Ventured down to London today to attend an NZ expo.
Had a few hours left so went to look at the planes in the Science Museum which I hadn't seen since my school days. To say I was disapointed was an understatement.
As this was a spur of the moment thing I did not take my camera. The Science Museum holds a few extremely important historic planes including Alcock and Browns Vickers Vimy, Amy Johnson's Gypsy Moth "Jason", Supermarine Sb4(plus schnieder race trophy) and the Gloster-Whittle Jet to name but a few.
The museum has changed a lot since I last visted and not for better. At least a 1/5 of the floor space is empty or filled with hand on gadgets that where very unimaginative. The other 4/5 seem to contain dumbed down snap shots of a theme with little or no connection and very little explanation.
In the "Flight" section most of the aircraft are crowded toghther and hung from the ceiling and the lighting is extremely poor and difficult to view. Both the Hurri and Spit look as if they have been painted straight from a tin 'Humbrol' by a 10 year old sometime in the 80's with no attention to conserving the structure. The wood/fabric aircraft look in an even worse condition particularly Amy Johnson's Gypsy Moth if the coverings anything to go by, I would hate to see the condition of the structure beneath.
The engines have now been suspened on what looks like scaffolding to enable the vistor to view all around. Unfortuately the light from the windows puts them all in a perpectual darkness. All in a very depressing site.
Had a few hours left so went to look at the planes in the Science Museum which I hadn't seen since my school days. To say I was disapointed was an understatement.
As this was a spur of the moment thing I did not take my camera. The Science Museum holds a few extremely important historic planes including Alcock and Browns Vickers Vimy, Amy Johnson's Gypsy Moth "Jason", Supermarine Sb4(plus schnieder race trophy) and the Gloster-Whittle Jet to name but a few.
The museum has changed a lot since I last visted and not for better. At least a 1/5 of the floor space is empty or filled with hand on gadgets that where very unimaginative. The other 4/5 seem to contain dumbed down snap shots of a theme with little or no connection and very little explanation.
In the "Flight" section most of the aircraft are crowded toghther and hung from the ceiling and the lighting is extremely poor and difficult to view. Both the Hurri and Spit look as if they have been painted straight from a tin 'Humbrol' by a 10 year old sometime in the 80's with no attention to conserving the structure. The wood/fabric aircraft look in an even worse condition particularly Amy Johnson's Gypsy Moth if the coverings anything to go by, I would hate to see the condition of the structure beneath.
The engines have now been suspened on what looks like scaffolding to enable the vistor to view all around. Unfortuately the light from the windows puts them all in a perpectual darkness. All in a very depressing site.
