Fighter is top draw at RAF Cosford Museum

Six hundred people attended the Open Cockpits Evening at RAF Cosford on Friday and Saturday evenings, and were eager to get inside the Wolverhampton-built Boulton Paul Defiant Mk1.

The popular bi-annual event gives aircraft enthusiasts to chance to sit in the cockpit of some of the most exciting planes in the world.

The Boulton Defiant joined the aircraft display at Cosford just a few months ago and is the last surviving example of its kind, built at a factory in Wolverhampton in 1938. Hundreds of people were given a tour of the two-seat turret fighter which operated with mixed fortunes during the Battle of Britain but found its niche as a night fighter.

Also popular was the Avro Lincoln B2 which was opened to the public for the very first time. Nathan Davis, from RAF Cosford, said there were long queues on both days to get inside an aircraft which was just too late to see service during the Second World War.

“We hold these events every May and September but I’ve never seen queues as long as they were to sit in the Lincoln Bomber,” Mr Davis said. “It is one of the most popular aircrafts because it had never been opened to the public before now.”

He also paid tribute to the band of volunteers who make the event such a success.

“It’s not just about sitting in the cockpit of these aircrafts,” he said. “It’s about hearing the stories behind the aircrafts. We have around 50 ex-servicemen and RAF engineers who tell the stories and explain what all of the buttons do. I think this makes people realise the reality of what they are sitting in is a piece of history. The event is not just about opening the aircraft up but really understanding what they did.”

Other highlights included the former frontline fighter the Gloster Gladiator 1– the first enclosed cockpit and last bi-plane fighter introduced into RAF service, the Fairey Delta 2 which is one of only two ever built and the Saunders-Roe SR53 – an interceptor which used a rocket motor to climb rapidly to high altitudes and reached Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound) at high altitude during trials.

Mr Davis added: “This time around we got a lot of new visitors through the doors which was great. It was sold-out on both nights and the feedback we have got so far has been really positive.”