1940 aircraft, in the place it was designed and first assembled. No other British museum has… |
| Hooton Park HangarsEllesmere Port, Cheshire | 7 | £9 | 45 | Avro Anson II fuselage section 7349 Comper Swift G-ACGL Avro 594 Avian G-EBZM |
Hooton Park's 1917 Belfast-truss hangars — among the finest WWI aviation buildings surviving — hold aircraft, buses and a printing museum… |
| Newark Air MuseumNewark, Nottinghamshire | 6 | £12.50 | 95 | Avro Anson C.19 VL348 de Havilland Tiger Moth II G-MAZY General Aircraft Monospar ST-12 VH-UTH |
Vulcan XM594, with cockpit tours occasionally given by former Vulcan aircrew, which reviewers describe with the reverence normally… |
| National Museum Of FlightNorth Berwick, East Lothian | 5 | £15 | 47 | Avro Anson C.19 G-APHV de Havilland Dragon VH-SNB de Havilland Puss Moth VH-UQB |
Concorde G-BOAA, which flew British Airways' first commercial supersonic service in 1976 and arrived here by barge and giant road-crawl… |
| North East Land, Sea and Air MuseumsSunderland, Tyne and Wear | 5 | £7.50 | 46 | Avro Anson C.19 TX213 de Havilland DH.60G Moth replica BAPC.168 Mignet HM.14 Pou-du-Ciel replica G-ADVU |
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 MidlandsShifnal, Shropshire | 5 | Free | 78 | Gloster Gladiator I K8042 Hawker Afghan Hind Hawker Hart II Trainer K4972 |
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 | 5 | £7.50 | 109 | de Havilland DH.89A Dragon Rapide fuselage G-AHED Avro Anson C.19 cockpit section VP519 Blackburn B.2 fuselage G-ACBH |
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 | Supermarine Walrus I L2301 Gloster Sea Gladiator II fuselage frame N5518 de Havilland Tiger Moth T.2 XL717 |
Concorde 002 (G-BSST), the first British-assembled Concorde, which made her maiden flight from Filton in 1969 and now headlines a hall of… |
| Solent SkySouthampton, Hampshire | 4 | £14 | 23 | Supermarine S.6A N248 de Havilland Tiger Moth BB807 Mignet HM.14 Pou-du-Ciel G-ADZW |
Supermarine S.6A N248, the 1929 Schneider Trophy racer from the bloodline that begat the Spitfire — parked beneath its descendant for… |
| Avro Heritage MuseumStockport, Greater Manchester | 3 | £9 | 14 | Avro Anson C.19 cockpit section G-AGPG Avro Anson C.19 (in store) TX214 Avro Anson C.19 fuselage frame (in store) TX235 |
Vulcan XM603 — the only all-white Vulcan on display anywhere, in original anti-flash nuclear livery — plus walk-in Lancaster and Nimrod… |
| Midland Air MuseumCoventry, Warwickshire | 3 | £11 | 66 | Mignet HM.14 "Flying Flea" G-AEGV Parnall Pixie IIIa G-EBJG Wheeler Slymph G-ABOI |
Vulcan XL360 with cockpit access and volunteer-led tours (ask for the instrumentation talk), plus the Whittle jet heritage collection a… |
| Jet Age MuseumGloucester, Gloucestershire | 2 | Donation | 15 | Gloster Gamecock reproduction J7904 Gloster Gladiator II frame N5914 |
Gloucestershire's jet-age shrine (free!) beside Staverton airport: Gloster heritage from the E.28/39 replica to Javelins, with… |
| Kent Battle of Britain Museum TrustFolkestone, Kent | 2 | £12 | 8 | CASA 352L (Junkers Ju 52/3m) T.2B-272 de Havilland Tiger Moth (composite) |
Hawkinge is hallowed turf: the closest fighter station to France in 1940, now the Kent Battle of Britain Museum with the world's largest… |
| Montrose Air Station MuseumMontrose, Angus | 2 | £10 | 14 | Miles M.2H Hawk Major G-ADMW Avro Anson C.19 TX226 |
The 1913 fabric itself, plus the resident ghost stories (Montrose is Britain's most famously haunted airfield, a claim the volunteers… |
| South Wales Aviation MuseumBarry, Vale of Glamorgan | 2 | £10 | 73 | Fedorov Me7 Mechta glider G-CHPT Fedorov Me7 Mechta glider G-CHUO |
The resident Harrier and a growing VC10/Tornado-era collection, most with steps and open canopies. Kids exit wearing thousand-yard grins. |
| Yorkshire Air MuseumYork, North Yorkshire | 2 | £17 | 54 | Mignet HM.14 Pou-du-Ciel Avro Anson T.21 VV901 |
Halifax 'Friday the 13th' — the world's only complete Halifax reconstruction, honouring the type that flew from this very field —… |
