About
The Solway Aviation Museum sits at the edge of Carlisle Lake District Airport on the site of the former RAF Crosby-on-Eden, a Second World War fighter and training station in the Cumbrian countryside near the Scottish border. Founded in 1961 and run today by the volunteer Solway Aviation Society, the museum has grown into a genuinely substantial collection of more than two dozen historically significant aircraft, built and maintained almost entirely by unpaid enthusiasts giving their own time.
The museum's proudest possession is an Avro Vulcan B2, one of Britain's iconic V-bombers from the Cold War nuclear deterrent era, acquired in 1983 when it was flown directly from RAF Waddington to Carlisle for handover — a logistically striking achievement for a small independent volunteer museum to arrange. Visitors can tour the Vulcan's cramped, pressurised flight deck as part of general admission, gaining a rare sense of the working conditions its five-man crew endured on long-range nuclear deterrent patrols. Alongside the Vulcan, the collection includes an English Electric Canberra, one of Britain's most successful and long-serving postwar jet bombers, a BAC Lightning F53, a supersonic interceptor built for speed above almost all other design considerations, and a Percival Sea Prince, whose cockpit is also open for visitors to explore.
Beyond the headline aircraft, the museum's displays cover the wider history of RAF Crosby-on-Eden and the aviation heritage of the Solway Firth region more broadly, drawing on artefacts, photographs and personal accounts gathered by the society's volunteers over more than six decades. The atmosphere is unmistakably that of a genuine enthusiasts' collection rather than a slickly commercial visitor attraction: aircraft are displayed close enough to touch, volunteers are typically former aviation professionals or lifelong hobbyists happy to talk in detail about individual airframes, and the pace of a visit is set by curiosity rather than a fixed route.
Open only on selected days between late March and late November, and closed over winter for maintenance, the Solway Aviation Museum rewards visitors willing to plan around its limited hours with an authentic, hands-on encounter with Cold War aviation history in a corner of England not otherwise associated with major aviation heritage sites.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Check the museum's current opening days before travelling, as it operates on a reduced seasonal schedule and is closed entirely over winter.
- The Vulcan flight-deck tour is a highlight — allow extra time to queue for this if visiting on a busy day.
- Volunteer guides are often former RAF or aviation professionals; take the time to ask questions.
- Combine your visit with Carlisle city centre, including Tullie House Museum and Carlisle Castle, a short drive away.
- Free on-site parking makes this an easy stop if driving the M6 corridor near the Scottish border.
- Wear comfortable shoes suitable for walking around an outdoor aircraft park as well as the indoor hangar.
- Check for confirmation that any planned maintenance closures have ended before a special-purpose visit.
- Bring a camera — the outdoor aircraft park offers good photo opportunities against the working airport backdrop.
Highlights
Avro Vulcan B2 Flight-Deck Tour
The museum's centrepiece is an Avro Vulcan B2, one of Britain's three iconic V-bombers built to carry the country's nuclear deterrent through the height of the Cold War, acquired by the Solway Aviation Society in 1983 when it was flown directly from RAF Waddington to Carlisle for handover.
Included within general admission is a guided tour of the Vulcan's cramped, pressurised flight deck, where five crew members once sat for long-range deterrent patrols that could, at a moment's notice, have carried Britain into nuclear war. Standing inside the aircraft that represented Britain's ultimate strategic weapon, in a small volunteer-run museum rather than a national institution, is an unusually intimate way to encounter Cold War history.
English Electric Canberra
The museum's English Electric Canberra represents one of the most successful and longest-serving aircraft in postwar British aviation history, a jet bomber so aerodynamically capable that variants remained in RAF service for over half a century after its 1949 first flight, far longer than almost any comparable design anywhere in the world.
Originally developed as a high-altitude bomber, the Canberra was adapted over its long career for photo-reconnaissance, electronic warfare and target-towing roles, making it one of the most versatile airframes of the jet age. Seeing an example preserved at close quarters at Solway offers insight into an aircraft whose quiet, unglamorous longevity arguably outstrips even more celebrated Cold War designs.
BAC Lightning F53
The BAC Lightning on display represents one of the most extreme supersonic interceptor designs Britain ever put into service, an aircraft built almost entirely around raw speed and climb performance at the expense of range, weapons load and almost every other practical consideration. Capable of accelerating vertically and reaching speeds in excess of Mach 2, the Lightning was designed purely to intercept and destroy incoming Soviet bombers as quickly as possible, reflecting the singular, high-stakes priorities of early Cold War air defence planning.
Its distinctive stacked-engine configuration, visible even to visitors with no technical aviation background, makes it one of the museum's most immediately striking exhibits.
Percival Sea Prince Cockpit Access
Alongside the Vulcan, the museum offers visitors the chance to climb into the cockpit of a Percival Sea Prince, a naval training and communications aircraft used by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm from the 1950s onward. This more modestly scaled aircraft provides a useful counterpoint to the museum's headline Cold War jets, illustrating the less glamorous but equally essential training and support roles that kept Britain's military aviation running day to day.
Hands-on cockpit access of this kind, rare at larger national aviation museums where conservation concerns typically prevent it, is one of the distinguishing features of a small volunteer-run collection like Solway.
Collections
The Solway Aviation Museum's collection is built around more than two dozen historically significant aircraft, headlined by an Avro Vulcan B2 acquired in 1983, alongside an English Electric Canberra, a BAC Lightning F53 and a Percival Sea Prince, whose cockpits visitors can explore as part of general admission.
Indoor displays cover aero engines, instruments and artefacts documenting both the wider history of Cold War British aviation and the specific story of RAF Crosby-on-Eden, the wartime fighter station on whose site the museum now sits. Founded in 1961 and run entirely by the volunteer Solway Aviation Society, the collection reflects over six decades of sustained amateur enthusiasm rather than institutional or national museum backing.
Cold War Aircraft Collection
The Vulcan, Canberra and Lightning aircraft representing Britain's Cold War strategic and air-defence aviation.
RAF Crosby-on-Eden History
Photographs, artefacts and personal accounts documenting the wartime fighter and training station on whose site the museum stands.
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.