Chocks away for 80th anniversary celebrations at RAF Cosford - with pictures and video

The museum, near Albrighton, also launched its new exhibition to mark its 80th anniversary.

And it is also taking part in national celebrations for the centenary of the RAF. Re-enactors, living historians and interpreters kept thousands of bank holiday visitors enthralled.

Vintage wartime vehicles were brought in and children’s activities put on to help people understand the role of the RAF both in the war and through recent British history.

RAF Cosford chief executive, group captain Tone Baker, said the 80th anniversary exhibition was proving popular.

He thanked staff and volunteers who had put in a “significant effort”.

RAF Cosford is going all out to celebrate its 80th birthday, with the new exhibition opening to the public after a sneak peek for veterans and serving personnel.

The anniversary of the airbase ties in with the 100th birthday of the force itself, and the Shropshire station is hosting an exhibition that is the result of a collaboration between the air force’s base and the popular museum that sits alongside it.

The exhibition celebrating 80 years of the RAF in Shropshire is now open to members of the public as well as any service personnel on the base.

It was officially opened by the station commander, group captain Tone Baker, and the museum’s chief executive Maggie Appleton, who gave brief speeches before inviting a collection of veterans and current air force officers to be the first ones to see the exhibition.

Tone Baker said: “I want to thank all the people who have put in the effort, and it is a significant effort, to pull all of this together. It means all of the future trainees who come through this base will get a chance to see the rich heritage and legacy of the RAF.”

The displays occupy a room in one of the base’s hangars, which is used for temporary exhibitions like this one.

The exhibition covers aspects of Cosford’s history including the base’s armourers, defence photographers and prisoners of war who were repatriated from the base after World War Two. There are also recreations of the base’s original development diagrams and building plans, one of many visual elements to the exhibition which also includes historical relics and photos.

The exhibition came about because of a collaboration between the base, which is still an active RAF station, and the neighbouring aerospace museum.

One of the men and women to have worked at the base in years gone by was 96-year-old Sid Lenthall, and he was one of the former engineers reminiscing about his time spent at the base in the 1940s.

He worked on the Spitfire planes, which have since become synonymous with Cosford because of engineers like Sid. The Albrighton native said: “When they first introduced them the engines of the Spitfires were so huge they had to make special mountings for them to get them in the planes, and that’s what we worked on.

“The engines were so powerful, there was nothing like them.

“I think this exhibition is brilliant. There’s so many memories and old photos here, I would probably recognise most of the people in these photos.” And a current armourer was also impressed with the station’s commemoration. Chief technician Russ Russell said: “It’s a big thing to have this record full of history. So many people have spent so much of their careers here so it’s good to be able to reflect on that.

“There’s a huge amount of history at this base.”

The station’s media officer Chris Wilson was behind the coordination of the displays, and he said the team that worked on were determined to put together a tribute to the station that was more than a simple timeline.