| Airworld Aviation MuseumCaernarfon, Gwynedd | 1 | £7 | 10 | de Havilland Tiger Moth (dismantled) N6638 | Airworld at Caernarfon Airport (RAF Llandwrog, birthplace of the RAF Mountain Rescue Service): Hunter, Vampire and the world's only… |
| Boscombe Down Aviation CollectionSalisbury, Wiltshire | 1 | £13.50 | 49 | de Havilland Tiger Moth II G-ANNG | The Lancaster cockpit reproduction tour, and a test-and-evaluation pedigree collection you can physically inhabit rather than admire… |
| Bottisham Airfield MuseumCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 1 | £6 | 4 | de Havilland DH.82A Tiger Moth 'N6635' | Bottisham hosted the 361st Fighter Group's Mustangs; the museum's restored buildings, Mustang connections and WWII jeep rides make it… |
| Brooklands MuseumWeybridge, Surrey | 1 | £24–£27 | 32 | Hawker Fury I replica BAPC.249 | Concorde G-BBDG, the British production-test aircraft, bookended by a Wellington bomber dredged out of Loch Ness in 1985 and the only… |
| Carew Cheriton Control TowerCarew, Pembrokeshire | 1 | £7 | 1 | Avro Anson C.19 VM325 | Carew Cheriton's restored 1940s control tower with above-ground air-raid shelter and a magpie museum, occasionally staffed by a veteran… |
| Speke Aerodrome Heritage GroupLiverpool, Merseyside | 1 | Free | 7 | de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide full-scale replica G-AJCL | Speke Airport Museum — Speke Aerodrome Heritage Group keeps airliners, including a Dan-Air 748 under restoration, on Liverpool's gorgeous… |
| The Helicopter MuseumWeston-super-Mare, Somerset | 1 | £15 | 108 | Cierva C.30A (remains) AP506 | G-LYNX, the modified Westland Lynx that took the absolute helicopter world speed record (249.09 mph) in 1986 and holds it still; parked… |
| Wings Aviation MuseumHaywards Heath, West Sussex | 1 | £13 | 25 | Miles Magister I fuselage T9768 | The Wings Museum near Balcombe displays Eastern Front and D-Day aircraft archaeology in crash-site dioramas — raw, unpolished and… |
The era
Interwar, 1919–1938
The Shuttleworth Collection dominates, with 26 inter-war airframes, many airworthy, including the 1934 England–Australia race winner, DH.88 Comet ‘Grosvenor House’. IWM Duxford has 11, including Hawker Nimrod S1581. The RAF Museum London has seven, among them Bristol Bulldog K2227 and Hawker Hart J9941. Solent Sky holds Supermarine S.6A N248, from the Schneider line.
- Many of Shuttleworth’s inter-war aircraft fly at its displays.
- Hooton Park, in its listed 1917 hangars, has six inter-war types, including Comper Swift G-ACGL.
- The Avro Anson turns up widely: Newark, Yorkshire, Sunderland, Montrose and East Fortune each have one.
What to see
Interwar types on display
1922Gloster Gamecock & Fairey Flycatcher21923de Havilland DH.53 Humming Bird21923English Electric Wren11923Parnall Pixie11924ANEC II11924de Havilland DH.5111924Hawker Cygnet11925de Havilland DH.60 Moth31925Supermarine Southampton11926Avro Avian & Tutor21927Polikarpov Po-211927Bristol Bulldog11927Westland Wapiti & Wallace21928Hawker Tomtit11928Hawker Hart family31929Desoutter I11929Parnall Elf11929de Havilland Puss Moth & Hornet Moth21929Supermarine S.6A11930Comper Swift21930Southern Martlet11931Vintage sailplanes401931de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth141931Hawker Fury & Nimrod31932Blackburn B-221932General Aircraft Monospar ST-1211932Spartan Cruiser11932Junkers Ju 5211933Mignet HM.14 ‘Flying Flea’121933Cierva C.30 / Avro Rota41933Supermarine Walrus & Seagull31933Boulton Paul Overstrand11934de Havilland DH.88 Comet21934Gloster Gladiator61934Hawker Hind11934Miles Hawk family31934Percival Mew Gull11934de Havilland Dragon & Rapide81934Boeing-Stearman Kaydet21934Supermarine Stranraer11935Avro Anson151936Lockheed 12A Electra Junior11937Miles Magister41937General Aircraft Cygnet1
Questions
Frequently asked
Where can I see a Schneider Trophy racer?
Supermarine S.6A N248 is at Solent Sky in Southampton.
Which museum has the most inter-war aircraft?
The Shuttleworth Collection, with 26, many kept flying. Duxford is next with 11.
Where can I see RAF biplanes of the 1930s?
The RAF Museum London has a Bulldog and a Hart; Duxford has a Nimrod and a Sea Gladiator; Cosford has a Gladiator.