Museums are ranked by how many Second World War airframes their inventories list, cockpits and replicas included. Each museum page has the full checklist.
Where to go
museums with Second World War aircraft
| Museum | Second World War airframes | Adult entry | Airframes | Examples | Headline exhibit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IWM DuxfordCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 72 | £29 | 146 | Airspeed Oxford I V3388 Avro Lancaster X KB889 Fairey Swordfish III NF370 |
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 LondonLondon, Greater London | 36 | Free | 88 | Short Sunderland MR.5 ML824 Supermarine Spitfire Vb BL614 Supermarine Spitfire I X4590 |
Avro Lancaster R5868 'S-Sugar' — 137 operations, the RAF's highest-scoring surviving heavy — under the same roof as a Vulcan, a… |
| Royal Air Force Museum MidlandsShifnal, Shropshire | 20 | Free | 78 | Consolidated PBY-6A Catalina L-866 Boulton Paul Defiant I N1671 Hawker Hurricane IIc LF738 |
TSR-2 XR220, one of two survivors of the most gifted aircraft Britain ever cancelled, sharing floor space with the stainless-steel… |
| Wings Aviation MuseumHaywards Heath, West Sussex | 19 | £13 | 25 | Douglas A-20 Havoc (composite) 41-19393 Douglas B-26K Invader nose section 64-17657 Douglas C-47A Skytrain fuselage/nose 42-100611 |
The Wings Museum near Balcombe displays Eastern Front and D-Day aircraft archaeology in crash-site dioramas — raw, unpolished and… |
| Fleet Air Arm MuseumYeovil, Somerset | 17 | £21 | 97 | Blackburn Skua II wreckage L2940 Vought Corsair IV KD431 Fairey Fulmar II N1854 |
Concorde 002 (G-BSST), the first British-assembled Concorde, which made her maiden flight from Filton in 1969 and now headlines a hall of… |
| Hooton Park HangarsEllesmere Port, Cheshire | 17 | £9 | 45 | Supermarine Spitfire PR.XIX PM651 Supermarine Spitfire LF.IXe replica BAPC.581 Hawker Hurricane I cockpit reconstruction P3408 |
Hooton Park's 1917 Belfast-truss hangars — among the finest WWI aviation buildings surviving — hold aircraft, buses and a printing museum… |
| Biggin Hill Heritage HangarWesterham, Greater London | 16 | £49 | 17 | Supermarine Spitfire T.9 MJ627 Supermarine Spitfire Tr.VIII MT818 Supermarine Spitfire T.9 TE308 |
A rotating dozen-ish airworthy and in-rebuild Spitfires plus a Hurricane and Buchón; the 'Sit in a Spitfire' add-on is the affordable… |
| Army Flying MuseumStockbridge, Hampshire | 12 | £18 | 43 | General Aircraft Hotspur II composite replica HH379 General Aircraft Hamilcar I forward fuselage TK777 Airspeed Horsa I fuselage LH208 |
Middle Wallop's Army Flying Museum covers everything the Army has flown from observation balloons to Apaches, with superb dioramas and a… |
| South Yorkshire Aircraft MuseumDoncaster, South Yorkshire | 11 | £7.50 | 109 | Auster AOP.9 cockpit section XR238 Auster J1N Alpha fuselage G-AHHP Beagle A.109 Airedale fuselage G-ARYZ |
Doncaster's South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum sprawls across the old RAF Doncaster site: dozens of airframes and helicopters, strong… |
| Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight Visitors CentreLincoln, Lincolnshire | 9 | £12.50 | 11 | Avro Lancaster B.I PA474 Supermarine Spitfire IIa P7350 Supermarine Spitfire Vb AB910 |
Lancaster PA474 — one of only two airworthy Lancasters on Earth — when she's home (she periodically visits Duxford for deep maintenance,… |
| Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage CentreSpilsby, Lincolnshire | 9 | £13.50 | 11 | Avro Lancaster B.VII 'Just Jane' (taxiing) NX611 de Havilland Mosquito NF.II (running) HJ711 North American TB-25N Mitchell 44-29366 |
Lancaster NX611 (taxiing now, returning to flight one day, they swear) and Mosquito NF.II HJ711 — the only running Mosquito in Europe.… |
| Ulster Aviation Society (Maze Long Kesh)Lisburn, County Antrim | 7 | By appointment | 63 | Fairchild F-24W-41A Argus II HB612 Fairey Swordfish HS503 Fieseler Fi 103 (V-1) full-scale replica BAPC.403 |
