The Royal Air Force Museum Midlands, located at
RAF Cosford in
Shropshire
Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...
, is a free museum dedicated to the history of aviation and the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
in particular. The museum is part of the
Royal Air Force Museum, a
non-departmental public body
In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government, and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process o ...
sponsored by the
Ministry of Defence
A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...
and also a
registered charity
A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good).
The legal definitio ...
. The museum is spread over two sites in England; the other site is at the
Royal Air Force Museum London at
Colindale (near
Hendon
Hendon is an urban area in the London Borough of Barnet, northwest London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient Manorialism, manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has ...
) in north London.
History
The London museum was officially opened at the
Colindale (then part of
Hendon
Hendon is an urban area in the London Borough of Barnet, northwest London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient Manorialism, manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has ...
) London site on 15 November 1972 by Queen
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...
. The hangars housed just 36 aircraft at opening. Over the years, the collection increased and aircraft were stored at
RAF stations around the country when they were not on display to the public.
On 1 May 1979, the
Cosford site was opened at
RAF Cosford, one of the RAF stations which had been used to store the museum's collection of aircraft. On opening, the museum initially exhibited airframes which had been used for technical training at RAF Cosford. In the following years additional aircraft were added to the collection, and in 1980 it was agreed that the
British Airways
British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport.
The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...
Collection be displayed at Cosford. On 21 June 1998 four additional galleries were opened, housing art, temporary exhibitions and other aviation subjects. 13 May 2002 saw the relocation of the RAF Museum Conservation Centre from
Cardington, Bedfordshire to Cosford. The centre, costing £2.4 million, was opened by
Marshal of the Royal Air Force
Marshal of the Royal Air Force (MRAF) is the highest rank in the UK's Royal Air Force (RAF). In peacetime it was granted to RAF officers in the appointment of Chief of the Defence Staff (United Kingdom), Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), and to ...
Sir
Michael Beetham
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Michael James Beetham, (17 May 1923 – 24 October 2015) was a Second World War bomber pilot and a high-ranking commander in the Royal Air Force from the 1960s to the 1980s. As Chief of the Air Staff during th ...
.
[Ellis 2004, p. 179.]
In its early years, it was named ''The Aerospace Museum''. In 1998 the name was changed to ''RAF Museum Cosford'', and in March 2022 it was renamed ''RAF Museum Midlands''.
The Cosford site includes several developmental aircraft such as those that led to the
English Electric Lightning and the second prototype of the
BAC TSR-2. A lot of the aircraft are very rare, such as the only
Boulton Paul Defiant in the world and one of only two surviving
Vickers Wellington
The Vickers Wellington (nicknamed the Wimpy) is a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson, a key feature of t ...
s left in the world.
The first director of the museum was
Dr John Tanner who retired in 1987. In 1988
Dr Michael A Fopp (who had previously directed the
London Transport Museum
The London Transport Museum (LTM) is a transport museum based in Covent Garden, London. The museum predominantly hosts exhibits relating to the heritage of Transport in London, London's transport, as well as conserving and explaining the histo ...
) was appointed and was Director General of all three sites covered by the museum until his retirement in 2010.
The site can be reached by public transport via the neighbouring
Cosford railway station on the
Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury Line.
British Airways collection

In 1980, the Cosford site agreed to house the British Airways Museum collection. In 2006
British Airways
British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport.
The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...
withdrew funding from the collection, after which the RAF Museum did not take on the costs of maintaining the aircraft. Several of the jet airliners were subsequently broken up, including the only
Boeing 707
The Boeing 707 is an early American long-range Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, the initial first flew on Decembe ...
that was preserved in the UK, a
Vickers VC10 and a
Hawker Siddeley Trident.
National Cold War Exhibition
The National Cold War Exhibition opened at Cosford in February 2007. The exhibition houses the museum's
V bomber
The "V bombers" were the Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft during the 1950s and 1960s that comprised the Nuclear weapons and the United Kingdom, United Kingdom's strategic nuclear strike force known officially as the V force or Bomber Command Mai ...
s and other
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
aircraft in a newly constructed 8,000m
2 exhibition building designed by architects
Fielden Clegg Bradley.
The exhibition concept and design was developed by Neal Potter and includes 'silo theatres' which depict, in a variety of media, the key tensions of the Cold War period.
Aircraft on display
Engines on display
The Cosford museum houses a large collection of
aero engines; the majority are located in Hangar 1, and a small side room of this hangar contains a display of rocket engines.
*
Alvis Leonides
*
Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah XV
*
Armstrong Siddeley Civet
*
Armstrong Siddeley Mamba
*
Armstrong Siddeley Stentor
*
Bentley BR2
*
Blackburn Cirrus Major
*
Bristol Thor
*
Bristol Siddeley 605
*
Bristol Stentor
*
Daimler-Benz DB 610
*
de Havilland Gipsy
*
de Havilland Gipsy Queen
*
de Havilland Spectre
*
de Havilland Double Spectre
*
de Havilland Super Sprite
*
General Electric T700
The General Electric T700 and CT7 are a family of turboshaft and turboprop engines in the class.
Design and development
In 1967, General Electric began work on a new turboshaft engine demonstrator designated the "GE12" in response to US Army i ...
*
Junkers Jumo 004
*
Junkers Jumo 205
*
Lycoming O-360
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Nakajima Sakae
*
Napier Lion
The Napier Lion is a 12-cylinder, petrol-fueled 'broad arrow' W12 engine, W12 configuration aircraft engine built by D. Napier & Son from 1917 until the 1930s. A number of advanced features made it the most powerful engine of its day and kept ...
