My short trip to IWM Duxford - lots o' large pics

[Acedy]

I have been on a short holiday trip to London with my GF, and we (well I actually... ) spontaneously decided to visit the Imperial War Museum at Duxford Airfield (that also hosts The Fighter Collection TFC). We departed on thursday evening from Stansted, which is not that far from Duxford, so this lent itself quite nicely for a last day's excursion. I have taken some pictures and thought I would post them here. Unfortunately some are not of the best quality, and we didn't have much time on the site, so we couldn't even visit all Hangars, plus the cam's battery died pretty quickly, so the pics cover only a small part of the aircraft on display in Duxford. However, they give you an impression of how great that museum is, so if you visit London or Cambridge one day make sure that it is on your schedule.

 

How we got to the airfield is also quite a funny story. We asked at a visitors center if there was an easy way to get to Duxford from London, and were told that we could take the train to Cambridge and then a bus to the museum. Fine. Thursday morning we got up at 7, had a nice breakfast, checked out of the hotel at nine and took the underground to Liverpool station. Now because of the morning traffic this actually took 45 mins, the train was crowded and we didn't have seats, so by the time we arrived at the station my shirt was already drenched... Anyway, up to the ticket counter, where we talked to a very nice and humourous Brit. He told us that we could drive all the way to Cambridge, however we could also depart at Whittlesford, which according to him is "not the biggest place in the world", but which is "only about a mile from the museum, and a short walk will do you no harm". You guess it, pure British understatement, but we didn't think much about it, since we hoped that we could actually save some time (the bus from Cambridge to Duxford takes about 45 mins + the two train stations from Whittlesford to Cambridge + waiting for the Bus)... Great, so we went on the train, had a nice ride though the English countryside, until we got off in Whittlesford. I had expected some kind of sign leading the way to the museum, well, there wasn't any, so I asked the man at the station's ticket office for the way. He explained it more or less detailed and finished with the remark that "we would be better off to take a cab, since it was only a mile but we would have to walk along a very busy motorway". I thought "cab my arse", the whole trip already costs us a fortune, "and a short walk will do us no harm", so I thanked him and said that we will take a look... Off we go, just to go astray pretty soon, so we had to ask another guy, who was sleeping in his little office at the entrance of some kind of automobile company. He told us to go back, then left, pass the first roundabout, then the second, and then on the left side we would see the airfield. Sounds easy, so we continued our walk. Keep in mind that we had all of our baggae with us (cases + bagpacks), the sun was shining and it was quite a warm spring day (I estimate ~20°C). We first wanted to drive to Stansted and leave our baggage there before going to Duxford, but this would have cost us even more time, so we took it with us in the hope that the museum would have a cloakroom (which it hadn't, but we could leave our baggage in the first aid room). I don't know if it was really "only a mile" or not, but you can believe me that it was a very, very loooong mile... And indeed we had to walk on the grass strip along the motorway for some time, the people passing us in their cars looked at us as if we were some kind of crazy aliens. I felt like being lead actor in a cheap Hollywood B-movie, you know, "Stranded on Route 66" or something, while my GF kept on cursing me. In any case, after about 3/4 hrs we finally arrived at our destination, exhausted and covered with dust (the sidewalk wasn't actually "trolley-friendly"). "A little walking will do you no harm", heh, I thought I had just passed my first day in bootcamp. However, Duxford itself compensated for everything, even though we had little time, it is truly an amazing site for anybody who is interested in aviation. (Btw, on our way back to Cambridge the bus went right through Whittlesford... D'oh)

 

So here are the pics:

 

The flightline

 

 

 

The conservation hangar

 

 

F-15

 

 

Mi-24. Note the German army marks, the Hind had been employed by the NVA, and after the reunification it was adopted by the Germany army.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fieseler Storch

 

 

Ju-52

 

 

The American Air museum

 

 

 

B-52 pit

 

 

SR-71

 

 

B-29

 

 

 

B-17 (and my GF trying to look interested ;) )

 

 

Edited March 22, 2009 by Acedy

[Acedy]

 

 

A-10

 

 

P-47

 

 

 

 

Norden bombsight

 

 

Avenger

 

 

C-47

 

 

P-51

 

 

F-111

 

 

 

PT-17 trainer

 

 

Spad S-13

 

 

F-4

 

 

Huey (my absolute favorite!)

 

 

 

Edited March 22, 2009 by Acedy

[Acedy]

 

 

Hurricane

 

 

Bf 109

 

 

Spit

 

 

Autogiro

 

 

Mig-21

 

 

Tornado

 

 

Concorde

 

 

 

[Shrubbo]

Wow freeking awesome, thanks :thumbup:

[Grimes]

Thanks for sharing!

[G3]

they sure do have a nice collection there, once again thanks.

[Vekkinho]

Thanks for photos!

[eurofor]

very interesting! thanks!

[Trigger]

Great pictures:thumbup:! I´ll go there on the "Flying legends Airshow". Together with friends we´ll make a motorbike trip. Done it already 2 years ago. Somebody else coming along?

Cheers, Trigger

[JaNk0]

Have to take a visit some day!

[Nate--IRL--]

Cool pics, thanks!

 

Nate