Aviation Heritage UK, the representative organisation for Britain’s aviation museums and collections, has made grants totalling over £44,000 to support 14 member groups with restorations and developments. These grants are made possible through the generous support of AHUK by Airbus Heritage.
Major grants were made to support projects and developments at museums with close direct links to Airbus and its industrial antecedents:
- Aerospace Bristol
- Brooklands Museum
- Royal Air Force Museum
Smaller cash grants were made to 11 other museums and groups:
- Aircraft Preservation Society Scotland, towards its construction of a flying replica of a World War One Sopwith Pup
- Boscombe Down Aviation Collection, for the repainting of its Empire Test Pilots School Hawker Hunter
- Britten Norman Aircraft Preservation Society, for upgrades to its Islander simulator and disabled access
- City of Norwich Aviation Museum, towards creating a meeting and teaching space in its Fokker F27 Friendship
- Museum of Berkshire Aviation; for a pilot project to catalogue, scan, digitize and repackage its glass negative archive
- Norfolk & Suffolk Aviation Museum, towards the restoration of its Bristol Bloodhound missile and launcher
- Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome, for its new exhibition on Zeppelin attacks, Terror From Above
- Trenchard Museum, to provide a new control column for its Supermarine Spitfire simulator
- Ulster Aviation Society, towards new aircraft information display boards
- Whirlwind Fighter Project, to buy new materials and tools for the construction of a replica Westland Whirlwind World War Two fighter
- Wight Aviation Museum, for the construction of a new display case for its large-scale model of the Saunders-Roe SR.A/1 jet-powered flying boat fighter
Commenting on the grants, AHUK Chairman Allan Winn said: “Museums in general - and aviation museums more than most - are working under unprecedented levels of financial pressure, as costs rise inexorably, visitors' discretionary spending power is constantly eroded and many traditional funding streams dry up. In this environment it is immensely gratifying that the sector representative group Aviation Heritage UK, thanks to the generous support of Airbus, is able to provide much-needed funding to the country’s aeronautical museums and collections. These organisations work hard, not only to preserve and interpret great aircraft of the past, but also tell the stories of the people who designed, built and flew them, and to inspire the next generations to reach the heights of their own potential."