Wight Aviation Museum in Sandown is to reopen this weekend with new displays, including virtual flights around the Island!
Throughout the cold, dark and wet winter months, the Wight Aviation Museum (WAM) team have been very busy sprucing up the exhibits and adding new displays so that, the Wight Aviation Museum, is now ready for its 2023 Season Opening on Saturday 1st April and Sunday 2nd April 2023.
Not only are there displays of aviation and heritage artefacts in the museum, but also importantly we will be telling the stories of real people, such as Robert Lorraine, who was a famous actor and aviator, reputedly, the first person to land an aircraft on the Isle of Wight and also Mary Ellis, the well known World War II pilot who flew Spitfires and many other types of aircraft with the ATA (Air Transport Auxiliary) and who later became “Commandant” Manager of Sandown Airport for many years.
As well as the existing displays at the museum, which include ‘The Early Years of Wight Aviation’, ‘The Princess Flying Boat’ (considered to be the largest flying boat ever built, and built by the Island’s famous aviation designers and builders Saunders Roe in Cowes), ‘The Anatomy of a Spitfire’, looking at the design and construction of Britain’s most iconic WWII fighter plane and a large scale model of a Spitfire, to be seen fittingly above the Mary Ellis display, there are some new displays for the 2023 Season.
There is a display on Radar History demonstrating how the Ventnor Radar Station was part of the Chain Home which was a vital part of Britain’s defence system during WWII. There is a Britten-Norman display featuring the BN Islander; Britain’s best selling commercial aircraft and a much improved GKN display (the successors of Saunders-Roe) showing the development of aircraft manufactured on the Island and the parts on modern aircraft still in production today.
By far the largest new display is a real Skeeter helicopter, built by Saunders-Roe in Cowes in the 1950s as a 2-seat training and scout helicopter. The WAM Skeeter Team have carefully and accurately restored the helicopter for display!
Kay Marriott JP, High Sheriff of the Isle of Wight will be welcomed this Sunday as a special guest of the museum in order to cut the ribbon and formally open the 2023 Season.
