Hendon, now a suburb in the north western part of London, is accessible by public transportation (a tube and bus ride). Since we were staying in Putney (think South West London), we decided to take public transportation.
Mistake number one.
An hour and 15 minute public transportation trip took over 3 hours (weekend track work on the line). That, together with a late start, a wife and high school friends who came to chat with the wife but who otherwise did not really want to go to an RAF museum, meant that my time at RAF Hendon was going to be pressed. I decided to try to walk through the museum quickly taking in the displays with a hope of returning to a few select planes. I only managed the quick self-tour since my limited time at Hendon was further cut short when I took for face value a statement from the girls that they were going to plant their butts in the cafeteria and establish a “home base” for all until the place closed. At some point, hours before the place was to close, I went to see them and to get a cup of coffee. I did not get my coffee so I said that I was going out for a smoke and that I’d be back. Well they took the “I’ll be back” statement as a clear declaration that I was going to return right away. But I didn’t. I instead went to the Claude Grahame-White hanger (more about it below).
Mistake number two.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, within 20 minutes or so the girls had convinced themselves that I had become lost and they organized a search party and fanned the kids out across the museum. When my 10 year old “found” me, some 40 minutes later, (I was returning to the cafeteria “home base”) you would have thought that she had just found Amelia Earhart. Soon afterwards I was debriefed in the sense that I stood mostly silent in the middle of a semi-circle of now relieved frantic “rescuers” who pointedly in turn expressed their disbelief at my selfishness at wandering off and getting lost. I was twelve again. Off-line wife ack with accompanying sympathetic supporting fire from girlfriends is brutal. I’ve been treated better in a shallow dive on an enemy CV with two battle ships in a P40-N.
Somewhere, in all of that, is mistake number three.
Back to the RAF Museum at Hendon.
Hendon was the site of many important developments during the very early days of flight. In fact, the site had been used by balloon enthusiasts and other lighter than air ships prior to 1903. One author, Andrew Renwick, subtitled his book on RAF Hendon as “The Birthplace of Aerial Power” (
http://www.amazon.co.uk/RAF-Hendon-Birt ... 0955426863) a claim which he none-the-less takes back in page two or three of the book. (I read it, a detailed, but far too tedious history of the place.) Hendon became what we might recognize as an Aerodrome around 1908 – 1910 when aircraft manufacturing started there.
The Hendon Aerodrome really took off when Claude Grahame-White located there in 1910 (I think). He started an aircraft manufacturing plant, an air school and held very popular occasional flying demonstrations for the inhabitants of London during the summer. He managed to get a little over 200 acres for hangers, offices, strips (grass) and public stands. I did not realize, until I went to Hendon, that in the early days of flight, pilots (especially civilian) did not usually fly their planes outside of the perimeter of the aerodrome. It meant that you normally had to have a large area to fly around in. BTW: That was one reason why civilian air races between cities were so heavily covered by newspapers and a matter of fascination for the public.
Among the firsts at Hendon:
• Airmail
• Parachute descent from a powered aircraft
• Night flights
• Aerial defense of a city - London. (WWI only. Hendon, surprisingly, was only used as a transportation hub during WWII. No fighters.).
You can read this and more at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendon_AerodromeHow to summarize my thoughts on RAF Hendon? Wow, wow and did I mention WOW! RAF Hendon has about 100 planes on display. With a large, but not the largest, collection of WWII era planes available for viewing. The planes are organized into a number of “hangers” each with its own theme.
I guess one of the more impressive aspects of the museum is how well the planes (and other items such as motorcycles and helicopters) are arranged, displayed and documented. Really a first class museum.
http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/london/Here are some planes that you guys might find interesting. (I’m going to miss a lot of standouts here).
• Bleriot XI
http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/co ... l-riot-xi/
A Bleriot XI monoplane crossed the English Channel in 1909. In my mind, this was symbolically far more important than the first non-stop transatlantic crossing by powered flight. (Which, by the way, we know happened in 1919 when Alcock and Brown flew a Vickers Vimy (
http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/co ... kers-vimy/ from Newfoundland to Ireland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlan ... _and_Brown. I’ve got a rant here, that I could go on about – mostly themed on the topic of how victors write the first draft of history – covering first in flight, crossings and the space race – but I’ll just leave it alone for now.
• de Havilland Tiger Moth II
http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/co ... r-moth-ii/
• Boulton Paul Defiant Mk 1
http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/co ... iant-mk-1/
A number of things caught my eye here. First the name: Defiant! The Brits do so much of a better job naming their trophy weapons of war – think planes and ships – than just about anyone else. As it turns out, during pre-production the maker of the plane along with the British government whipped up a quite a bit of press about how the Defiant was going to own the air. The RAF claimed that it had more fire power than a B-17 (in fact it only had 4 x 0.303 in a rear facing turret). And guess what – anytime a Defiant had to face anything more armed than say a mildly agitated pigeon, it got shot down. About a thousand of these two-seaters were built and most were shot down before someone found the balls to pull them out of direct combat service.
see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulton_Paul_Defiant for more.
• Bristol Beaufighter TFX
http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/co ... ghter-tfx/
• Focke Wulf Fw190A-8/U-1
http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/co ... 90a-8-u-1/
• Heinkel He 162A-2
http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/co ... he-162a-2/
What an interesting plane. Not much bigger than a 163. About 200 He 162s were put into service.
RAF Hendon is someplace I would like to go back to by myself.
That’s it. Out of steam.
