Национальный музей авиации Шотландии в Ист-Фортуне

Museum in East Fortune, Scotland

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.

The collections date back to 1909 when the Royal Scottish Museum acquired Percy Pilcher's Hawk glider. This was the first aircraft collected by any museum in the United Kingdom. The same year the museum acquired models of the Wright Model A and Blériot XI. During the early 1920s several aero engines were added to the collection, including a 1910 33 hp Wright engine donated by Orville Wright. In 1968 a Slingsby Gull sailplane was acquired. In 1971 the museum was given a Supermarine Spitfire XVI by the Ministry of Defence. This could not be displayed in Edinburgh and was stored in a hangar at East Fortune. The following year a Hawker Sea Hawk, de Havilland Sea Vampire and de Havilland Sea Venom were received from RNAS Lossiemouth. The growth in the aircraft collection led to the decision to open a Museum of Flight at East Fortune, with the public admitted for the first time on 7 July 1975. The displays included several aircraft on loan, including de Havilland Dragon Rapide (G ADAH), BA Swallow (G AEVZ) and Fairey Delta 2 WG774. In 1979 a temporary exhibition about the R34 airship was mounted, followed by Fighters of the RFC and RAF, 1914 to 1940 the following year. The 1981 temporary exhibition was The Flight of Rudolf Hess 1941. The museum expanded significantly in 1981 as a result of the sale by auction of much of the Strathallan Collection of aircraft. The museum purchased five aircraft (Bristol Fairchild Bolingbroke, de Havilland Dragon, de Havilland Puss Moth, General Aircraft Cygnet and Percival Provost). Of these, the Cygnet and Provost were the first aircraft to make their final flights to join the museum. That same year, the de Havilland Comet also flew in to the museum,

This hangar is not always open to visitors, however tours are offered by the museum regularly and contains many aircraft either in storage or receiving conservation work. Aircraft currently in storage include a Blackburn Buccaneer S.2B, McDonnell Douglas F 4S Phantom II (Previously an F 4J), a Vickers Viscount (currently disassembled), a Hawker Siddeley Nimrod forward section, a Fieseler Fi 156 Storch, and a Percival Provost T.1. Other notable items in storage include an Avro Blue Steel Standoff Nuclear Missile (previously positioned outside next to the Avro Vulcan), a Blue Streak Missile, and the Nose Wheel from a Bristol Brabazon.

Aircraft on display include the Spitfire, Bolingbroke, Meteor, Tornado and Jaguar, as well as the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet flown by Captain Eric Brown. Other objects on display include one of the Daimler Benz DB 601 engines from the Messerschmitt Bf 110 flown to Scotland by Rudolf Hess, a Bristol Pegasus engine displayed alongside a Harrier jump jet, a Rolls Royce Avon turbojet displayed next to a Lightning. There is a display of air to air weapons, including an M1918 Savage Lewis machine gun, a Browning 0.303 inch machine gun, a Hispano Suiza 20mm cannon, an AIM 7 Sparrow air to air missile, and air to ground weapons including a flechette, a Target indicator and a Fritz X guided bomb.

Aircraft on display include many with Scottish connections, such as the Twin Pioneer built by Scottish Aviation at Prestwick, a Britten Norman Islander in the colours of the Scottish Air Ambulance Service, A Beech 18 in the colours of Loganair and a Druine Turbulent built in a house in Airdrie. Other aircraft on display include a de Havilland Tiger Moth, a de Havilland Dragon, an Avro Anson, a de Havilland Dove and a General Aircraft Cygnet, notable for having been flown by Guy Gibson, the commander of No. 617 Squadron of the RAF and the leader of the Dambusters Raid in 1943.

This is the main display hangar and contains "The Concorde Experience" and "The Jet Age" exhibitions. "The Concorde Experience" includes a walk through and around the aircraft (with an accompanying audio guide available), an audio visual presentation about the history of G BOAA, and an exhibition about the history of Concorde with prototype and production Rolls Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 engines, aircraft seats and numerous small objects. "The Jet Age" includes a stack of engines, showing the development of the jet engine and how this drove the growth of commercial aviation. The engines displayed here are a de Havilland Ghost turbojet, a Rolls Royce Avon turbojet, a Rolls Royce Conway turbofan, a Rolls Royce Spey turbofan, a Rolls Royce RB211 turbofan and a General Electric CF6 turbofan. In 2018, A BAE Systems Hawk T.1A, XX308, was moved into Hangar 4 and put on permanent display. This aircraft is notable for being a former Red Arrows aircraft, and was one of 9 planes flown in formation with a Concorde over the Scottish Parliament building on 1 July 1999 to commemorate the opening of the Parliament for the first time.

Additional permanent exhibitions were opened in recent years in other wartime buildings on the site, with a hands on interactive gallery about flight called "Fantastic Flight" and another dealing with the history of the site called "Fortunes of War". There is also a restored parachute packing building, called "The Parachute Store". Other buildings house various exhibits including a Green Goddess, and an AEC Matador used by the RAF in Malta.

The museum holds an annual air show every July, usually on the third Saturday of the month. The airshow on 25 July 2015 was the eighteenth to be held. Other events are run throughout the year. These include Wartime Experience held in May and Wheels and Wings, a transport event held in September.