The Shorts family — SC.1 vertical take-off research aircraft included — plus a Buccaneer, Phantom, Wildcat, and a newly arrived AV-8… |
| Yorkshire Air MuseumYork, North Yorkshire | 7 | £17 | 54 | Douglas Dakota IV KN353 Fairchild Argus II FK338 Handley Page Halifax III (composite, ex HR792) LV907 |
Halifax 'Friday the 13th' — the world's only complete Halifax reconstruction, honouring the type that flew from this very field —… |
| Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation MuseumBungay, Suffolk | 6 | £10 | 65 | Fairchild F.24 C8-F Argus NC16676 de Havilland Mosquito NF nose replica Supermarine Spitfire LF.XVIe skin and components TD248 |
Depends who you ask — the joy is the oddities. Come for the Bloodhound missiles and decoy rarities; stay for volunteer flight-simulator… |
| Spitfire Visitor Centre, Hangar 42, BlackpoolBlackpool, Lancashire | 6 | £12 | 6 | Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX 'Lucy' (replica) Supermarine Spitfire (replica) Supermarine Spitfire (replica) |
The Ops Room recreation and the £5 sit-in-a-Spitfire photography session — the cheapest Spitfire seat time in the country. |
| De Havilland Aircraft MuseumSt Albans, Hertfordshire | 5 | £12 | 35 | Airspeed Horsa I/II composite fuselage BAPC.232 de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito prototype W4050 de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito FB.VI TA122 |
Mosquito prototype W4050, the original 1940 aircraft, in the place it was designed and first assembled. No other British museum has… |
| Kent Battle of Britain Museum TrustFolkestone, Kent | 5 | £12 | 8 | CASA 2.111B (Heinkel He 111) B.2I-103 Bristol Bolingbroke / Blenheim composite North American Harvard IIB FX442 |
Hawkinge is hallowed turf: the closest fighter station to France in 1940, now the Kent Battle of Britain Museum with the world's largest… |
| Tangmere Military Aviation MuseumChichester, West Sussex | 5 | £15 | 23 | Supermarine Spitfire prototype replica K5054 Supermarine Spitfire IX cockpit replica Hawker Hurricane I replica L1679 |
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 Shuttleworth CollectionBiggleswade, Bedfordshire | 5 | £19.50 | 55 | Hawker Sea Hurricane Ib G-BKTH Hawker Hurricane XIIa G-HURI Supermarine Spitfire LF.Vc G-AWII |
The 1934 DH.88 Comet 'Grosvenor House', winner of the MacRobertson England–Australia air race, restored to fly; and the Edwardians —… |
| Midland Air MuseumCoventry, Warwickshire | 4 | £11 | 66 | Flettner Fl 282 Kolibri (partial airframe) 28368 Armstrong Whitworth Whitley V fuselage section N1498 Bristol Beaufighter I cockpit section T5298 |
Vulcan XL360 with cockpit access and volunteer-led tours (ask for the instrumentation talk), plus the Whittle jet heritage collection a… |
| National Museum Of FlightNorth Berwick, East Lothian | 4 | £15 | 47 | Bristol Beaufighter TF.X (under restoration) RD220 Bristol Bolingbroke IVT 9940 Messerschmitt Me 163B-1a Komet 191659 |
Concorde G-BOAA, which flew British Airways' first commercial supersonic service in 1976 and arrived here by barge and giant road-crawl… |
| Boscombe Down Aviation CollectionSalisbury, Wiltshire | 3 | £13.50 | 49 | Douglas C-47A Skytrain nose section 42-93510 Taylorcraft Auster AOP.5 MS968 Avro Lancaster B.I cockpit section PD130 |
The Lancaster cockpit reproduction tour, and a test-and-evaluation pedigree collection you can physically inhabit rather than admire… |
| Bottisham Airfield MuseumCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 3 | £6 | 4 | North American P-51D Mustang full-size replica North American P-51 Mustang sit-in cockpit replica Auster (under reconstruction) |
Bottisham hosted the 361st Fighter Group's Mustangs; the museum's restored buildings, Mustang connections and WWII jeep rides make it… |
| Newark Air MuseumNewark, Nottinghamshire | 3 | £12.50 | 95 | Auster AOP.9 (fuselage and wings, in store) XR268 Avro Lancaster B.I fuselage section W4964 North American Harvard IIB FE930 |
