Brilliant museum with lots of indoor exhibits. Even on a dull day there's plenty to see, plus the opportunity to get inside a Vulcan.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59674292@N ... 7193327914

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Great set of photos. I am aiming to visit the museum on 26th July.

Thanks gerry. I'm sure you'll have a great time. And if it does rain there's that big old Vulcan to shelter under.

Regards alan.

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I got there on the 27th July as my birthday treat to myself. My wife just could not resist coming with me and sharing in the joy of seeing all that military hardware. There was pretty much clear blue sky so great for taking outdoor photos. I got there at 9.55 to beat the rush, as I explained to the lady at the ticket office. She assured me that it was likely to be a very busy day and that there had been at least one hundred visitors on the previous day.

The indoor collection is kept in an excellent and pristine condition, so hats off to the museum workers for that.  The outdoor exhbits, like too many other outdoor exhibits, are mostly in a very sorry state. Aircraft were not built to sit in hangars, but when I see the state of decay that aircraft get into when left out of doors, I do get annoyed.

Getting enough money to run a museum such as this must be a major headache. I did wonder if a little more could be done to extend the appeal of experience, i.e. to those beyond the 'anoraks' such as myself who are happy to stand and take photos. There was little if anything for children to do. There was nothing to touch, nothing to play on, nothing with which to interact. There was little of interest for my wife, though she did see a photo of Leonard Cheshire and remarked that he had given her a prize when she was at school. We even saw a DH Heron, an aircraft of the type we flew in to Jersey in 1972. Seeing the Heron now made us wonder what on earth had possessed us for flying across the English Channel in one. Even the small cafe contained little that one might call a treat, though we were grateful that it was there.  

There are some splendid models, e.g. a collection of Canberras and V-bombers. I was less impressed with most of the others - sorry about that.

There is a good selection of model kits, books and other aviation bits on sale in the shop. There were even a few old vacforms including an Contrail TSR2 - unfortunately, it was overpriced at £20 and besides, I already have one.  

But all in all, it's well worth a visit and within the limited resources that I suspect are available, it's as good as one might expect. In a location such as this, i.e. the heart of bomber country, it's something that needs to be there, even if the collection of aircraft is somewhat random. Whether one or two aircraft museums in the general area would be better the area (East Yorkshire as well), is a different question.