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The de Havilland Aircraft Museum is located at London Colney in Hertfordshire.
The collection is built around the definitive prototype and restoration shops for the de Havilland Mosquito and also includes several examples of the de Havilland Vampire.
History
The de Havilland Aircraft Museum was the first aviation museum in Britain, when it opened to the public on 15 May 1959, just 18 years after the Mosquito Night Fighter W4052 had been flown out of adjacent fields by Geoffrey de Havilland Jnr.
The de Havilland Mosquito design team first came to Salisbury Hall in October 1939. A barn like hangar was erected across the moat where the first prototype was hand built out of wood by a team of craftsmen, using non-strategic material and non-strategic labour. A total of three Mosquitos were flown out of the surrounding fields to Hatfield.
De Havilland left in 1947 and Salisbury Hall slipped into a derelict condition. In 1955 the Hall was taken in hand by an ex Royal Marine Major named Walter Goldsmith.
The Mosquito Prototype W4050 returned to become the first aviation exhibit housed in a hangar behind Salisbury Hall, saved for posterity by Bill Baird and Walter Goldsmith under what was then known as the Mosquito Appeal Fund. A suitable Robin hangar was found nearby and moved to Salisbury Hall, inside which the Prototype was assembled.
The collection began to expand in early 1968 and the name was changed to the Mosquito Aircraft Museum in 1974. In 1977 the de Havilland Aircraft Museum Trust Ltd was formed to operate the museum, and gained charitable status. The site was prepared for expansion and a hangar erected to protect the historic exhibits. There are now plans to erect a new hangar adjacent to the old one to house more of the exhibits.
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