Fleet Air Arm Museum

In 1912 a Royal Navy aircraft took off from a platform built for the purpose over the forecastle of HMS HIBERNIA in Weymouth Bay, the first time an aircraft had ever taken off from a ship under way at sea.

Since then, the Royal Navy has operated airships, seaplanes, flying boats and tens of thousands of aeroplanes and helicopters. It has built and deployed over a hundred aircraft-carrying ships and commissioned over a hundred air stations ashore for training and support operations.

The Centre for Naval Aviation Records and Research, within the Curatorial Department of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm Museum exists to collect records, photographs and other heritage material relevant to the people, aircraft and ships of Britain's flying Navy.

Through the Great War, the Royal Naval Air Service extended its capabilities, by using aircraft operating from ships and from airfields ashore. This hall uses dioramas to put contemporary aircraft into context.

The Restoration Hangar provides the Engineering Department with a facility to conserve, preserve and restore aircraft and large aeronautical artefacts. You can view the current project being worked on from behind safety glass viewing windows.

Fleet Air Arm Museum is located in Yeovilton, Somerset - see map below for driving directions to Fleet Air Arm Museum event. For more information about Fleet Air Arm Museum, please contact 01935 840565, see the event details on the left, or check for tickets below.