Yorkshire Air Museum

The Yorkshire Air Museum is the largest independent air museum in Britain and is also the location of  The Allied Air Forces Memorial. It is a Registered Charity and nationally accredited museum (No.66). Situated in a 22 acre parkland site on the former World War II RAF Bomber Command Station at Elvington near the City of York, the Museum/Memorial is located on the largest and most original WWII station open to the public.

It was also the only base used by the French heavy bomber squadrons during the war and today includes award winning gardens, a large NAAFI style restaurant and shop, 15 top class exhibitions and over 60 historic aircraft and vehicles, many of which are in working order.  

With rarely seen images and unique displays, our Pioneers of Aviation exhibition was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and has taken over 2 years to complete. The exhibition, housed exclusively within one of the buildings of the UK’s premier Bomber Command Centre, includes Sir George Cayley, the internationally acknowledged Father of Aeronautics, who lived near Scarborough; Amy Johnson, a typist from Hull who was the first female to fly solo to Australia and Russia; Nevil Shute, author and engineer on the R100 Airship at Howden and founder of the Airspeed Aircraft Company in York and Portsmouth; Sir Barnes Wallis, designer of the Bouncing Bomb, the Wellington Bomber and R100 Airship designer based at Howden in Yorkshire, and Robert Blackburn founder of Blackburn Aircraft (now British Aerospace) in Armley Leeds, the world’s first aeroplane production line.

We have some amazing aviation pioneers here in Yorkshire and we’re proud to detail their achievements in this new exhibition.

In 2011 & 2013 the museum was voted the top Specialist Attraction in Britain. 

Our Vice Presidents include: Air Chief Marshal Sir Andrew Pulford RAF, Chief of the Air Staff, General Denis Mercier Chief of the French Air Force, General Jean-Paul Paloméros Supreme Allied Commander NATO and His Grace Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York.