American Air Museum, Duxford

The American Air Museum sits in a Norman Foster–designed hangar at IWM Duxford, Cambridgeshire. It chronicles a century of US air power through over 30 original combat and support aircraft suspended in dramatic flight poses. Personal objects, interactive multimedia stations and first-person testimonies bring each machine’s story to life, from World War I up to the end of the Cold War.

Facilities include free on-site parking, wheelchair-accessible lifts and toilets, induction-loop hearing assistance, audio guides, the Armoury Café and American Café for snacks and hot drinks, a museum shop, and free cold-water fountains.

Key exhibits are: Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress, Consolidated B-24M Liberator, Boeing B-29A Superfortress (only example in Europe, flew with 7th Bomb Wing in the Korean War), Boeing B-52D Stratofortress (200 Vietnam War sorties, 28th Bomb Wing), Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, North American P-51 Mustang, Douglas C-47 Skytrain (316th Troop Carrier Group; Normandy, Market Garden, Operation Varsity), North American F-86 Sabre, Lockheed U-2, Convair F-102 Delta Dagger, McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, Bell UH-1H Iroquois (Huey), Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird (Serial 61-7962, only one displayed outside U.S., altitude record of 85,069 ft in 1976), Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, Lockheed C-130 Hercules, Boeing CH-47 Chinook, General Dynamics F-111E Aardvark (19 missions in 1991 Gulf War with 77th Fighter Squadron), McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.

Photo credit: Falcon® Photography