HISTORY
WELCOME to the new look Bournemouth Aviation Museum website, I hope you like the changes.Please report any problems or broken links only to phil@philbc.freeserve.co.uk
Bournemouth Aviation Museum is the only UK Charitable Museum dedicated to preserving and presenting to the public at large, amongst others, operational examples of historic aircraft appreciated by the many hundreds of thousands attending UK airshows.
Bournemouth Aviation Museum occupies a 30,000 sq ft hanger at Bournemouth International Airport and is run entirely by unpaid volunteers.
HISTORYThe original private collection was formed in 1981 as the Hunter One Collection by Mike Carlton. In 1988, following his tragic death in a flying accident, the Hunter One Collection was sold and renamed Jet Heritage. In 1994 Jet Heritage was granted charity status and a board of trustees commenced preparations to display the aircraft to the public. The leaning at the time was towards the history of the UK`s key role in inventing and developing jet engines and jet aircraft and Jet Heritage was finally ready to officially open to the public in 1998.
Interest in the first year was overwhelming and before long there were demands for even more exhibits of anything aviation related. Jet Heritage therefore broadened its horizons to include aeroplanes with piston engines.
It was felt that a change of name to something more descriptive together with an Internet web site to further boost interest would best serve the facility .
As a result, in September 1999 Bournemouth Aviation Museum was born and, via these pages, has also opened its doors to the world.