Summary
- Yorkshire Air Museum celebrates 30 years of educating and inspiring the public, with a focus on aviation history in Yorkshire.
- The museum houses an internationally renowned aircraft collection, as well as archives for researchers and multiple memorials.
- The upcoming events include a night photoshoot and an engine run-up of the Handley Page Victor, honoring its arrival at the museum 30 years ago.
The Yorkshire Air Museum in Elvington is planning to mark 30 years of service by an engine run-up. The aircraft whose engines are being run up is the Handley Page Victor – a former jet bomber turned jet tanker.
30 years of Yorkshire Air Museum educating and inspiring
The Yorkshire Air Museum was spun up in 1983 to preserve the original WWII Control Towers. It is led by Rachel Semlyen, MBE, who won a knighthood from King Charles just last March. As Semlyen shared with The York Press, the idea was to turn abandoned World War II (WWII) buildings into a museum to honor the service of United Kingdom WWII veterans. Semlyen also shared;
“It has been a long but exciting journey to get to where we are now—a fully accredited museum, a popular family attraction, with important archives for researchers and an internationally renowned collection of aircraft.”
According to the Museum, the mission the staff and volunteers support is,
We are passionate about educating the public in the history of aviation, particularly in Yorkshire, and explaining the importance of forging international partnerships. Our work is lead by a desire to inspire future generations to take up careers in the fields of engineering, aviation, history and diplomacy.
Now, the Yorkshire Air Museum is more than just a Grade 2 Listed World War Two Control Tower when the museum was RAF Elvington hosting Halifax bombers. Although the tower needs further restoration work to stop leaking, the facility also has multiple memorials, a cinema, a café, many ground vehicles, and no less than 42 aircraft.
Hosting and celebrating the prototype Victor K.2 Tanker
The Yorkshire Air Museum picked the Cold War as its 2023 theme, a time when the West and Soviet Union stood off and nuclear war was a possibility. The museum has made the Harrier Jump Jet – originally intended to carry a nuclear bomb from a dirt strip in a European forest and a hero of the Falklands War – one of the museum’s mascots.
Another aircraft in the collection, as pictured above, was also intended to be part of the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent and a helper of the Falklands War was the Yorkshire Air Museum’s Handley Page Victor K.2. The Victor K.2 on hand originally was intended to pack a Blue Shield standoff nuclear missile but was modified to become an aerial refueler as the K.2 Tanker on January 23, 1972.
Ten years and a few months later, the museum’s K.2 Tanker would be refueling Vulcan bombers on their way to bomb the Falklands’ Port Stanley airport runway to deny the runway to Argentinian occupiers. Additionally, the Victor aerial refueled during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Now, Yorkshire Air Museum wants to host a night photoshoot with their Victor on November 24. This will be followed, according to the Nov. 17 Yorkshire Post, by an engine run-up the next day at 2:12 PM local, exactly 30 years after the Victor flew into Yorkshire Air Museum for historical preservation.
Do museum events like these interest you? Please share in the comments.
Sources: March 16 The York Press, November 17 Yorkshire Post, Yorkshire Air Museum