UK Aviation Museums Menu:
The Jet Age Museum is located on the north side of Gloucestershire Airport, formerly Staverton Airport.
The museum is themed on the early development of Jet aircraft, in particular the role played by the Gloster Aircraft Company and other local firms such as Dowty Rotol and Smiths Industries.
History
The organisation was formed in 1986 and established as a company limited by guarantee. The museum first opened to the public at the Gloucester Trading Estate, the former Brockworth aerodrome and amassed a collection of aircraft.
The museum's first significant public opening began with a temporary exhibition in a hangar adjacent to Gloucestershire Airport. This was closed in 2000 after it was announced the former wartime hangar was to be demolished. The aircraft collection were then dispersed to a number of locations around Gloucestershire. A workshop was established at Brockworth Court and the remaining airframes eventually made their way back to Gloucestershire Airport, where they remained in open storage.
Plans to construct a building at Gloucestershire Airport for the collection were submitted and they were approved in January 2011. The museum opened provisionally from 24 August 2013. It has continued to open at weekends, and added further exhibits to the 30m x 36m exhibition hall, which also has a cafe and shop area.
The jet engine was designed by British engineering genius Sir Frank Whittle (1907-1996). His son Ian is a patron of Jet Age Museum.
Britain's first jet plane, the Gloster E28/39, powered by Whittle's revolutionary invention, first left the ground on 8 April 1941 at the Gloster factory-airfield between Gloucester and Cheltenham. The original aeroplane can be seen in London's Science Museum. Jet Age Museum volunteers have built a full-size replica which is proudly on display.
Other aircraft, engines and exhibits, make interesting viewing in the display hall, while the the museum's outstanding document and photographic archive, are now housed in a purpose built facility.
|
