Background
The National Museum of Flight is Scotland’s official aviation museum. Part of National Museums Scotland, it grew out of aviation-related acquisitions by the Edinburgh-based National Museum of Scotland, the collection eventually justifying a home of its own. That home is at East Fortune Airfield in rural East Lothian, a site which is itself of historical interest, claiming to be the UK’s best preserved WWII airfield. The collection is housed entirely in original airfield buildings. Bruce and I visited during the second weekend of his winter visit to Scotland.
The weekend in question – the last in January – brought some of the windiest weather that I can remember, resulting in significant toppling of trees and consequent travel disruption. Just safely opening the doors of our rental car on arrival at East Fortune proved to be a major challenge! Due to a combination of weather issues and ongoing difficulties caused by the pandemic, some parts of the site were not open.
The Concorde Experience
When British Airways ceased supersonic operations in October 2003 and dispersed its Concorde fleet, Scotland was lucky enough not only to receive one of the seven, but to get the aircraft that was alphabetically the first: G-BOAA, known within BA as ‘Alpha Alpha’. This now forms the centrepiece of The Concorde Experience at East Fortune. As ever – I’ve managed to visit quite a few Concordes, despite never having flown in one – the highlight was visiting part of the cabin, but a close second was following the story of the final journey of Alpha Alpha to East Lothian.
Civil Aviation Hangar
The only other shed to be open on the day of our visit was the Civil Aviation Hangar. This suited us perfectly, as neither of us gets particularly excited about military aircraft.
