Look up in the blue and you may see a B-17 Flying Fortress, a P-51 Mustang or a P-47 Thunderbolt flying overhead.
They’re no mirages. They’re real airplanes, a throwback to the World War II days of the early 1940s.
What are they doing in 1998?
The planes are flyable old American warbirds complementing exhibits inside the new American Air Museum here, 50 miles north of London. Dedicated last summer by Queen Elizabeth II, the museum houses more American military aircraft than any other such facility outside the United States.
More than 60,000 Americans contributed to the building of the museum, which is part of the Imperial War Museum Duxford, the largest aviation museum in Europe. Among the contributors were actor Charlton Heston, a former B-25 crew member who served as fund-raiser co-chairman; the late actor Jimmy Stewart, who flew a number of missions from Britain during World War II; and the late Gen. Jimmy Doolittle of Tokyo raid fame, who went on to command the 8th Air Force. Heston, together with U.S. Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall, attended the opening ceremony.
Under the American Air Museum’s soaring dome are 21 United States airplanes, ranging from a World War I Spad to the Gulf War’s F-111, plus missiles, launchers, engines, and even a piece of the Berlin Wall. Parked outside, when not flying, are the Flying Fortress, the Mustang, Thunderbolt and several other aircraft that are privately owned but complement the museum’s collection.
For anyone with an interest in military aircraft — or in America’s England-based air forces — the displays here are a conduit to the past.
Many of the aircraft date to the World War II years, when thousands of American aviators flew from 100 British airfields to attack Nazi targets.
Most familiar to today’s visitors is a B-17 Flying Fortress, the workhorse of America’s 8th Air Force, based in England during the war. A B-25 Mitchell medium bomber is shown in Marine Corps colors. The C-47 Skytrain transport on display saw action on D-Day. Several fighters from World War II, including a P-47 and a P-51, are on exhibit, along with the greatest bomber of the Pacific theater, a B-29 Superfortress.
Aircraft used in more recent wars also are on display. America’s first swept-wing fighter, the F-86 Sabre that fought in the Korean War, is one. From the Vietnam conflict come an F-100 Super Sabre, a F4 Phantom and a Huey helicopter. An F-111 that flew 19 Desert Storm missions sits not far from another Gulf War veteran, an A-10 Thunderbolt.
Dominating the entire display is a B-52 Stratofortress, the huge long-range bomber that went on line in 1955 and remains in service today. Suspended above it, appropriately, is a U-2, a high-flying spy plane that precipitated an international incident when the Soviet Union shot one down over its territory at the height of the Cold War. The one on display here flew over China on reconnaissance missions for the CIA.
Shaped like a nose cone, the $20 million dome designed by Sir Norman Foster is an architectural tour de force. A viewing ramp circles the inside of the arched structure, whose single-span vault is the largest of its kind in Europe. A 295-foot-wide arc of glass, which can be dismantled to move aircraft in or out of the building, faces the runway of this one-time air base. In front of the museum, a wall of 52 glass panels etched with images of every Britain-based American plane downed in combat — a total of 7,031 — pays tribute to the 30,000 British-based American airmen who died in World War II.
“I was moved,” said Gary Powell, a Connecticut visitor whose father Norman flew in a B-17 based in Britain during World War II. “The museum is brilliantly designed.”
Duxford airfield was an important Royal Air Force fighter base during the Battle of Britain. In 1943, it became an American base, serving as a unit of the U.S. 8th Air Force until the end of the war in 1945.
When not flying missions to the continent during World War II, many crew members would visit nearby Cambridge, where the Eagle Pub became a popular hangout for RAF and American airmen. Many airmen inscribed their names, or those of their squadrons, on the ceiling there, using smoke from candles or lipstick as writing instruments.
Five years ago, when it was undergoing a $1.8 million renovation, the owners decided to preserve that bit of wartime history. The restored ceiling has become an unusual link with the wartime past.
“There’s really nothing like it anywhere,” said Peter Hill, the pub manager.
Among the more celebrated figures on the ceiling is a lipstick drawing of Ethel, the wartime proprietor of the pub, wearing nothing but a cigarette.
Though dozens of aviators put their names on the ceiling, only three, to Hill’s knowledge, have come back to visit the pub. “Jim Mies came in one evening, said he remembered the night he put his name there and went right to it.”
Another recent visitor was Capt. Robert Morgan, pilot of the famed Memphis Belle bomber, whose story was made into a motion picture, The Memphis Belle. During the war, Morgan flew out of nearby Bassingbourn. “He never put his name on the ceiling,” said Hill, “but he had his 79th birthday party here after the dedication (of the museum).”
The saddest story, said Hill, concerns the Wild Hare, a B-17 whose smoky name is one of the clearest on the ceiling. A photo of the crew gathered in front of the plane is framed on the wall of the pub. The Wild Hare was shot down Nov. 26, 1944, and all aboard were lost.
DETAILS ON THE MUSEUM
Getting there: Frequent trains run from London to Cambridge, about an hour away. Round-trip fare is about $22. A long block from the train station there is the stop for the bus (round-trip fare, about $6) that runs to Duxford. Buses run every hour from morning to late afternoon on weekdays, only three times daily on Sundays and holidays. The museum is also reachable by a London-Cambridge bus from London’s Victoria Station. By car, the museum is about an hour from London on A505 just off the M11 motorway.
Admission: Adults, about $11; seniors, about $7; children 5-15, about $5.50.
Information: Imperial War Museum Duxford, Duxford Airfield, Duxford, Cambridge CB2 4QR; 011-44-1223-835-000.
