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| Established | 1972 |
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| Location | Flixton, Suffolk, England |
| Coordinates | 52°26′08″N1°23′50″E / 52.4356°N 1.3971°E |
| Type | Aviation museum |
| Collection size | Approximately 30,000 items, including 60 aircraft |
| Visitors | Approximately 40,000 per year |
| Website | www |
The Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum is a museum collection of aircraft and aviation-related artefacts, located near the former RAF Bungay airfield in Flixton in the north of the English county of Suffolk.
First established in 1972 as the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Society, [1] the museum houses a varied array of over 60 complete or partial aircraft, including rarities such as the only complete de Havilland Sea Vixen FAW.1 in private ownership, a flyable replica of the Colditz Cock escape glider, a Vickers Valetta VX580 C.2 and an FMA IA 58 Pucará that was captured by British forces during the Falklands War. [2]
In addition to the aircraft displayed, the museum also houses thematic collections devoted to subjects including the Royal Observer Corps, RAF Bomber Command, RAF Air-Sea Rescue and Coastal Command. [3]
As well as preserving its existing collections, the museum and its members are actively involved in the exploration and study of aircraft crash sites – termed wreckology – in East Anglia. The museum charges no entrance fee and is entirely funded by public donations, corporate sponsorship, and local and European government grants. It employs only one full-time member of staff, with day-to-day maintenance and running of the museum falling largely on the shoulders of a team of volunteers.
Eminent autogyro exponent Wing Commander Ken Wallis had a long association with the museum, dating from shortly after its opening. For many years his Wallis WA-116 Agile autogyro, Little Nellie, made famous by its appearance in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice , was on display at Flixton. Wallis served as the museum's president until his death in September 2013.
An autogyro, or gyroplane, is a class of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. While similar to a helicopter rotor in appearance, the autogyro's unpowered rotor disc must have air flowing upward across it to make it rotate.
The Westland Whirlwind helicopter was a British licence-built version of the U.S. Sikorsky S-55/H-19 Chickasaw. It primarily served with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm in anti-submarine and search and rescue roles. It was also exported to other countries, and the Whirlwind was succeeded by the turbine powered Westland Wessex which was developed from the H-19/Whirlwind. The helicopter was made in many variants using a variety of radial (piston) and turbine engines.
The Avro Anson is a British twin-engine, multi-role aircraft built by the aircraft manufacturer Avro. Large numbers of the type served in a variety of roles for the Royal Air Force (RAF), Fleet Air Arm (FAA), Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), Royal Australian Air Force and numerous other air forces before, during, and after the Second World War.
The Handley Page HP.52 Hampden is a British twin-engine medium bomber that was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was part of the trio of large twin-engine bombers procured for the RAF, joining the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley and Vickers Wellington. The Hampden was powered by Bristol Pegasus radial engines but a variant known as the Handley Page Hereford had in-line Napier Daggers.
The National Museum of Flight is Scotland's national aviation museum, at East Fortune Airfield, just south of the village of East Fortune, Scotland. It is one of the museums within National Museums Scotland. The museum is housed in the original wartime buildings of RAF East Fortune which is a well preserved World War II airfield. As a result of this the entire site is a scheduled monument with no permanent structures added by the museum. The hangars, control tower and stores were designated as Category B listed buildings by Historic Scotland, but this designation was removed in 2013 as they were already covered by the stricter scheduling.
Imperial War Museum Duxford is a branch of the Imperial War Museum near Duxford in Cambridgeshire, England. Britain's largest aviation museum, Duxford houses the museum's large exhibits, including nearly 200 aircraft, military vehicles, artillery and minor naval vessels in seven main exhibition buildings. The site also provides storage space for the museum's other collections of material such as film, photographs, documents, books and artefacts. The site accommodates several British Army regimental museums, including those of the Parachute Regiment and the Royal Anglian Regiment.
Also Ken Wallis English designer of the STP-Paxton sponsored gas turbine powered Indycar which came close to winning the indy 500 in 1967.
The Cierva C.30 is an autogyro designed by Juan de la Cierva and built under licence from the Cierva Autogiro Company by A V Roe & Co Ltd (Avro), Lioré-et-Olivier and Focke-Wulf.
No. 312 Squadron RAF was a Czechoslovak-manned fighter squadron of the Royal Air Force in the Second World War.
The Percival P.56 Provost is a basic trainer aircraft that was designed and manufactured by British aviation company Percival.
Royal Air Force Martlesham Heath or more simply RAF Martlesham Heath is a former Royal Air Force station located 1.5 miles (2.4 km) southwest of Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. It was active between 1917 and 1963, and played an important role in the development of Airborne Interception radar.
Old Buckenham Airfield, formerly RAF Old Buckenham, is located 12 nautical miles southwest of Norwich, East Anglia, England.
Royal Air Force Bungay or more simply RAF Bungay is a former Royal Air Force station located 3 miles (4.8 km) south-west of Bungay in the English county of Suffolk.
The Vickers Valetta is a twin-engine military transport aircraft developed and produced by the British manufacturing company Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd. Developed from the Vickers VC.1 Viking compact civil airliner, it was an all-metal mid-wing monoplane with a tailwheel undercarriage.
The Percival Prince is a British light transport of the early postwar period. It was a twin-engine, high-wing, cantilever monoplane of all-metal stressed-skin construction; the undercarriage was of retractable, tricycle type.
Flixton is a village and civil parish located in the north of the English county of Suffolk. It is around 2 miles (3.2 km) south-west of Bungay in the East Suffolk district and is one of the villages around Bungay which make up the area known as The Saints. The A143 road runs just to the north of the parish border linking Bungay with Harleston and Diss.
The Wallis WA-116 Agile is a British autogyro developed in the early 1960s by former Royal Air Force Wing Commander Ken Wallis. The aircraft was produced in a number of variants, one of which, nicknamed Little Nellie, was flown in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice. Little Nellie is currently on static display at The Shuttleworth Collection, Old Warden, Bedfordshire in the UK.
The South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum (SYAM) is a Volunteer led museum located at Lakeside in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. It occupies the former site of the Royal Air Force Station, RAF Doncaster. The museum occupies the last remaining original buildings from RAF Doncaster in the shape of a Bellman hangar, two wooden Air Ministry 'Billet Huts' (Buildings 19 and 21) and various smaller structures. The museum has also erected an more modern ex Air Training Corps Cadet Hut alongside Building 21 to house its World War Two Collection.
The Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach, Virginia, is home to one of the world's largest collections of warbirds in flying condition. It includes examples from Germany, France, Italy, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, from both World War I and World War II, and its complete collection ranges from the 1910s to the early 1950s.
A Pundit Beacon or Landmark Beacon was an airfield navigational and identification beacon, used by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) in the period around World War II.
Media related to Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum at Wikimedia Commons
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