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TheRoyal Air Force Museum is a museum dedicated to theRoyal Air Force in theUnited Kingdom. The museum is anon-departmental public body[1] and is a registeredcharity.[2] It has two public sites,Royal Air Force Museum London andRoyal Air Force Museum Midlands atRAF Cosford in Shropshire.
The idea of an RAF Museum was approved by theAir Council in 1931. However the Council only established the museum in 1964 after the idea was proposed by a historical committee chaired by SirDermot Boyle. The museum began collecting artefacts, which were initially stored atRAF Henlow. Land at the formerHendon Aerodrome in Colindale, London, was leased from theMinistry of Defence and the museum was opened there byQueen Elizabeth II in 1972 with 36 aircraft on display.[3][4]
The museum was part of the Ministry of Defence until it was split off and became a non-departmental public body in 1984. The Cosford Aerospace Museum formerly merged with the RAF Museum and became its second public site in 1998.[5]
The current governing document of the museum is aRoyal charter granted in 2021.[6] In the financial year ending 2023, the museum had an income of £19.8 million. It had 202 employees, assisted by 384 volunteers, and is governed by a group of 11trustees.[6] Currently, the museum's collection includes around 130 aircraft.[4]
A former site of the museum was atCardington, Bedfordshire; this housed both the conservation centre and the museum's reserve collection. In 2002 a new conservation centre was opened at Cosford. This facility cost £2.4 million; it was opened byMarshal of the Royal Air Force SirMichael Beetham and is named after him.[7][8] The museum's reserve collection was moved to a warehouse atMOD Stafford, a current military base; this is not open to the public.
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