Me109 to star at RAF Cosford
Famous fighter planes are coming to the RAF Cosford Museum as part of preparations for the centenary of the Royal Air Force in 2018.
A series of new arrivals will be brought in before the end of the year, an announcement which is sure to delight enthusiasts.
They include the last surviving example of a Wolverhampton-built Boulton Paul Defiant Mk 1 and a rare Messerschmitt BF109G-2, which was part of the Luftwaffe's fearsome armoury.
Others that will be making a landing in Shropshire are a Junkers JU 88R-1, a sub-type of the most versatile German combat aircraft of the Second World War, and the Gloster Gladiator 1, the first bi-plane to feature and enclosed cockpit and the last fighter introduced into RAF service.
After being reassembled, all four aircraft will go on public display in the museum's War in the Air hangar.
The de Havilland Tiger Moth II, one of the world's most famous training aircraft which provided the majority of RAF pilots with their elementary flying training during the Second World War, will also be coming to Cosford.
The Tiger Moth will be displayed next to the de Havilland Chipmunk and Scottish Aviation Bulldog T Mk 1 in Hangar 1. In addition, the Westland Lysander III, the only surviving Special Duties variant of this aircraft – which were used to ferry allied agents in and out of enemy occupied Europe – will be heading to the museum's Conservation Centre for an in depth inspection and condition assessment. The planes will be moving to Cosford from the RAF Museum in London.
Curators were keen to spread the story of the RAF across the country in the building up to its 100th anniversary in 2018.
It will be the largest single influx of new aircraft at Cosford since the National Cold War Exhibition building was opened in 2007.
Ian Thirsk, head of collections at the RAF Museum, said: "The museum's centenary plans have provided an exciting opportunity to relocate significant aircraft in the collection closer to our Midlands audience.
"I'm particularly delighted that our Boulton Paul Defiant, an aircraft with such strong local links to Wolverhampton, will be going on public display at Cosford for the first time."