Vulcan XM594, with cockpit tours occasionally given by former Vulcan aircrew, which reviewers describe with the reverence normally… |
| North East Land, Sea and Air MuseumsSunderland, Tyne and Wear | 3 | £7.50 | 46 | Supermarine Spitfire Vb replica BL924 Hawker Hurricane I replica BAPC.521 Auster J/1N Alpha G-APKM |
NELSAM in Sunderland mixes Vulcan XL319 (flew in when the airport still existed), a Pucará from the Falklands, trams, buses and a… |
| Spitfire & Hurricane Memorial Museum, ManstonRamsgate, Kent | 3 | Free | 3 | Supermarine Spitfire LF.XVIe TB752 Supermarine Spitfire Ia cockpit P9337 Hawker Hurricane IIc LF751 |
Free-entry memorial museum holding Spitfire TB752 and Hurricane LF751 plus a dense Manston story — the emergency runway where crippled… |
| Aerospace BristolBristol, Gloucestershire | 2 | £20 | 14 | Bristol Bolingbroke IVT 9048 Bristol Beaufighter IIF forward fuselage (sectioned) |
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 BunkerUxbridge, Greater London | 2 | £12.50 | 2 | Supermarine Spitfire full-size replica Hawker Hurricane full-size replica |
The actual 11 Group operations bunker at Uxbridge, 77 steps down, restored to its Battle of Britain configuration — Churchill watched the… |
| Brooklands MuseumWeybridge, Surrey | 2 | £24–£27 | 32 | Vickers Wellington IA 'R for Robert' (ex-Loch Ness) N2980 Hawker Hurricane IIA Z2389 |
Concorde G-BBDG, the British production-test aircraft, bookended by a Wellington bomber dredged out of Loch Ness in 1985 and the only… |
| Halesworth Airfield Memorial MuseumHalesworth, Suffolk | 2 | Free | 2 | Republic P-47 Thunderbolt cockpit wreckage Republic P-47 Thunderbolt wing section |
Halesworth (56th FG — Zemke's Wolfpack — and the air-sea rescue squadron) remembered in a compact free museum strong on personal effects… |
| Hardwick Airfield MuseumBungay, Norfolk | 2 | Free | 2 | Avro Lancaster wing-tip section Short Stirling tailplane section |
Hardwick Airfield Museum — home of the 93rd BG 'Ted's Travelling Circus', the Eighth’s longest-serving Liberator group — a hangar of… |
| Jet Age MuseumGloucester, Gloucestershire | 2 | Donation | 15 | Gloster E.28/39 Pioneer reproduction W4041 Hawker Hurricane Mk I replica V6799 |
Gloucestershire's jet-age shrine (free!) beside Staverton airport: Gloster heritage from the E.28/39 replica to Javelins, with… |
| Lashenden Air Warfare MuseumAshford, Kent | 2 | £3 | 2 | Fieseler Fi 103R-4 Reichenberg 6/2080 Focke-Achgelis Fa 330A-1 100549 |
At Headcorn (Lashenden) aerodrome: a compact air-warfare museum whose crown piece is a Fieseler Fi 103R Reichenberg — the piloted V-1 —… |
| Metheringham Airfield Visitor CentreLincoln, Lincolnshire | 2 | £8 | 2 | Douglas C-47 Dakota III KG651 Avro Lancaster forward fuselage replica ('Léon's Lancaster') |
Metheringham Airfield Visitor Centre (106 Squadron Lancasters) has original ration-book atmosphere plus a fully restored Dakota you can… |
| Romney Marsh Wartime CollectionRomney Marsh, Kent | 2 | £8 | 5 | Douglas Dakota C.4 nose section KN274 Hawker Hurricane I forward fuselage V7350 |
The Romney Marsh Wartime Collection at Brenzett: a former Women's Land Army hostel stuffed with locally dug aircraft archaeology from the… |
| Solent SkySouthampton, Hampshire | 2 | £14 | 23 | Supermarine Spitfire F.24 PK683 Short Sandringham 4 VH-BRC |
Supermarine S.6A N248, the 1929 Schneider Trophy racer from the bloodline that begat the Spitfire — parked beneath its descendant for… |
| South Wales Aviation MuseumBarry, Vale of Glamorgan | 2 | £10 | 73 | Beagle A.61 Terrier 1 G-ARNO Hawker Tempest II (restoration) MW758 |
The resident Harrier and a growing VC10/Tornado-era collection, most with steps and open canopies. Kids exit wearing thousand-yard grins. |
| Thorpe Camp Visitor CentreLincoln, Lincolnshire | 2 | £7 | 5 | Avro Lancaster nose and cockpit mock-up Auster AOP.5 (under restoration) RT520 |