*
Power Jets W.2
The Power Jets W.2 was a British turbojet engine designed by Frank Whittle and Power Jets, Power Jets (Research and Development) Ltd. Like the earlier Power Jets W.1, the reverse-flow combustion configuration included a double-sided centrifug ...
*
Pratt & Whitney R-985
The Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior is a series of nine-cylinder, air-cooled, radial engine, radial aircraft engines built by the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company from the 1930s to the 1950s. These engines have a Engine displacement, displace ...
*
Pratt & Whitney R-1830
*
Renault 70 hp
*
Rolls-Royce Avon
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Rolls-Royce Dart
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Rolls-Royce Conway
The Rolls-Royce RB.80 Conway was the first turbofan jet engine to enter service. Development started at Rolls-Royce Limited, Rolls-Royce in the 1940s, but the design was used only briefly, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, before other turbof ...
*
Rolls-Royce Derwent
*
Rolls-Royce Olympus
*
Rolls-Royce Viper
*
Rolls-Royce Spey
The Rolls-Royce Spey (company designations RB.163 and RB.168 and RB.183) is a low-bypass turbofan engine originally designed and manufactured by Rolls-Royce that has been in widespread service for over 40 years. A co-development version of the ...
*
Rolls-Royce Tyne
The Rolls-Royce RB.109 Tyne is a twin-shaft turboprop engine developed in the mid to late 1950s by Rolls-Royce Limited to a requirement for the Vickers Vanguard airliner. It was first test flown during 1956 in the nose of a modified Avro Linco ...
*
Rolls-Royce RB108
*
Rolls-Royce RB162
*
Rolls-Royce RB.211
*
Rolls-Royce Kestrel XVI
*
Packard Merlin 28
*
Rolls-Royce/SNECMA M45H
*
Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour
The Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour is a two-shaft low bypass turbofan aircraft engine developed by Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Limited, a joint venture between Rolls-Royce (UK) and Turbomeca (France). The engine is named after the Adour, a river in s ...
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Turbo-Union RB199
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Walter 109-500
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Walter 109–509
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Walter 109-739
*
Wright R-3350
Missile collection
The museum holds a large collection of missiles and rocket-powered weapons, including several rare German
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
types. The majority are located in the National Cold War Exhibition, with the German collection on display in Hangar 1.
*
Australian Government Aircraft Factories Malkara
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Blohm & Voss BV 246
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British Aerospace Rapier
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Hawker Siddeley SRAAM
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British Aircraft Corporation Bloodhound
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British Aerospace Sea Skua
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British Aircraft Corporation Swingfire
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British Aircraft Corporation Thunderbird
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Douglas Thor
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Douglas Skybolt
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Engins Matra AS37 AR Martel
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Fairey Fireflash
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Fairey Separation Test Vehicle
*
Fieseler Fi103 (V-1 flying bomb)
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German Army V-2
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Hai Ying 2G Silkworm
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Hawker Siddeley Blue Steel
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Hawker Siddeley Firestreak
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Hawker Siddeley Martel AJ-168
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Hawker Siddeley Red Top
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Henschel Hs 117 'Schmetterling'
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Henschel Hs 293
The Henschel Hs 293 was a World War II Nazi Germany, German Command guidance, radio-guided glide bomb. It is the first operational anti-shipping missile, first used unsuccessfully on 25 August 1943 and then with increasing success over the next y ...
*
Henschel Hs 298
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Holzbrau Enzian
*
Lockheed Polaris
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Nord AS11
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Philco-Ford AIM-9B Sidewinder
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RAF Lightweight Torpedo Mk30
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Raytheon AIM-7 Sparrow
*
Rheinmetall Borsig Feuerlilie
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Rheinmetall Borsig Rheinbote
*
Rheinmetall Borsig Rheintochter
*
Ruhrstahl Kramer X-4
*
Ruhrstahl AG Fritz X
*
Scheufeln Taifun
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USA Lightweight Torpedo Mk43
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USA Lightweight Torpedo Mk44
*
Vickers Red Dean
Michael Beetham Conservation Centre

Also on the museum site is the Michael Beetham Conservation Centre. The centre restores aircraft and artefacts for display at both Midlands and London. It is named in honour of
Marshal of the Royal Air Force
Marshal of the Royal Air Force (MRAF) is the highest rank in the UK's Royal Air Force (RAF). In peacetime it was granted to RAF officers in the appointment of Chief of the Defence Staff (United Kingdom), Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), and to ...
Sir Michael James Beetham, and it was opened by him on 13 May 2002.
Aircraft currently in storage or long-term restoration include:
*
Handley Page Hampden
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 ...
*
LVG C.VI
*
Dornier Do 17
The Dornier Do 17 is a twin-engined light bomber designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Dornier Flugzeugwerke. Large numbers were operated by the ''Luftwaffe'' throughout the Second World War.
The Do 17 was designed during ...
See also
*
List of aerospace museums
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Ellis, Ken. ''Wrecks and Relics – 19th Edition'', Midland Publishing, Hinckley, Leicestershire. 2004.
External links
RAF Museum websiteRAF Museum photo websitePhoto galleries of aircraft at the RAF Museum and a virtual tour of RAF CosfordThe National Cold War ExhibitionChurchill: Never in the field of human conflict – UK Parliament Living Heritage
{{Authority control
History of the Royal Air Force
Military aviation museums in England
Museums in Shropshire
Museums established in 1979
National museums of England
Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)
Charities based in London
1979 establishments in England
Cold War museums in the United Kingdom