Imperial War Museum Duxford

Boyhood dreams came true. Spent over 6 hours here and still had to miss things out. Loved touring the hangers of all those iconic aircraft. Was able to walk inside a test version of concorde.
Even met and chatted with an ex pilot of a Lancaster who flew during WWII. Seeing Spitfires up close was the highlight for me. So want to visit on an airshow day.

There is no way this hasn’t been reviewed on Unilocal before. Un-​possible. But okay, I’ll give it a shot.
Duxford was my first stop in England, in Europe in fact. Straight off the plane, my friends graciously hauled my jet-​lagged carcass to an air museum. Yes, I’m a history nerd and an airplane geek. They said they had fun and were glad to go, but I’m sure they never considered going there before. For me, though, it was something I’d been looking forward to for months. And it was even more interesting than I’d expected.
Located on a former airbase, and housed in 8 varied buildings (many old hangars, a few new buildings,) this place is astounding. Worth a whole day; we spent an afternoon, and I’d go back tomorrow. You start off in the AirSpace building, containing important British aircraft from WW1 up to the present day (and not limited to military planes– there’s a Concorde prototype, etc.) Take a map– you’ll need one– and move on to the other buildings, grouped by era and type. A flying/​restoration hangar, Battle of Britain one, the American Air Museum, even a land warfare collection. All well arranged, well preserved, well lit, with detailed captions. I loved every minute of it, even though I hadn’t slept in 30+ hours.
They were giving (selling, I’m sure) rides in Tiger Moths; it was a pretty cool, blustery day though, and I’ve been up in an open cockpit biplane, so I passed. There are a few aircraft outside, but most are well-​protected.