Lashenden Air Warfare Museum facts for kids

Lashenden Air Warfare Museum is a cool place to visit if you love airplanes and history! It's an aviation museum located at Lashenden (Headcorn) Airfield in Kent, a county in southeast England. This museum shows off many interesting items from different wars, especially World War II, helping visitors understand how air warfare worked.

What You Can See at the Museum

The museum has a fantastic collection of aircraft parts, special vehicles, and other items that tell stories from the past. You can explore many unique exhibits that were important during wartime.

Unique Aircraft and Vehicles

• Fieseler Fi 103R Reichenberg: Imagine a special aircraft that was a piloted version of the famous V-1 flying bomb. This unique plane was designed for a single pilot to guide it. It's a fascinating piece of history that shows how technology developed during the war.
• Focke-Achgelis Fa 330A-1 Gyro-Kite: This isn't a regular kite! It was a small, unpowered aircraft that could be launched from U-boat submarines. Its job was to help the submarine crew see far across the ocean, acting like a high-up lookout. This "gyro-kite" was used for "reconnaissance," which means gathering information by observing.

The Pop-Up Fort

A Pickett-Hamilton Fort at Lashenden Air Warfare Museum. This restored example came from Kent International Airport (RAF Manston). You can see its amazing internal parts!

One of the most interesting exhibits is a Pickett-Hamilton Fort. This was a special type of "pillbox" (a small, strong bunker) used during World War II. What made it unique was that it could pop up from the ground when needed and then lower itself to hide. This particular fort was found and carefully dug up from RAF Manston, an old Royal Air Force base. It has been fully restored so visitors can see how it worked. The museum has set it up so you can even look through a small window to see its clever internal parts!

Other Collections

Beyond the large exhibits, the museum also has a wide range of smaller items. You can see many different aircraft components, which are parts of planes. There are also lots of "memorabilia," which are items kept because they remind people of a special event or person. These collections help bring the history of air warfare to life.

Find Out More

• Lashenden Air Warfare Museum Official Website: http://www.lashendenairwarfaremuseum.co.uk