page_title: Imperial War Museum Duxford
section_title: Duxford Aviation Society
hierarchical_section_title: Imperial War Museum Duxford / Duxford Aviation Society
caption_attribution_description: English: A BOAC de Havilland Comet 4 at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford.
context_page_description: Imperial War Museum Duxford is a branch of the Imperial War Museum near Duxford in Cambridgeshire, England. Britain's largest aviation museum, Duxford houses the museum's large exhibits, including nearly 200 aircraft, military vehicles, artillery and minor naval vessels in seven main exhibition buildings. The site also provides storage space for the museum's other collections of material such as film, photographs, documents, books and artefacts. The site accommodates several British Army regimental museums, including those of the Parachute Regiment and the Royal Anglian Regiment.
  Based on the historic Duxford Aerodrome, the site was originally operated by the Royal Air Force during the First World War. During the Second World War Duxford played a prominent role during the Battle of Britain and was later used by United States Army Air Forces fighter units in support of the daylight bombing of Germany. Duxford remained an active RAF airfield until 1961. After the Ministry of Defence declared the site surplus to requirements in 1969 the Imperial War Museum received permission to use part of the site for storage. The entirety of the site was transferred to the museum in February 1976.
context_section_description: Duxford is operated in partnership between the Imperial War Museum, Cambridgeshire County Council and the Duxford Aviation Society. The Society is a registered charity (No. 285809) and states two objectives; to educate the public by collecting and exhibiting historic aircraft, military vehicles and boats, and to support the Imperial War Museum.
  The Society was formed in 1975 from a divergence of members of the East Anglian Aviation Society, which now operates the Bassingbourn Tower Museum at the former RAF Bassingbourn.
  Duxford Aviation Society preserves and maintains the Civil Aviation Collection.  Especially notable aircraft in the collection include a de Havilland Comet which made the first eastbound jet-powered trans-Atlantic passenger flight on 4 October 1958, and Concorde G-AXDN 101, a pre-production aircraft which achieved the highest speed of any Concorde, making a westwards trans-Atlantic flight in two hours, 56 minutes.
  In support of the Museum's goals, the DAS Military Vehicle Wing provides one of the world's leading teams of military vehicle restoration engineers The Wing (or its volunteers) own some of the vehicles located at Duxford, and provide restoration services for vehicles within the museum's collection.  The team also operate vehicles for demonstrations during the year.  The wing's works have been featured in the Discovery Channel's Tank Overhaul programme, James May's 20th Century, and wide variety of magazines and other media.
  Other elements of the society provide or support a range of functions at the Duxford site, including canteen, aircraft conservation, learning and interpretative activities and administrative tasks. An affiliated group, the Duxford Radio Society, collects, preserves, exhibits, and demonstrates historic military electronic equipment. This is housed in Buildings 177 and 178, close to the Gibraltar Gun.
  Since January 1999, the Society have operated the Friends of Duxford membership scheme with the Museum.
  As of 2008, the Duxford Aviation Society had almost 700 volunteer members.
caption: The Duxford Aviation Society Comet 4 on display in AirSpace.
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