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This Ford Model T Light Tender was on display at RAF London.
Despite manufacturer Henry T Ford declaring he would not allow the Model T to be used in the European was, thousands found their way into military service.
Many Model T vehicles were used as ambulances and staff cars for carrying officers. They were also used as light tenders for carrying good and people. A small number were even used as fire engines on aerodromes.
The first Crossley vehicles in the Royal Flying Corps were six cars bought in 1913 for driving staff officers around. By November 1918 around 6,000 Crossly vehicles had entered service.
This Crossly 20/25hp Light Tender was on display at RAF London.
The most common body was the Light Tender, shown here.
Each squadron had eleven of these for carrying the airmen and towing small trailers and aeroplanes. Two Crossley Staff Cars were used for transporting the officers.
Crossley 25/30 hp Tenders were utilised by the British Army in Ireland from 1919 until their withdrawal in 1922. The Irish Army continued to use them for troop transport throughout the Civil War period.
The 20/25 model was also the first vehicle to be supplied to London’s Metropolitan Police Flying Squad in 1920, some of which were fitted with radio equipment.
The Fokker D.VII was a German World War One fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz of the Fokker-Flugzeugwerke.
This Fokker D.VII was on display at RAF London.
Germany produced around 3,300 D.VII aircraft in the second half of 1918. In service with the Luftstreitkräfte, the D.VII quickly proved itself to be a formidable aircraft.
It was so successful that it was the only aircraft to be singled out by the Allied Powers in the Armistice Agreement section which detailed war material to be handed over: Germany was required to surrender all D.VIIs to the Allies. Surviving aircraft saw much service with many countries in the years after The Great War.
The Albatros D.V was a fighter aircraft built by the Albatros Flugzeugwerke and used by the Luftstreitkräfte (Imperial German Air Service) during World War I. The D.V was the final development of the Albatros D.I family and the last Albatros fighter to see operational service. Despite its well-known shortcomings and general obsolescence, approximately 900 D.V and 1,612 D.Va aircraft were built before production halted in April 1918. The D.Va continued in operational service until the end of the war.
With its distinctive plywood-skinned oval section streamlined fuselage, the Albatros D.V entered service in May 1917, but from October 1917 was supplemented in large-scale production by the strengthened Albatros D.Va with different upper wing and aileron control system.
With over 3,000 produced, of which only two survive, in the U.S.A and Australia.
The replica on display at RAF London is painted as a D.V aircraft from a batch of 400 ordered in May 1917.
This flying replica was built by New Zealand Company The Vintage Aviator Ltd (TVAL) in 2011, and uses an original contemporary Mercedes D.III engine from RAF Museum stocks. It represents an aircraft flown on the Western Front by Jasta 61in 1918.
Flown a number of times in New Zealand and the UK in 2012, it arrived at Hendon in October 2012.
The Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8 was a British two-seat biplane reconnaissance and bomber aircraft of the First World War designed and produced at the Royal Aircraft Factory. This Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8 was on display at RAF London.
This was the most widely used reconnaissance aircraft in the Royal Flying Corps and RAF from 1917, serving with about 21 Squadrons. Its stability meant it lacked manoeuvrability when attacked and casualties remained high.
Nick-named the Harry Tate’ after a music-hall comedian, this stable reconnaissance/artillery spotting aircraft entered limited service in late 1916.
This flying replica, in No. 9 Squadron colours, was built in New Zealand by The Vintage Aviator Ltd in 2011, using original R..8 rudder, wing and fuselage parts held by the RAF Museum as patterns.
The Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin was a British fighter aircraft manufactured by the Sopwith Aviation Company. It was used by the Royal Flying Corps and its successor, the Royal Air Force, during the First World War. The Dolphin entered service on the Western Front in early 1918 and proved to be a formidable fighter. The aircraft was not retained in the postwar inventory and was retired shortly after the war.
The Dolphin’s unusual wing arrangement gave its pilot an excellent view. It was heavily armed with up to four guns. Many pilots removed one or both Lewis guns from the top wing. No. 87 Squadron repositioned them on the lower wings outside the aircrew arc to increase the volume of fire when ground strafing.
This Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin was on display at RAF London.
This example is a composite reconstruction with original tail surfaces, fuselage frame parts and nose cowlings from three separate aircraft. Its identity comes from the original Sopwith built rear fuselage section, from an aircraft built in 1918 and probably used by a training unit.
This replica Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2b was at RAF London.
The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 was a British single-engine tractor two-seat biplane designed and developed at the Royal Aircraft Factory. Most of the roughly 3,500 built were constructed under contract by private companies, including established aircraft manufacturers and firms new to aircraft construction.
Early versions entered squadron service with the Royal Flying Corps in 1912 and the type served throughout the First World War. Initially used as a reconnaissance aircraft and light bomber, some examples modified as single-seat night fighters destroyed German airships.
The B.E.2b was a very stable aircraft. On 26 April 1915, 2nd Lt William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse attacked Courtrai Railway Station, Cambrai, Northern France flying B.E.2b No 687. Dropping a 100lb bomb he was fatally wounded by ground fire but managed to fly home, being awarded the first Victoria Cross awarded for an aerial action.
The detailed replica at RAF London was mostly built under contract at the former RAF Museum facility at Cardington in 1983-88. It incorporates a few original B.E.2a fittings and the correct original propeller, and carries the markings of the aircraft in which 2nd Lt Rhodes-Moorhouse won his VC.
The first 504 arrived in 1913. They were the basis for five night-fighter squadrons.
The Avro 504 was a First World War biplane aircraft made by the Avro aircraft company and under licence by others. Production during the war totalled 8,970 and continued for almost 20 years, making it the most-produced aircraft of any kind that served in any military capacity during the First World War. More than 10,000 were built from 1913 until production ended in 1932.
The 504 was the first British aeroplane to strafe troops on the ground as well as the first British aircraft to make a bombing raid over Germany.It was also the first Allied aeroplane to be downed by enemy anti-aircraft fire.
This 504K was at RAF London and is restored from two other planes, the wings came a Avro 548A.
The 504K was a training version of the 504 produced in 1918.
When I visited the RAF London Museum I nearly bypassed the Great War hangar, I didn’t have a huge amount of time and didn’t think I could see everything. In the end I did go into the hangar and I am glad I did. There was a great selection of aircraft on display and I really enjoyed walking around and looking at the planes.
The first of the planes was the Blériot XXVII, built for speed, this streamlined single-seat racing monoplane had a rotary engine and shared many features of other Blériot monoplanes.
The Blériot XXVII on display at RAF London was built in 1911 and later in 1914 it was put into storage.
It was flown again in 1936 and underwent further restoration in 1963 and 1974.
This Sunderland was on display at RAF London.
The Short S.25 Sunderland was a British flying boat patrol bomber, developed and constructed by Short Brothers for the Royal Air Force (RAF).
It entered service in June 1938 and was the first British flying boat to have power-operated gun turrets as part of its defensive armament. This strong protective armament resulted in the Germans giving it the nickname ‘Flying Porcupine’.
I enjoyed walking through the Sunderland and it is an impressive plane.
By the start of World War Two in September 1939 three squadrons had been equipped with the Sunderlands. Seven hundred and forty-nine Sunderlands were built, and they served throughout the war. The final Coastal Command Sunderland operational mission was in June 1945 over four weeks after the German surrender. Long-range Sunderland operations also took place overseas from bases in Africa and the Far East.
Post-war the type took part in the Berlin Airlift carrying 4920 tonnes (4847 tons) of freight. During the Korean War Sunderlands based in Japan undertook nearly 900 operational sorties totally over 13350 hours of flying. The Sunderland finally retired from RAF service in 1959 when the last aircraft were scrapped at RAF Seletar, Singapore.
The Sunderland’s design was so good that it remained in front line service for over twenty years. It was also the last flying-boat operated by the Royal Air Force.
Developed in parallel with the civilian S.23 Empire flying boat, the flagship of Imperial Airways, the Sunderland was developed specifically to conform to the requirements of British Air Ministry Specification R.2/33 for a long-range patrol/reconnaissance flying boat to serve with the Royal Air Force (RAF).
There is also a Short Sunderland at Duxford.