Thorpe Camp preserves RAF Woodhall Spa's communal site — home of 617 Squadron post-Dams — as a period village of huts, with volunteers in… |
| Avro Heritage MuseumStockport, Greater Manchester | 1 | £9 | 14 | Avro Lancaster B.I 'S for Sugar' cockpit (replica) | Vulcan XM603 — the only all-white Vulcan on display anywhere, in original anti-flash nuclear livery — plus walk-in Lancaster and Nimrod… |
| Bournemouth Aviation MuseumChristchurch, Dorset | 1 | £10 | 29 | North American Harvard IIB (composite) KF388 | 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… |
| Boxted Airfield MuseumColchester, Essex | 1 | Donation | 1 | Martin B-26C Marauder rear fuselage section 41-35253 | Boxted flew Marauders, Mustangs and the 56th Fighter Group's Thunderbolts; the Nissen-hut museum holds a substantial B-26 fuselage… |
| City of Norwich Aviation MuseumNorwich, Norfolk | 1 | £9 | 33 | de Havilland Mosquito NF cockpit replica | City of Norwich Aviation Museum at Horsham St Faith: Norfolk's largest, ~30 airframes including a Vulcan and Nimrod with bookable… |
| Cornwall at War Museum, DavidstowCamelford, Cornwall | 1 | £7 | 8 | Fieseler Fi 103 (V-1) replica | Cornwall’s big WW2 / military museum on the old RAF Davidstow Moor Coastal Command field — aircraft, military vehicles, humour intact,… |
| East Essex Aviation MuseumClacton-on-Sea, Essex | 1 | Free | 1 | North American P-51D Mustang forward fuselage wreckage 44-14574 | An aviation museum inside a Martello tower at Point Clear: crash-site recoveries (including a P-51 engine with pilot's story attached)… |
| East Midlands AeroparkDerby, Leicestershire | 1 | £5 | 35 | Auster T.7 (mated to Auster AOP.6 fuselage, under restoration) WE558 | East Midlands Aeropark: a Vulcan, Nimrod R1 and Buccaneer parked on grassy mounds overlooking EMA's runway — half museum, half premier… |
| Langham DomeHolt, Norfolk | 1 | £7 | 1 | Supermarine Spitfire IX full-size replica | Langham Dome is a one-building wonder: a 1942 concrete gunnery-training dome where projected aircraft taught AA gunners to shoot —… |
| Montrose Air Station MuseumMontrose, Angus | 1 | £10 | 14 | Supermarine Spitfire Vb replica EP121 | The 1913 fabric itself, plus the resident ghost stories (Montrose is Britain's most famously haunted airfield, a claim the volunteers… |
| Nuthampstead Airfield MuseumRoyston, Hertfordshire | 1 | Free | 1 | Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress wing section | The 398th Bomb Group's Nuthampstead story — plus the 55th Fighter Group — in a smart little museum behind the Woodman Inn, which handles… |
| Pembroke Dock Heritage CentrePembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire | 1 | £7 | 1 | Short Sunderland Mk I replica cockpit | Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre in the Georgian dockyard chapel: the world's largest flying-boat station in WWII (Sunderlands of the Battle… |
| Polish Bomber Squadrons Centre, RAF InghamGainsborough, Lincolnshire | 1 | £8 | 1 | Avro Lancaster cockpit replica (full-scale) | RAF Ingham's Polish Bomber Squadrons Centre honours the four Polish squadrons of 1 Group with bilingual displays, a restored Nissen… |
| RAF Manston History MuseumRamsgate, Kent | 1 | £7 | 22 | Taylorcraft Auster V RT486 | 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… |
| RAF Sculthorpe Heritage CentreFakenham, Norfolk | 1 | £2.50 | 2 | Boeing B-29 Superfortress substantial wreckage 44-62191 | Sculthorpe: North Norfolk's atomic secret — 10,000 Americans and nuclear-alert B-45s in the 1950s — remembered in a heritage centre with… |
| Shoreham Aircraft MuseumSevenoaks, Kent | 1 | £5 | 1 | Junkers Ju 88A-1 cockpit section | A Battle of Britain museum in a Shoreham village high street, grown from one man's crash-site digs, with a 1940s tea room whose bread… |
