Hucknall Flight Test Museum looking to resume post-Covid

A Hucknall charity set up to promote the history of aviation in the town are hoping they can continue the momentum they had been building before Coronavirus struck.

Like so many organisations up and down the country, the charity were forced to cease operations last March when social restrictions were brought in to combat the pandemic.

Alan Randall, a trustee of the Hucknall Flight Test Museum Charity, said: "It's been very frustrating because we've not been into the museum for the last 18 months because being within a Rolls Royce site, we are required to comply with the COVID rules they have in place for their own factories."

The museum is housed in two Grade Two Listed wing hangars on the Hucknall Rolls Royce site on Watnall Road that were erected in 1943 for the purpose of development testing the world-famous Rolls-Royce Merlin Engines. They were given Grade Two Listed Status because they are the only Engine Testing Wing Hangars remaining in the UK today.

The term Wing Hangar is used because engines tested there were mounted on a section of aeroplane wing which could be moved so that the attitude of the engine could mock that of an aeroplane climbing or diving.

Because of the size of the wing hangars and the fact that the jet engines were starting to get bigger it got to the point where the wing hangars weren't really the right place for testing so for a while they became storerooms for the testing department. But then an organisation was setup called The Rolls Royce Heritage Trust (RRHT) which represents the heritage of Rolls Royce and is made up of active and retired employees and aviation enthusiasts.

Branches of the RRHT exist at most of the key Rolls-Royce facilities in the UK, and in America based on the Alison Aero Engine Group which is part of Rolls-Royce

The Wing Hangars are the home of the Hucknall Section of the RRHT and members meet there on a Wednesday to socialise and make use of the workshop facilities.

Some of the Hucknall members work with old engines sectioning them to display their inner workings, and many have been placed in museums.

Due to threat of closure and possible demolition, since rescinded, The Hucknall Flight Test Museum Charity was founded to promote and celebrate Hucknall's aviation heritage.

Mr Randall is proud of what the group have achieved so far. He said: "As far as we can, the engines we've got tell a story for Hucknall by concentrating on the engines that were on test over the years at Hucknall, both on the ground, and on the large variety of test aircraft. The museum tries to tell that story by use of a variety of engines ranging from the famous Merlin Engine through to the largest which is one of the early flight tested versions of the RB211 engine which Rolls Royce developed for the Lockheed Tristar.

"Everybody in the town is aware that the RB211 was the one that broke Rolls Royce temporarily because the amount of money going into development and materials outstripped the amount of money coming into the company and they went bankrupt. They were bought out by the Conservative government before being re-floated on the stock exchange some years later. Despite the fact that it broke the company that engine at the same time was the saviour of the company because from that engine came all the latest Rolls Royce aero engines that have been hugely successful in the civil aviation market.

"We've also got a very wide selection of photographs recording the things that happened over the years in the test beds. In the workshop we're building a 5/8th scale replica of the Flying Bedstead which will form a centre piece to a future exhibit telling the story of vertical take-off and Hucknall's pioneer part in it.

"There are other museums in Derby which is a lot of containing engines, but we feel we've got a little bit more excitement because Hucknall was the flight test centre from 1934. It's about engines, but it was engines and aeroplanes which were actually flying which attracts some people rather more than a cold engine so to speak and that's obviously something we'd like to build on."

Hucknall has a rich history in the aviation sector with the Hucknall site being used extensively during the Second World War to develop and test engines to ensure British planes such as Spitfires, Hurricanes, Lancaster Bombers and Mosquitos, to name a few, could compete with the speed and power of the German Aircraft that opposed them.

"They call it aviation's best kept secret because particularly in the war years it happened in secret because it was improving aero engines making aeroplanes go faster, fly higher and fly further reliably. Then after the war when it was developing the jet engines it all became commercially sensitive. Apart from people hearing the noise and seeing aeroplanes, the actual things that were happening here were not well known because of this.

"I think the publicity around the Flying Bedstead raised the awareness of some of the older generation of Hucknall about the existence of Rolls-Royce. After test flying stopped in 1971 and all the flight testing after they went bankrupt moved to Bristol, so we'd no longer got the aeroplanes coming or going, all we were left with was the Test Bed noise. Then the noise has not been there since 2008, and now we've got a new generation that are not even aware there was an airfield there."

When it was able to open, the museum accepted donations and only ran tours when groups of at least five could be put together, meaning people had to book in advance. This was to enable the volunteers at the museum to gain the required clearance from Rolls Royce to admit the party of people onto the site. The museum was well received, and people tended to be generous with their donations. The museum even had the honour of opening their doors to big names from the world of aviation.

"We had one or two illustrious people, the high point was probably that we had Frank Whittle's son, Ian Whittle came round and with him John Coplin. John was one of the lead designers on the RB211 engine. Some fairly high engineers joined the group came round Hucknall and saw what we were doing and were quite enthusiastic about what we were trying to show."

Now that restrictions are beginning to ease there is hope that the charity can soon pick up where they left off.

"We built a smaller half scale representative of the Flying Bedstead and that's now located at the Flying High Academy that's their centrepiece that people see when they go to the school. We were developing a very strong STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) programme with The Flying High but also with the other schools around the time because certainly at that time we could offer a very unique thing. In association with the factory, the factory builds components but not full engines so kiddies could go into the factory they could see components being made they could see the lasers that were used and the other machinery. They could come to the museum and could get a sense of history but look at real engines as well that components went into. That was one of the things that we got STEM ambassador and that was a thing we were starting to build when Covid shut us down."

Unfortunately, there is some uncertainty surrounding the museum with Rolls Royce's Heritage arm under review and the subsidiary company that owns the Hucknall site up for sale. However, support has come from local politicians who are keen to see the museum continue irrespective of Rolls Royce's plans for the site.

Mr Randall continued: "Mark Spencer the local MP has been very good for us, so have Kevin and Phil Rostance who are both Ashfield Councillors and they've kept their finger on the pulse with Rolls Royce."

However, they hope that the sale of ITP, the company that now owns the Hucknall site, won't necessarily mean the end for the flight museum and they remain optimistic they will be allowed to operate once they are no longer in buildings under the jurisdiction of Rolls Royce.

"We understand that Rolls Royce intends to keep the wing hangars and the Rolls Royce welfare at Hucknall. We're presuming at some time we will be fenced off from the rest of the factory which is something that was always originally on the cards whenever finance allowed. Once we can separate from the factory we can open up and develop the museum for people hopefully eventually to just walk up, pay their money and go round."

Anyone interested in learning more about Hucknall's aviation history or the museum itself can visit their website here .