National Museum of Flight

The National Museum of Flight stands on the site of RAF East Fortune, a Second World War airfield in East Lothian. The wartime hangars, control tower and stores remain exactly as they were in the 1940s, protected as a scheduled monument. Historic Scotland once listed the buildings separately, but later recognised they were already covered by the stricter scheduling. No modern structures have been added, so the airfield still feels like the day the war ended. The museum belongs to National Museums Scotland and is Scotland’s national aviation collection.

The museum began in 1909 when the Royal Scottish Museum bought Percy Pilcher’s Hawk glider, the first aircraft ever collected by a British museum. Orville Wright donated a 1910 engine, and in 1971 the Ministry of Defence handed over a Supermarine Spitfire that could not be shown in Edinburgh. A year later three naval jets arrived from Lossiemouth, and on 7 July 1975 the public walked in for the first time. Later expansions included the Avro Vulcan in 1984 and large parts of the British Airways Collection in 2006, letting visitors step inside a Boeing 707 fuselage and a Hawker Siddeley Trident cockpit.

Inside the hangars visitors find the oldest surviving Harrier jump jet alongside a Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, the fastest aircraft of the Second World War. Hangar 3 shows Scottish-built planes such as the Twin Pioneer and the Loganair Islander air ambulance. The Concorde hangar holds the main display, where the lines of the supersonic airliner dominate the space. Outside, the grass runways stretch away, silent reminders of the airfield’s past.