RAF Museum

The RAF Museum London sits on a site that isn’t just about planes; it’s about the afterglow of early flight, the birth of an air force, and the quiet heroics of people who kept the skies open for a century. Today you’re standing on the ground that once hosted Hendon Aerodrome, a place that helped launch the Royal Air Force itself in 1918. The story begins before the museum existed, in a patchwork of grass and hangars that whispered with propellers and practice.

The moment you step inside Hangar 1, you’re handed a doorway into the RAF’s first century—the two exhibitions there, RAF Stories and RAF First to the Future, opened in 2018 to mark the centenary. RAF Stories traces the RAF’s birth in 1918 as the world’s first independent air force, following its people, their devices, and the evolving jobs that flying made possible. RAF First to the Future looks ahead, spotlighting the people, equipment, partnerships, and innovations that have kept the service at the leading edge of air and space power.

It’s a deliberate pairing: a museum that respects memory while still inviting imagination. If you wander toward Hangar 2, you’re walking through Grahame-White’s heritage, the early era when London’s air ambitions took shape on the site of the London Aerodrome.