Museums

Royal Air Force Museum London

A hundred aircraft in six hangars on the field where London learned to fly, from a Sopwith Camel to a Vulcan, free.

Free

Also in Science & Engineering.

Claude Grahame-White bought the fields at Hendon in 1911 and made them the first aerodrome in Britain, where crowds came by Tube to watch the flying displays and the RAF later trained its pilots, and when the runways closed in 1968 the museum opened on them in 1972. About a hundred aircraft stand in six hangars laid out by era: the biplanes and the Sopwith Camel of the first air war, in a hangar that is Grahame-White's own factory building re-erected; the Battle of Britain's Spitfires and Hurricanes with the German aircraft they fought; the Lancaster bomber, which the museum lets you stand beneath and imagine seven men inside; a Sunderland flying boat you can walk through; the Cold War's Vulcan and Lightning; and the Harrier, Tornado and Typhoon of the decades since. It is free, open every day, and needs the whole of one; the cockpit experiences and guided tours are the only things that charge.

Where

Grahame Park Way, Colindale, NW9 5NZ

Nearest station

Colindale · 10 min walk

Step-free access

On here now

• The RAF Museum's hangarsExhibition · Science & nature · Permanent

Also here

• The Spitfire ExperienceHistory

Hours

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