Local News
11th May 2007: FAST on show at Princess Mead
FAST was on show at the Princess Mead Shopping Centre in Farnborough today. Shoppers could see displays of photos of the activities and achievements of FAST and several interesting exhibits from the Museum
On hand to answer questions were FAST volunteers James Warnes, [centre] George McCluskey [left] and Frank Colenso [right].
30th March 2006: Farnborough Technical College students video at Museum
A
group of students from the Farnborough Technical College came to the
Museum today to study "the first fifty years of flight" and make a ten
minute video. The Museum has plenty of photos, documents,
engines, wind tunnel models etc. covering the development of flight
and, of course, there were experts on hand to show how things are done
and to answer questions.
21st March 2006: Conway Engine arrives at G1
A
Rolls Royce Conway engine was delivered to the
Museum on a 20 ton truck, today. Brian
Luff, the Museum
Director, said that this engine is an important addition to
the
collection and he is pleased that donations to FAST since the
Museum was opened has
made it possible to put an exhibit like this on display in the
Museum.
The engine was donated by Sigma Aerospace Ltd of Croydon and
is sectioned for display; to show the inner
working parts.
16th March 2006: Librarians hold their AGM in Trenchard House
The "Aerospace and Defence Librarians
Group" recently held their AGM in the Trenchard Room at the
Museum.
This is a group picture of the attendees gathered around the Jaguar XW 566 from the FAST collection.
More information: The Library Manager
1st March 2006: 1000 visitors
The Museum had over 1000 visitors in January and February this year - there were Cubs and Scouts, a party from the U3A and a group of retired Directors. We had visitors from Belgium and as far away as New Mexico and Colorado in the USA.
27th Feb 2006: The FAST archive makes heritage display a reality.
Thanks to the FAST archive the project to feature the RAE Seaplane Testing Tank in the Heritage Centre an the heart of the Farnborough Business Park is well under way. The ideas are being turned into reality by Julian Harrap Architects using the original 1934/5 engineering drawings of the tank and its wave-maker and a number of photographs supplied by FAST from its archive.
The seaplane tank was built in the early 1930’s and was used, probably for the first time, in 1932 to test a dynamic model of the Short Singapore III. The tank itself was 650ft long, 9ft wide and 4ft 6ins deep (200m x 2.75m x 1.4m), could propel scale dynamic models up to 40 ft/sec (12 m/s).
The building ran alongside Fowler Avenue and and although mostly demolished, a 30 metre length has been preserved and will be a prominent feature of the area around the 24 foot wind tunnel. The tank is still intact in that section, and currently, Julian Harrap Architects, the Heritage architects, are preparing a display as part of the Heritage Site, when it opens later in the year.
The most spectacular aeroplane to be tested and probably the most well known of the many tests was the Saunders Roe SR45 Princess. It had ten engines and 219 1/2 ft span (66.9 metres). For the tests miniature air turbines powered the contra-rotating scale propellers and made it possible to investigate the interference between the wake and prop-wash – amongst other things.
More information: Graham Rood1st Dec 2005: QinetiQ donates flying helmets
The collection has recently been gifted by QinetiQ, the prototype space models of the.Mk4 helmet mounted sight, used operationally in Jaguar, and helmet mounted display prototype – being developed initially for Eurofighter/Typhoon. RAE carried out an extensive research & development programme on both of these helmet mounted devices, including many flight trials in the RAE Jaguars and Tornado. See the Highlights section for more on flying clothing.
More information: Graham Rood
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Version: 1.15 date: 24 April 2007