Spitfire and Hurricane Memorial Museum

The Spitfire and Hurricane Memorial Museum stands on the site of the former RAF Manston airfield in Thanet. Built on a stretch of flat land near the Kent coast, it preserves the wartime role of a fighter base that lay only ten minutes’ flying time from occupied France. During the Battle of Britain in summer 1940 the airfield bore the brunt of Luftwaffe raids and served as a useful bomb-dump for returning German crews. Later it became a staging post for Allied bombers returning from raids over Germany. The museum’s centrepiece is a restored Supermarine Spitfire Mk XVI and a Hawker Hurricane IIc, two fighters that together destroyed more enemy aircraft than any other RAF types. Visitors can climb into the cockpit of a Hurricane and try a flight simulator that lets them feel the controls of a Merlin engine at full throttle. Outside, the Allied Aircrew Memorial Garden honours the airmen and women who never returned from operations. Inside, photographs and personal letters line the walls, showing how pilots lived and trained at Manston. A short walk leads to the old control tower, still standing beside the runways. From the airfield perimeter a wide view stretches across the Channel to the white cliffs of Dover.