The Wings Museum is an aviation museum located in Sussex, United Kingdom. It is housed in a 12,000 square feet (1,100 m2) hangar-like former farm building in Brantridge Lane, between Handcross and Balcombe. The museum displays mainly World War II-related flying memorabilia and equipment which have been donated,[1][2] or which have been recovered and restored by volunteers.[3]
.jpg) Wings Museum entrance on Brantridge Lane | |
 | |
| Location | Balcombe, West Sussex |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 51°03′37″N 0°10′06″W / 51.0603°N 0.1684°W |
| Type | Aviation museum |
| Website | www |
History
editThe museum was originally located at Redhill Aerodrome.[4] By 2011 it had relocated to Brantridge Lane.[5]
In 2013, the museum hosted a fundraiser for the upkeep of the Bomber Command Memorial in nearby Green Park.[6][7]
In 2015, volunteers restored a Bristol Beaufighter Mk1f which had crashed 75 years earlier.[8]
Aircraft collection
editVisitors to the museum can walk inside a complete fuselage from a Douglas C-47 Dakota which was used on D-Day[9] and later during the filming of the television series Band of Brothers.[10]
There are some very rare aircraft from World War II and some of them are the only ones of their type in the UK.
Turbine engine aircraft
edit- Hawker Siddeley Kestrel XS694 (under restoration and parts in storage)
Piston engine aircraft
edit- North American B-25J-25-NC 44-30861 (under restoration)
- Bell P-63 King cobra - 43-11137 (under restoration);[11] the museum has five more in storage
- Douglas A-20 Boston (displayed as found)
- Nakajima B5N2 Kate (very large fuselage and wing section)
- Douglas C-47 Dakota (fuselage from Band of Brothers)
- Hawker Hurricane (wreck)[12]
- Handley Page Hampden TB.1 P1273 (wreck)
Aircraft cockpits
edit- Douglas A-26 Invader 43-22649
- Bristol Beaufighter 1f[13]
- Curtis Helldiver SB2C-5 (in storage)
- Jet Provost XM486 (in storage)
- English Electric Canberra (in storage)
- De Havilland Chipmunk WD377
- North American B-25 Mitchell
Simulators
edit- Link trainer
Piston engines
edit- Rolls-Royce Merlin ×5 (one running as a living memorial)
- Junkers Jumo 211
- Daimler Benz 610
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "War hero’s memorabilia donated to Wings Museum in Balcombe". 26 April 2014
- ^ Chris Ransted (19 September 2013). Disarming Hitlerês V Weapons: Bomb Disposal, the V1 and V2 rockets. Pen and Sword. pp. 62–. ISBN 978-1-4738-2967-1.
- ^ "More Details Emerge About Wartime Military Aircraft Crash". The Guilford Dragon.
- ^ "Wartime bomb discovered at Woodhatch pub to be displayed in museum". Surrey Mirror April 17, 2016
- ^ Alexis Catsambis; Ben Ford; Donny L. Hamilton (8 September 2011). The Oxford Handbook of Maritime Archaeology. OUP USA. pp. 1002–. ISBN 978-0-19-537517-6.
- ^ "VIDEO: Bomber Command veterans raise hundreds for Green Park memorial". Mid Sussex Times, 10 April 2013.
- ^ "Wings reunion for Bomber Boys". ITV News, 9 April 2013
- ^ "Nostalgia: Remembering Second World War fighter pilots killed in crash". Surrey Mirror, November 01, 2015.
- ^ John Grehan; Martin Mace (2012). Battleground Sussex. Casemate Publishers. pp. 198–. ISBN 978-1-84884-661-6.
- ^ "Tyre from a wartime bomber surfaces after 74 watery years". Mid Sussex Times, 8 March 2014
- ^ "The Wings Museum’s Bell P-63C Kingcobra Restoration", Warbirds News, November 1, 2013
- ^ Gordon Riley (19 October 2015). Hawker Hurricane Survivors. Grub Street Publishing. pp. 97–. ISBN 978-1-910690-79-6.
- ^ "BRISTOL BEAUFIGHTER NEWS". AirSoc, 31 Aug 2015
External links
edit
Media related to Wings Museum (Sussex) at Wikimedia Commons