de Havilland Aircraft Museum Facts for Kids

de Havilland Aircraft Museum

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Former name	Mosquito Aircraft Museum de Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre
Established	1959 (1959)
Location	London Colney, Hertfordshire, UK
Type	Aviation museum

The de Havilland Aircraft Museum is a cool place in London Colney, Hertfordshire, England. It's run by amazing volunteers! This museum used to be called the de Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre.

It's home to the very first de Havilland Mosquito plane, and it's also where they fix up old planes. You can also see several de Havilland Vampire planes here. The Vampire was one of the first jet planes ever flown! This museum is the biggest one in the UK focused on planes from just one company.

History of the Museum
What You Can See
See also

History of the Museum

Salisbury Hall's Story

Salisbury Hall

The land where the museum stands has been home to big houses since the 800s. The house you see today was built around 1668. King Charles II and Nell Gwynne, a famous actress, used to visit here.

Many different people owned the house over the years, including farmers. Around 1905, Winston Churchill's mother lived here, and young Winston often came to visit.

In the 1930s, Sir Nigel Gresley lived at Salisbury Hall. He designed amazing steam trains for the London and North Eastern Railway. One of his trains, the Mallard, still holds the world speed record for steam locomotives at 126 miles per hour! People believe the train was named after the ducks in the moat at Salisbury Hall.

In September 1939, during World War II, the de Havilland Aircraft Company moved its Mosquito design team into Salisbury Hall. The very first Mosquito plane, called E0234/W4050, was built in buildings next to the Hall. These buildings are not there anymore.

Another company, Airspeed Ltd, also had a design team here. They worked on planes behind Salisbury Hall. These buildings were also taken down later. Part of where the Airspeed building used to be is now covered by the new Geoffrey de Havilland Hangar.

Nell Gwynne's old cottage on the property was once a silk worm farm. It even supplied silk for the Queen's wedding and Coronation robes!

After de Havilland left in 1947, Salisbury Hall became very run down.

Saving the Prototype Mosquito

When Walter Goldsmith, a retired army major, bought Salisbury Hall, he found out de Havilland had used it during the war. He contacted Bill Baird, who worked for de Havilland. Bill told him that the company had used the Hall to design the Mosquito. Bill had secretly saved the original prototype Mosquito from being destroyed.

Bill was very happy to find someone who could give the old plane a home. De Havilland did some basic repairs on the plane. In 1959, Goldsmith brought the prototype Mosquito back to Salisbury Hall.

This prototype Mosquito was the first aircraft shown at Salisbury Hall. Later, in 1968, de Havilland Vampire and de Havilland Venom planes joined the collection. In 1970, another de Havilland Mosquito arrived. This one had been used in the film Mosquito Squadron.

The museum grew even more! By 1978, it had a single-seat Vampire, Sea Venom, Sea Vixen, Chipmunk, and Dove planes. In 1976, the body (fuselage) of a Mosquito FB6 arrived. It's now the only one of its kind left in Europe. The museum also has the front part (fuselage) of the last de Havilland Comet 1 with square windows. The Comet 1 was the world's first jet airliner!

Recent Years

The museum's supporters' society has done a lot of work to fix up and take care of the planes. They started with the Chipmunk in 1978. They even built a hangar in 1980 to house the Mosquito from Liverpool. They completely restored that plane by 1990. The supporters have also worked on many other planes like the Tiger Moth, Hornet Moth, Heron, and several Vampires.

In 2001, everyone realized the prototype Mosquito needed a lot of work to save it. BAE Systems and the Heritage Lottery Fund helped pay for this. The prototype Mosquito was finished being restored in December 2015. This was almost exactly 75 years after it was first built! You can now see it with the other two Mosquitos in the Walter Goldsmith Hangar.

In January 2016, the museum opened a new building called the Geoffrey de Havilland Hangar. This hangar was later renamed the Amy Johnson Hangar. It's now used as a workshop where visitors can watch volunteers working on museum projects.

The museum opened another new building, the Sir Geoffrey de Havilland Hangar, in February 2020.

What You Can See

Aircraft on Display

DH.82 Tiger Moth, G-ANRX, with crop spraying equipment

DH.98 Mosquito prototype

Comet 2 flight deck

DH.104 Dove 8

Airspeed Horsa I/II BAPC.232 – Part of a fuselage
British Aerospace 146-100 G-JEAO – Only the fuselage
Cierva C.24 G-ABLM – On loan from the Science Museum
de Havilland DH.53 Humming Bird J7326 – Only the fuselage
de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth G-ANRX
de Havilland DH.82 Queen Bee LF789 – Only the fuselage
de Havilland DH.87 Hornet Moth G-ADOT
de Havilland DH.88 Comet G-ACSR – A replica
de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito FB.VI TA122/TW233
de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito TT(B)35 TA634
de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB.6 J-1008
de Havilland DH.103 Hornet VX250 – The tail section
de Havilland DH.104 Dove 8 G-AREA
de Havilland DH.106 Comet 1A F-BGNX – Only the fuselage
de Havilland DH.106 Comet 1A G-ANAV – The nose section
de Havilland DH.106 Comet C.2(R) XK695 – The cockpit section
de Havilland DH.106 Comet 2 – The nose section
de Havilland DH.110 Sea Vixen FAW.2 XJ565
de Havilland DH.114 Heron G-AOTI
de Havilland DH.115 Vampire T.11 XJ772
de Havilland DH.125 Series 1 G-ARYC
de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk T.10 WP790
Hawker Siddeley HS.121 Trident 2E G-AVFH

Aircraft in Storage

de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito TT.35 TJ118 – Fuselage, with nose section removed.
de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB.5 VV217
de Havilland DH.104 Dove 6 D-IFSB – On loan to ARG Fishburn
de Havilland DH.112 Venom FB.4 WR539
de Havilland DH.112 Venom FB.50 J-1632
de Havilland DH.112 Venom FB.54 J-1790
de Havilland DH.112 Venom NF.3 WX853
de Havilland DH.113 Vampire NF.10 WM729 – Fuselage pod only
de Havilland DH.125 Jet Dragon G-ARYA – Cockpit section only

Aircraft Being Restored

These planes are currently being fixed up by the museum's team:

de Havilland DH.89A Dragon Rapide G-AKDW
de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito I W4050
de Havilland DH.112 Sea Venom FAW.22 XG730

Engines on Display

One of two Gyron Juniors on display

Piston Engines (older style engines)

de Havilland Gipsy
de Havilland Gipsy Major
de Havilland Gipsy Minor
de Havilland Gipsy Queen
de Havilland Gipsy Twelve
Rolls-Royce Merlin

Gas Turbine Engines (jet engines)

de Havilland Ghost
de Havilland Goblin
de Havilland Gyron
de Havilland Gyron Junior
Rolls-Royce Gnome

Rocket Engines

de Havilland Super Sprite
de Havilland Spectre

de Havilland Aircraft Museum facts for kids

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