Museums are ranked by how many modern airframes their inventories list, cockpits and replicas included. Each museum page has the full checklist.
Where to go
museums with modern aircraft
| Museum | modern airframes | Adult entry | Airframes | Examples | Headline exhibit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newark Air MuseumNewark, Nottinghamshire | 9 | £12.50 | 95 | Aviasud Sirocco microlight G-MNRT Hiway Skytrike microlight G-MBVE Maxair Hummer microlight (in store) G-MJCF |
Vulcan XM594, with cockpit tours occasionally given by former Vulcan aircrew, which reviewers describe with the reverence normally… |
| Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation MuseumBungay, Suffolk | 9 | £10 | 65 | Goldfinch Amphibian 161 Eurowing Goldwing microlight G-MMWL Kiceniuk Icarus II hang glider |
Depends who you ask — the joy is the oddities. Come for the Bloodhound missiles and decoy rarities; stay for volunteer flight-simulator… |
| Ulster Aviation Society (Maze Long Kesh)Lisburn, County Antrim | 6 | By appointment | 63 | Eipper Quicksilver Eurowing Goldwing G-MJWS Rotec Rally 2B G-MBJV |
The Shorts family — SC.1 vertical take-off research aircraft included — plus a Buccaneer, Phantom, Wildcat, and a newly arrived AV-8… |
| South Yorkshire Aircraft MuseumDoncaster, South Yorkshire | 4 | £7.50 | 109 | Hiway Skytrike microlight G-MJKP Mainair Triflyer microlight G-MMDK Whittaker MW5-K Sorcerer microlight G-MVNT |
Doncaster's South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum sprawls across the old RAF Doncaster site: dozens of airframes and helicopters, strong… |
| Hooton Park HangarsEllesmere Port, Cheshire | 3 | £9 | 45 | Ultralight Flying Machines Easy Riser BAPC.652 McBroom hang glider BAPC.204 Miles Wings hang glider BAPC.310 |
Hooton Park's 1917 Belfast-truss hangars — among the finest WWI aviation buildings surviving — hold aircraft, buses and a printing museum… |
| National Museum Of FlightNorth Berwick, East Lothian | 3 | £15 | 47 | Firebird Sierra hang glider Ikarus C42 FB80 G-SJEN Scot-Kites Cirrus III hang glider |
Concorde G-BOAA, which flew British Airways' first commercial supersonic service in 1976 and arrived here by barge and giant road-crawl… |
| South Wales Aviation MuseumBarry, Vale of Glamorgan | 3 | £10 | 73 | BAe Sea Harrier FA.2 ZA195 Whittaker MW7 G-BTUS Pegasus Quantum 15-912 G-BYMT |
The resident Harrier and a growing VC10/Tornado-era collection, most with steps and open canopies. Kids exit wearing thousand-yard grins. |
| The Helicopter MuseumWeston-super-Mare, Somerset | 3 | £15 | 108 | EH Industries EH101 PP3 ZH647 EH Industries EH101 Heliliner PP8 ZJ116 Liteco/Intora Atlas Firebird F-WGTX |
G-LYNX, the modified Westland Lynx that took the absolute helicopter world speed record (249.09 mph) in 1986 and holds it still; parked… |
| Fleet Air Arm MuseumYeovil, Somerset | 2 | £21 | 97 | British Aerospace Sea Harrier FA.2 XZ499 Super Eagle hang glider G-BGWZ |
Concorde 002 (G-BSST), the first British-assembled Concorde, which made her maiden flight from Filton in 1969 and now headlines a hall of… |
| IWM DuxfordCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 2 | £29 | 146 | BAe Sea Harrier FA.2 ZA175 General Atomics MQ-1B Predator 03-33120 |
Concorde 101 (G-AXDN), the pre-production development aircraft and the fastest Concorde of them all at Mach 2.23 — plus an SR-71A… |
| Midland Air MuseumCoventry, Warwickshire | 2 | £11 | 66 | British Aerospace Sea Harrier FA.2 ZE694 Chargus Vortex 120 hang glider G-MJWH |
Vulcan XL360 with cockpit access and volunteer-led tours (ask for the instrumentation talk), plus the Whittle jet heritage collection a… |
| North East Land, Sea and Air MuseumsSunderland, Tyne and Wear | 2 | £7.50 | 46 | British Aerospace Sea Harrier F/A.2 ZD582 AES Lone Ranger G-MBDL |
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 | Eurofighter Typhoon ZH588 General Atomics MQ-1B Predator 03-3119 |
Avro Lancaster R5868 'S-Sugar' — 137 operations, the RAF's highest-scoring surviving heavy — under the same roof as a Vulcan, a… |
| Yorkshire Air MuseumYork, North Yorkshire | 2 | £17 | 54 | Europa prototype 001 Mainair Demon |
Halifax 'Friday the 13th' — the world's only complete Halifax reconstruction, honouring the type that flew from this very field —… |
| Aerospace BristolBristol, Gloucestershire | 1 | £20 | 14 | BAe Sea Harrier FA.2 ZD610 | Concorde G-BOAF, the last Concorde ever built and the last ever to fly (26 November 2003, into Filton, forever). You can board her.… |
| Boscombe Down Aviation CollectionSalisbury, Wiltshire | 1 | £13.50 | 49 | British Aerospace Sea Harrier FA.2 XZ457 | The Lancaster cockpit reproduction tour, and a test-and-evaluation pedigree collection you can physically inhabit rather than admire… |
| MorayviaForres, Moray | 1 | £8 | 35 | AgustaWestland Merlin HM.1 ZH821 | Nimrod XV244 (complete, and the crew who operated her sometimes give the tours) alongside a Sea King in RAF SAR yellow — the machine that… |
| RAF Manston History MuseumRamsgate, Kent | 1 | £7 | 22 | Huntair Pathfinder 2 | 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… |
| Royal Air Force Museum MidlandsShifnal, Shropshire | 1 | Free | 78 | General Atomics MQ-9A Reaper ZZ202 | TSR-2 XR220, one of two survivors of the most gifted aircraft Britain ever cancelled, sharing floor space with the stainless-steel… |
| Runway Visitor Park, Manchester AirportAltrincham, Greater Manchester | 1 | £6–£15 | 5 | Avro RJX85 G-IRJX | Concorde G-BOAC, British Airways' flagship (the 'OAC' registration was no accident), enthroned in her own glass hangar with tours from… |
| Solway Aviation MuseumCrosby on Eden, Cumbria | 1 | £8 | 21 | BAe Sea Harrier F/A.2 ZE697 | 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 | 1 | £15 | 23 | BAe Sea Harrier FA.2 XZ459 | 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
Modern, 1990–present
Beyond those, the list runs to microlights and hang gliders at Flixton, Newark and Doncaster, and two EH101 prototypes at the Helicopter Museum. There are two MQ-1B Predators, at the RAF Museum London and Duxford. The RAF Museum also has Typhoon ZH588, and Morayvia has Merlin HM.1 ZH821.
- The Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum and Newark have the most modern-era airframes, eight each, mostly microlights.
- The RAF Museum London, with its Typhoon and Predator, is free.
What to see
Modern types on display
Questions
Frequently asked
Where can I see a Sea Harrier?
Ten museums have a Sea Harrier FA.2, including Duxford, Tangmere, the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Aerospace Bristol, Newark, Coventry and Solway.
Is there a Eurofighter Typhoon in a UK museum?
Yes: Typhoon ZH588 at the RAF Museum London.
Where can I see a military drone?
MQ-1B Predators are at the RAF Museum London and IWM Duxford.