Royal Air Force (RAF) Museum Cosford

About 20 minutes from South of our home, there is a free Royal Airforce Museum that has one of the largest airplane collections in the country.  It was truly amazing.  There are four HUGE hangars full of airplanes some dating back to the turn of the century.  They have planes from both WWI and WWII as well as expedition planes that were designed to fly to Antarctica.

Unfortunately, Zach got bogged down with work and wasn't able to join us.  However, this was the kind of museum that I am sure we will find ourselves going back to time and time again.

Each of the large buildings below houses dozens of airplanes and memorabilia.  It was a huge complex.

The kids loved the outdoor exhibits with planes that were some of the largest they have ever seen.  Below are some of the plans used in WWI.  Desmond loved looking inside

Desmond's favorite plane: 

Consolidated PBY-6A Catalina (the large orange one above)

The Royal Air Force were assigned 602 PBY 5s and gave them the name later adopted by the US Navy the Catalina. The Catalinas of RAF Coastal Command played a key role in the Battle of the Atlantic, sinking a number of German submarines. Beyond Europe, RAF and Commonwealth Catalinas patrolled the Indian and Pacific Oceans and flew in support of the Allied landings in North Africa.

Sierra's favorite plane: 

Bristol M1C

This plane was used throughout WWI and was built because it had better maneuverability than previous designs. Sierra said she liked it because it looked like the black dragon from How to Train Your Dragon.   The tail design on the plane is actually pretty similar. 

We also like the planes above.  My favorite was probably the bright yellow one above.  It was part of the early expeditions to Antarctica.   This was a lot of fun and history all wrapped into one.