Month: September 2023

Categories
General

Procedure for BAM free car parking-enter your car reg on the pad by the reception desk on first entry

New car parking arrangements have been introduced at  Adventure Wonderland and Bournemouth Aviation Museum. This is to enable some of the excess car parking spaces on the large site to be utilized for short/long-term parking for passengers/friends from Bournemouth airport. The areas are clearly signposted so please make sure if you are visiting the Aviation Museum you park in the correct area.

All visitors to the Aviation Museum still have access to free car parking, but you must follow this procedure:

When first entering the museum, at the reception/cash desk you MUST enter your car registration on the tablet pad by the front door. This is to ensure that the car parking company is notifed that you are a museum visitor and eligible for free car parking. Failure to do this will result in that company making a penalty charge against you. Please note that the car parking company is not part of BAM and we have no control over any parking disputes.

Categories
Exhibits

Royal Navy Hawker Hunter arrives at the museum

A new addition to the museum’s collection of Royal Navy aircraft has arrived. The Hawker Hunter T8 WT722 was originally built as a type F4 and first flew on 4th February 1955. She was delivered to the RAF on 25th May 1955 and served with 54(F) and 26(F) Squadrons. In 1957 she was sold back to Hawkers who then converted the aircraft to a type T.8 before she was delivered to the Royal Navy in April 1959.

WT722 then served with 703 and 764 Naval Air Squadrons at RNAS Lossiemouth, and 759 NAS at Brawdy. In 1970, she was moved to RNAS Yeovilton and into service with the Air Direction Training Unit (ADTU). The aircraft was eventually retired from flying in 1994 after accumulating a total of 9,500 flying hours and 12,500 landings. Eventually she ended up at Newquay as part of the Cornwall Aviation Heritage Collection  2015, where she remained until the CAHC was forced to close in spring 2023. Thankfully, WT722 was bought by Bournemouth Aviation Museum where she arrived in early August 2023 and is now on display at the front entrance. In due course we hope to restore the aircraft to her former glory with a refurbishment and new paint job – watch this space.