Imperial War Museum - Aviation - Duxford

Had a mooch out to Cambridge yesterday to visit the IWM at Duuxford, I have been meaning to go for sometime so yesterday I finally made it. Just thought I'd recommend it to you at WATMM HQ, if you are thinking of going be sure to.

Have to say the icing on the cake was the American hanger, after seeing English Electrics, Concorde, Sea Kings, DoodleBugs, Tonadoes, Marine Spitfires etc etc and then walking into a room (which in itself was pretty awesome) And walking in head on to a B52 Stratofortress was awe inspiring, plus the mindblowing Blackbird and A-10, and U2, F-111, and Tomahawks heheh etc etc..

Wow what a cool place. Finished up in Cambridge supping fine ales too. The only downer was the few hours I had to spend on public transport with a dead mp3 player lol.

yer it good isn't it. so many tanks!!!

I grew up not too far from there. I wanted to be a pilot when I was a kid, so it was pretty magical for me too. I used to love getting into the cockpits of the planes.

It's a bit weird admiring so many vehicles of doom. Some poor people have been on recieving end of most of those planes, so it's a bit strange having a nice day calmly taking it all. Still awesome though.

Yeah, there's a bit of cognitive dissonance there - I'm about as anti-war as anybody can be - but planes are just cool, military or civilian.

pics!

Like Iain C I grew up quite close to Duxford and so went there several times on school trips. It's a cool place.

  On 9/26/2012 at 1:47 PM, Iain C said:

I grew up not too far from there. I wanted to be a pilot when I was a kid, so it was pretty magical for me too. I used to love getting into the cockpits of the planes.

me too, also grew up close to this...been many times over the years. last time was 2010 with my old man I think.

my favorit is the blackbird and the concord!

East Anglia WATMM reprezent.

  On 9/26/2012 at 3:31 PM, jhonny said:

East Anglia WATMM reprezent.

We're here, we're queer, we have webbed toes and drink warm beer.

  On 9/26/2012 at 3:40 PM, Iain C said:

  On 9/26/2012 at 3:31 PM, jhonny said:

East Anglia WATMM reprezent.

 

 

We're here, we're queer, we have webbed toes and drink warm beer.

LOL

To be fair I'm from Essex, not really EA but I like you guys.

wasn't born there but moved to Ramsey, Cambridgeshire when I was 5, have lived in Warboys, Baston, Market Deeping (woop woop!), Peterborough and Stamford before finally getting the fuck out of there about 7 years ago...

[youtubehd]OlbgtjvISzo[/youtubehd]

I'm still astounded that there's a place called Warboys. Warboys.

lol it's a quality name... about the most interesting thing about the place is the Witches of Warboys trial hundreds of years ago. that and the drug problem anyway.

but when I was 13 I thought it was the best place ever...learned all my naughty ways there. stole a van at 13 with 4 other lads and drove it to Cambridge at 1am or something. nearly all died multiple times. got into weed there, booze, baggy jeans and rave music....aaah memories...

Mr Amar is a very nice man/

This is now an East Anglia / Fenland thread

Frank Perkins Parkway

Spalding. Guyhirn. Whittlesey.

Gosberton. Tongue End. Langtoft. It's grim in the East.

  On 9/26/2012 at 3:40 PM, Iain C said:

  On 9/26/2012 at 3:31 PM, jhonny said:

East Anglia WATMM reprezent.

 

 

We're here, we're queer, we have webbed toes and drink warm beer.

I actually do have webbed toes and often drink warm beer....

I'm from just outside London though so, I dunno??

  On 9/26/2012 at 1:20 PM, beerwolf said:

Have to say the icing on the cake was the American hanger, after seeing English Electrics, Concorde, Sea Kings, DoodleBugs, Tonadoes, Marine Spitfires etc etc and then walking into a room (which in itself was pretty awesome) And walking in head on to a B52 Stratofortress was awe inspiring, plus the mindblowing Blackbird and A-10, and U2, F-111, and Tomahawks heheh etc etc..

It's quite remarkable that they were able to land the B-52 at Duxford:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSIGd6COFb8

As a big aviation and military buff I can easily say Duxford is my favorite museum. The closest thing to Duxford in terms of overall collection is the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio which has quite a few one-of-a kind X-planes, most notably the XB-70...

Do they still have the tank collection and that random tube from the super-gun Saddam was allegedly building? I went there in 2001 - just curious if they changed the layout at all.

  On 9/26/2012 at 2:57 PM, beerwolf said:

It's a bit weird admiring so many vehicles of doom. Some poor people have been on recieving end of most of those planes, so it's a bit strange having a nice day calmly taking it all. Still awesome though.

It's even stranger when your parent was in the USAF - I was born at RAF Lakenheath in 1986 and lived there again in 1999 for a couple of years. So this thread is particularly relevant to me personally.

That b52 is one hell of a plane.

  On 9/26/2012 at 5:27 PM, BCM said:

wasn't born there but moved to Ramsey, Cambridgeshire

Do you remember the Grand cinema? it was demolished a couple of years ago and is now a crap library.

thay also built a massive tesco.

Stewards hardware of warboys has shut too.