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GUIDED WALK - SUNDAY 1ST APRIL

To mark the opening of the Control Tower we organised a guided walk around the old aerodrome on Sunday 1st April.

This marked the centenary of the formation of the Royal Air Force and was the first Sunday that our Control Tower museum was open this year.

Approximately 60 members of the public joined us to explore some of the still existing history of RAF Martlesham Heath.

By popular demand we propose to repeat these fascinating walks at a later date.


Photo taken outside the Control Tower museum showing some of the walkers

Our chairman, Martyn Cook explains the war memorials on the Barrack square.


Our meeting on Friday, 6th April was well attended for a talk given by Debbie Land and Peter Goff. The subject of their illustrated talk was "Time Flies at Old Warden" - the story of the Shuttleworth Collection of vintage aircraft and vehicles.

Debbie related the origins of this world famous collection and during the second half of the evening Peter Goff showed clips of some of the extraordinary aircraft that are kept in flying condition. The earliest example is a Bleriot XI - The same as the one flown across the English Channel by Louis Bleriot in 1909. Other aircraft from the Edwardian period include a 1910 Bristol Boxkite and 1910 Avro Triplane. The Bleriot's flying is restricted to a few feet from the runway but the other Edwardians can obtain a good height on a still day and are an impressive sight in the air. Many other aircraft include several Great War fighters and aircraft from the 20's and 30's, including the original DH Comet 88 which won the Mildenhall to Australia air race in 1934. The latest acquisition is a Mk 5 Spitfire which flew a few weeks ago after extensive restoration in the workshops.

All of these aeroplanes are regularly flown on Open Days of the collection and can also be seen on YouTube.

A vote of thanks was given by our vice chairman, Robert Dunnett.

The Control Tower museum is now open every Sunday afternoon from 2pm to 5pm. The first Sunday the museum was open this year was Sunday, 1st April and this was preceded by a guided walk around the sight of the old aerodrome. Approximately 60 people turned up for this. It has been proposed that this will be repeated at a later date.

The next meeting will be on Friday, 4th May and is the occasion of our AGM. This will be followed by some rarely viewed aviation videos.

All meetings are at the Community Hall, Felixstowe Road, Martlesham, IP12 4PB and start at 7.30pm. Non-members are welcome for a payment of just £4 at the door.

Alan Powell 01473 622458    www.mhas.org.uk  


Debbie Land and Peter Goff

answer questions from the audience