Boscombe Down Aviation Collection – meet the volunteers

Boscombe Down Aviation Collection was founded in 2009, and the exhibits have been in the fitting surroundings of a listed airfield hangar since 2012.

The collection tells the story of flight at the Boscombe Down testing site and in the wider Wessex area and offers visitors hands-on access.

A small army of around 50 volunteers looks after dozens of planes and helicopters, ranging from fast jets to a full-scale reproduction of a BE2b, the first aircraft to ever land at the Boscombe Down airfield in November 2017.

We went to meet some of them and hear their stories...

The entrance to Boscombe Down Aviation Collection (Image: Newsquest) Guide Ron Burrows offers a level of insight into the collection's jets that few others could.

He joined the Royal Air Force in 1962 and served in the Middle East.

After a stint as a flying instructor, he became a test pilot based at Boscombe Down, later becoming Group Captain, and has plenty of tales to tell.

His memoir, Cold War Test Pilot, documents his experiences from the 1960s to the 1990s, including several close shaves.

Ron with his book, Cold War Test Pilot (Image: Newsquest)

Ron said: “I can usually raise some laughs with a few stories!

“I’ve had to eject twice, and I’ve crashed in two other aeroplanes, so I can bring those stories to life with a bit of humour.

“That’s what marks us out. We’ve got volunteers with a background of aviation, and they can bring the aeroplanes to life with anecdotes.

“When I come in on a Wednesday morning to do my guide day, it’s like the old days. I walk into a hangar full of aeroplanes. It’s full of old friends!

“The smells take you straight back to those days. It’s a mixture of aviation fuel, sweat, heated electricals and leather. It's so evocative.”

The collection is located in Hangar 1 South at Old Sarum Airfield  (Image: Newsquest) Something that makes the museum stand out is how it encourages visitors to get hands-on with the aircraft. 

During my visit, I sat in the cockpit of a Panavia Tornado – a jet Ron first flew in 1975 – while he talked me through the controls.

He then took me inside the collection's reproduction of a Lancaster bomber and explained his father's role as a Second World War flight engineer.

“We really enjoy interacting with the visitors,” he said.

“Many visitors won’t have sat in these aeroplanes, and this is something that distinguishes us from many other museums.

“We lose the odd switch from time to time because the youngsters like fiddling, but we enjoy getting them in a cockpit and talking them through a flying exercise and the equipment and the kit, and trying to bring it to life.

“Very often, people who just come because they happen to have been in Salisbury get taken over by it.

“It's great. And otherwise, the history would die. If this place didn’t exist, a lot of this would be in a scrapyard somewhere.”

Inside Boscombe Down's reproduction of a Lancaster (Image: Newsquest)

David Berryman, a former Ministry of Defence civil servant whose love of aviation stemmed from his parents' careers in the air force, agreed.

“Without it, all this stuff would be forgotten,” he said.

“History tends to get repeated if we’re not careful.

“It’s a wonderful organisation to be a part of, and I’m doing my bit to keep it all going for the future generations.”

The team of volunteers contains several eclectic roles, from engineers to archivists, and David has been working with them since the collection launched at Boscombe Down.

David and Ron next to the Tornado (Image: Newsquest) He is also pleased the museum has built up a legion of members who pay to support it financially and chip in to help at event days, and particularly enjoys seeing young people make the most of the close access to the planes.

“It’s great getting kids in,” David said.

“When I get my grandchildren here, I sit them in the aeroplanes, and it’s fantastic; they think it’s wonderful.

“They wouldn’t experience that anywhere else. There are no other museums that have 90 per cent of their aircraft available to sit in.”

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Another volunteer is former Army engineer Meryon Bridges, who was recommended to get involved to keep him busy after his wife died four years ago.

He offered his services as a handyman, and his first project saw him refurbish a Sycamore helicopter that was in a “tatty” condition.

Meryon recently finished working on a replica Grand Slam bomb that will sit alongside the Lancaster plane, which volunteers have been working on for several years by building a frame from the original drawings and installing donated instruments.

The Lancaster - which will have a nose installed soon - and Meryon's Grand Slam bomb (Image: Newsquest) “I got absorbed into the system and have enjoyed working here hugely,” he said.

“It’s immensely valuable to me. It gives me something to do. Otherwise, I’d be sitting around at home spare and doing my head in.

“Where else can you walk up to these things and touch them, climb into them and get up close and personal with them?

“Here, you can really get engaged.

“Learning new skills and learning about aeroplanes has been absolutely fascinating.”