Roundel, scab patch and rivets

Forty-five years ago, or so, a friend’s mother took him and I to a museum with aircraft hanging from the ceiling. Was it the Royal Air Force museum in Hendon, North London? I’ll probably never know as I recognised nothing today. The place (and I!) have undergone many changes these last few decades and indeed the museum is having a major overhaul at present with the centenary of the formation or the Royal Air Force just next year. There are aircraft and other vehicles of all shapes and sizes from a hand cart to an Avro Vulcan crammed in everywhere, and I didn’t get to see more than half. Sure, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the scale of the place and some of the aircraft, but then it’s possible to just pause, stop and look in wonder at the individual rivets, or the thousands of rivets in something like the Supermarine Stranraer.

If you like this picture you may also like my Close-up gallery or my Other Vehicles gallery, within the Live gallery.