| Sywell Aviation MuseumNorthampton, Northamptonshire | 1 | Free | 5 | North American Harvard cockpit | Sywell Aviation Museum: a POW-hut-sized, free museum on Britain's loveliest Art Deco aerodrome, where resident Spitfires and a Mustang… |
| The Helicopter MuseumWeston-super-Mare, Somerset | 1 | £15 | 108 | Hafner R.II Revoplane BAPC.10 | G-LYNX, the modified Westland Lynx that took the absolute helicopter world speed record (249.09 mph) in 1986 and holds it still; parked… |
| The Potteries Spitfire Gallery (RW388)Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire | 1 | Free | 1 | Supermarine Spitfire LF.XVIe RW388 | The Potteries Museum's Spitfire Gallery gives RW388 a purpose-built glass hall in Hanley — Stoke's tribute to local boy Reginald Mitchell… |
| Welsh Spitfire MuseumHaverfordwest, Pembrokeshire | 1 | £2 | 1 | Supermarine Spitfire LF.VIIIc fuselage JG668 | The Welsh Spitfire Museum: a genuine 1944 Mk VIII being restored to flight in the back of a Haverfordwest charity shop, funded by the… |
The era
Second World War, 1939–1945
IWM Duxford holds the most, 69, from Swordfish NF370 to Lancaster KB889. The RAF Museum London has 35, including Lancaster R5868 and Sunderland ML824. Cosford has 20, among them Defiant N1671 and Spitfire K9942. In Lincolnshire, East Kirkby runs Lancaster NX611 and Mosquito HJ711 on taxi days. The Fleet Air Arm Museum has the naval side: Corsair KD431, Fulmar N1854 and Martlet AL246.
- The RAF Museum London and Cosford are both free.
- Check that PA474 is at Coningsby before visiting the BBMF centre; she periodically goes to Duxford for maintenance.
- Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar keeps a rotating set of airworthy Spitfires, on paid tours.
What to see
Second World War types on display
1934Fairey Swordfish31935Hawker Hurricane271935Messerschmitt Bf 10991935North American Harvard111935Bristol Blenheim81935Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress41935Douglas C-47 Dakota101935Consolidated PBY Catalina21935Junkers Ju 87 Stuka11936Supermarine Spitfire611936Westland Lysander61936Messerschmitt Bf 110 & Me 41031936Handley Page Hampden31936Fairey Battle11936Junkers Ju 88 & Heinkel He 11141936Fieseler Storch21936Vickers Wellington41936Armstrong Whitworth Whitley11937Airspeed Oxford21937Short Sunderland41937Mitsubishi Zero & Nakajima Kate21937Boulton Paul Defiant11937Blackburn Skua11938Handley Page Halifax31938Curtiss Kittyhawk51938Fiat CR.42 Falco21938Focke-Wulf Fw 189 Uhu11938Bristol Beaufort21938Douglas A-20, A-26 & Martin B-2631938Fairey Albacore & Barracuda31938Piper Cub21939Percival Proctor31939Taylorcraft Auster281939Consolidated B-24 Liberator21939Bristol Beaufighter61939Lockheed Hudson11939Short Stirling21939Focke-Wulf Fw 19011940de Havilland Mosquito101940North American B-25 Mitchell41940North American P-51 Mustang101940Hawker Typhoon & Tempest81940Douglas Skyraider & Curtiss Helldiver31940Vought Corsair11940General Aircraft Hotspur & Hamilcar21941Avro Lancaster121941Fairey Fulmar & Firefly41941Republic P-47 Thunderbolt51941Grumman Navy set71941Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet21941Fairchild Argus41941Gloster E.28/3911942Focke-Achgelis Fa 330 & Flettner Fl 28251942Boeing B-29 Superfortress21942Avro York21942Messerschmitt Me 26211942Bell P-63 Kingcobra51942Sikorsky R-4 Hoverfly11942Miles Messenger & Gemini71942Airspeed Horsa & Waco Hadrian71942Hafner Rotachute & Rotabuggy31942Fieseler Fi 103 (V-1)31943Kawasaki Ki-100 & Mitsubishi Ki-4621944Heinkel He 162 Salamander21944Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka21944Avro Lincoln1
Questions
Frequently asked
Where can I see a Lancaster in the UK?
R5868 at the RAF Museum London, KB889 at Duxford, NX611 at East Kirkby and PA474 with the BBMF at Coningsby.
Which UK museum has the most Second World War aircraft?
IWM Duxford, with 69 in the gazetteer inventory, followed by the RAF Museum London with 35.
Can you see a Mosquito running?
Yes. Mosquito NF.II HJ711 at East Kirkby is described as the only running Mosquito in Europe.