About
RAF Museum Cosford, officially RAF Museum Midlands, is one of the largest aviation collections in Europe, housed across a series of vast hangars on a still-active former RAF technical training station in rural Shropshire. Opened to the public on 1 May 1979 out of a collection of ground-instructional airframes already on inventory at RAF Cosford, the museum has grown into a sister site to the RAF Museum's original home at Hendon, with more than 70 aircraft, engines, missiles and vehicles on display, admission free throughout.
The centrepiece is the National Cold War Exhibition, a striking £12.5 million purpose-built hall opened by HRH Princess Anne in 2007, which is the only place in the world where all three of Britain's V-bombers — the Vulcan, Victor and Valiant — stand together alongside missiles, vehicles and memorabilia from the nuclear stand-off era. Elsewhere on site, the War in the Air Hangar traces military aviation from the First World War onward and includes the world's oldest surviving Spitfire alongside captured German 'wonder weapons' including a Messerschmitt Me 262 jet and a rocket-powered Me 163 Komet, while the Test Flight Hangar showcases British experimental design in the shape of the TSR2 and the stainless-steel Bristol Type 188. Hangar 1 houses the museum's substantial transport collection, including the British Airways Collection of civil airliners such as a de Havilland Comet, set alongside earlier types like the Tiger Moth.
Beyond the aircraft themselves, Cosford holds one of the finest engine and missile collections anywhere, with more than 60 exhibits ranging from early piston designs to Cold War rocketry, and is also home to the RAF Museum's Conservation Centre, relocated from Cardington in 2002, where specialist conservators can sometimes be observed working on airframes from the wider national collection. Free general admission, a strong family and school-visit programme, and the sheer scale of the site — several hangars' worth of aircraft you can walk beneath rather than merely view from a distance — make Cosford a genuinely major day out for anyone with an interest in aviation, engineering or twentieth-century military history, and a natural pairing with a visit to nearby Ironbridge Gorge.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Allow at least half a day — the site spans several large hangars and is far bigger than it first appears from the car park.
- Free admission means it's easy to split a visit across two shorter trips rather than trying to see everything at once.
- Check ahead for planned building works or hangar closures before travelling, as some areas may occasionally be inaccessible.
- Combine your visit with nearby Ironbridge Gorge for a full day exploring Shropshire's industrial and military heritage.
- The Conservation Centre is a genuine highlight for anyone interested in how historic aircraft are cared for — ask staff whether it's viewable on the day.
- Wear comfortable shoes; the hangars are large and there is a lot of ground to cover on foot.
- Visit on a weekday outside school holidays for a quieter experience with more space around the aircraft.
- Bring a jacket even in summer — the larger hangars can feel cool regardless of the weather outside.
Highlights
The National Cold War Exhibition
Opened by HRH Princess Anne in 2007 at a cost of £12.
5 million, this purpose-built hall is the only place in the world where all three of Britain's V-bombers — the Avro Vulcan, Handley Page Victor and Vickers Valiant — are displayed together. Built to carry Britain's nuclear deterrent during the Cold War, the three very different aircraft represent one of the most ambitious and secretive periods of British aerospace engineering, when the country raced to field a credible independent strategic bomber force.
The exhibition surrounds them with nineteen aircraft, tanks, vehicles, missiles and memorabilia drawn from four decades of East-West tension, giving visitors an unusually complete sense of the era's military technology, from the everyday hardware of frontline squadrons to the missiles that never had to be fired.
The World's Oldest Surviving Spitfire
Housed in the War in the Air Hangar, which traces military aviation from the First World War through to the jet age, is the oldest surviving Supermarine Spitfire in the world — a tangible link to the aircraft that became Britain's most celebrated wartime symbol.
The hangar's collection sits alongside a Lincoln bomber and other historic RAF types, tracking the extraordinary pace of aeronautical development across just a few decades of the twentieth century. Seeing an aircraft of this vintage and rarity displayed at close quarters, rather than behind glass, is one of the more quietly remarkable experiences the museum offers, and a highlight for both aviation specialists and casual visitors alike.
German 'Wonder Weapons': Me 262 and Me 163
Also within the War in the Air Hangar is a rare pairing of German wartime jet technology: a Messerschmitt Me 262, the world's first operational jet fighter, and a Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, the only rocket-powered fighter aircraft ever to see combat service. Both represent Nazi Germany's late-war attempts to leapfrog Allied air superiority through radical propulsion technology, arriving too late and in too few numbers to change the war's outcome but profoundly influential on postwar jet and rocket design on both sides of the Iron Curtain.
Displayed within a British military museum, they offer a striking counterpoint to the RAF aircraft around them.
The Test Flight Hangar: TSR2 and Bristol Type 188
The Test Flight Hangar is devoted to Britain's often-troubled postwar experimental aircraft programmes, headlined by the cancelled TSR2 strike bomber — a project abandoned in 1965 amid political and budgetary controversy that still provokes debate among aviation historians over what British aerospace might have achieved had it continued.
Alongside it stands the Bristol Type 188, an experimental high-speed research aircraft built almost entirely from stainless steel to withstand the heat of sustained supersonic flight, a striking and unusual engineering solution that never saw the aircraft reach its intended performance targets. Together the hangar captures the ambition, and frequent disappointment, of British postwar aerospace research.
Collections
RAF Museum Cosford's collection spans more than 70 aircraft, engines, missiles and vehicles across several hangars on a former RAF technical training station. The National Cold War Exhibition brings together Britain's three V-bombers — Vulcan, Victor and Valiant — with Cold War-era missiles and vehicles, while the War in the Air Hangar covers military aviation from the First World War onward, including the world's oldest surviving Spitfire and captured German jet and rocket technology.
The Test Flight Hangar is devoted to postwar British experimental aircraft including the TSR2, and Hangar 1 houses the British Airways Collection of civil airliners alongside earlier training types.
A collection of more than 60 aero engines and missiles, and the RAF Museum's own Conservation Centre, round out a site that operates as a sister museum to RAF Museum London at Hendon.
National Cold War Exhibition
All three British V-bombers together with Cold War missiles, vehicles and memorabilia, in a purpose-built hall opened in 2007.
War in the Air
Military aviation from the First World War to the jet age, including the world's oldest surviving Spitfire and German wartime jet and rocket aircraft.
Test Flight
British postwar experimental aircraft including the cancelled TSR2 and the stainless-steel Bristol Type 188.
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.