So yesterday we went to the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, for several
reasons, most notable amongst which were the Concorde that set the speed
records, and the Blackbird that set the Height and Speed records. Mark had wanted to see the Blackbird since he
first read about it, and here was not only a chance to see a Blackbird, but the
Blackbird.
One swift note to anyone planning on going down there, arrive early,
particularly in the summer holidays, because we arrived around 11:00 and the
queues already looked like this...
And to be honest, it’s not hard to see why, the main focus of the
museum is notably the historic aircraft that have been brought there to be
displayed, but there is also a land exhibit and a sea exhibit, both of them
significantly smaller than the air exhibits, but still with a sufficient amount
of things to be interesting.
The thing about the museum is that it’s there for lovers of aircraft,
and by that, I don’t mean that it’s there for those who like aircraft, or
flying in them. I mean it’s for people
who love the very concept of flying, of being in the air, of dreaming the same
way those people who built these aircrafts dreamed, who wanted to go further,
faster, higher, than any other person had been.
And the same is to be said of the staff who work there, most of them
are volunteers, many of them are the pilots who at one time used to fly the
very planes that are there, still wanting to be near the things that gave them
so much joy and happy to recount the tales of what those machines could do and
the things that never made it to the papers.
It is this that’s the greatest strength of the museum, not the chance to
see the planes that no longer fly, but to hear, first hand, from those who flew
them, of the things that they could do. When
aircraft were so complex that you needed three people to fly them, and none of
them were taking a back seat, you wouldn’t be finding Civilians landing these things...
The planes themselves are spectacular, beyond the dreams of engineers,
these are machines that remind you of the wonders that we can achieve when we
put our mind to it. And so starting with
the simpler things like the single person submarine...
And moving on to such iconic things as the Tiger Tank, which brought about
a round of Kellys Heroes impressions...
The concorde, which will probably have finger marks all the way down
one wing after we had to drag Tiny Wife off it...
And of course, the expression on marks face when finally he came to
look upon the thing that had so long eluded him...
The Blackbird...
Every bit as magnificent as we’d ever considered, and larger than we’d
thought as well, to give you all some consideration, the plane is about half
the length of a jumbo jet, which may not sound too much till you consider that
it’s a jumbo jet that’s supposed to
carry hundreds of passengers. This one
carries one...
And not a very big one...
And a whole lot of fuel...
At least one person remarked that it had such a presence as to have a
personality all it’s own, like it knew that it was the fastest thing that man
had ever built and didn’t want anyone to forget it...
Worth the Five hours of driving just to see that one plane, but there
were regular flybys from Hurricanes and Spitfires (You never forget that noise...),
and access to the hangars where the engineers are still restoring other older
craft. Towards the end of the day
though, we came across something that meant nothing to Mark, but had a great
resonance for me and Jude.
Polaris Missile...
And this for me is the very point of places like this, it’s not just to
remember the things that we did that were good, it’s to remember the things
that we shouldn’t do again, because when we don’t remember the past, we’re
doomed to repeat it.
So, no, it’s not cheap to get in (£17:50 adults), but it is
fascinating, and even from the point of view of someone who doesn’t “Get”
aircraft the way Mark and Jude do, it was an excellent day and one that will be
repeated in the near future...