NASAM Update as of the 10th Mar 2025
In This Edition
Summary of Contents
In this edition of the blog “Museum News” we start with the story of a leather flying coat being presented to the Museum by a couple of visitors from Toronto, Canada. Why come all the way from Canada, you may ask, well….. The story is below.
In this section, we also have news of the closure of the Museum for a few days whilst the Imperial War Museum from Duxford collect their Sea Harrier and bring along a replacement Jaguar …
From the Teams “Inside and Outside – The Museum“, we start with a project by our own Chair. Steve explains how room 3 has become his “short-term” project that has lasted through two winters and is still ongoing. Next up in the Teams is Barry, and his update from the Paint Team.
Museum News
General news from the Museum
Leather Flying Coat
We received a visit from Patrick and Jennifer Shield all the way from Toronto, Canada on Sunday 2nd March. Patrick’s grandfather, Thomas Harold Shield (“Poppa Tom”), flew Felixstowe flying boats in WW1. We were delighted, last year, when Patrick got in touch to offer to donate to us the 107 year-old full leather flying coat worn by his grandfather during the Great War. Patrick also gave us a treasure trove of pictures, documenting all manner of events involving Felixstowe flying boats (and much more) during that period. One of the attached pictures shows Tom himself (third from the left), in the captain’s seat of a Felixstowe F-3, wearing what we are told is the very flying coat which will take pride of place in our collection.
Why us? Well, the connection, of course, is that we have the only remaining components of a Felixstowe flying boat anywhere in the world. We have the nose of an F-5, which long-time members will know served as a potting shed in Felixstowe, and, over the winter, we have restored a further section of a Felixstowe flying boat fuselage frame and floor. The flying coat and the associated photos, along with the tales of derring-do, told by Tom to his grandson, Patrick, will complement our F-5 display superbly.
The pictures below show Clare (who has become our resident flying boat expert!) receiving the coat from Patrick, who was grateful that it will be in more auspicious surroundings than hanging on the nail in his garage, or the back of his father’s barn where it has lived for a great many decades!
Martin
(Photos) Leather Flying Coat presentation
Advance Notice – Museum Closed For 3 Days
We have received confirmation from the Imperial War Museum at Duxford that they propose to carry out a swap of aircraft between the 2nd of June 2025 and the 10th of June 2025.
The aircraft in question are the BAe Sea Harrier FA.2 – ZA175, which is returning to Duxford, and the Jaguar GR.1B – XX108, which will come to Flixton.
As a result of this, the Trustees have agreed to close our museum to the public on the following days:
- Wednesday 4th of June 2025
- Saturday 7th of June 2025
- Sunday 8th of June 2025
It is hoped that the aircraft movements will be fully completed by Friday 6th June 2025. However, Duxford have requested and been granted two “buffer” days in case they cannot complete by this date. This is why the museum will remain shut until the completion of this project. It is hoped that the Museum will reopen as normal on Wednesday, the 11th of June 2025.
Keep up to date by following the NASAM BLOG
Inside and Outside – The Museum
Information from the various sections
Room 3
Room 3 or are we nearly there yet?
In late 2023 I started a refresh of room 3. The displays were a little ad-hoc and the room was almost claustrophobic. I anticipated it taking me most of the winter. Try all winter, most of the summer, and all the following winter.
Is it finished yet? Not quite, but it’s fully open to the public and displays are hopefully more logically sequenced.
The first task was to move the decoy display from room 2 into room 3. This now occupies the area immediately inside the door to the left. Following on from that the left hand wall now has displays on anti-aircraft, civil defence and the fire service. These are variously moved in from where Luftwaffe Weg now is, and from other parts of room 3.
The central cabinets contain stories of those who served locally, or locals who served elsewhere. There is a section on Prisoners of War, both locals who were PoWs elsewhere, and axis troops who were PoWs here.
The uniform (and flying clothing) display has moved into cabinets on the right hand wall, there is also a display of very rare uniform item master patterns in the cabinets to the right. The chippies created new cabinets to replace the floor to ceiling unit in the middle of the room which contains the bomb disposal display.
All in all room 3 now (mostly) contains Home Front displays. The major exception is the new recconnaissance section at the far right. This replaces the smaller display that used to be in the large central cabinet.
Some of the wreckology items that were displayed under the central cabinets have been moved into Room 2. This will continue as we change room 2 slowly over the summer.
I hope that you can visit and see these and other refreshed displays that have been our winter projects soon. We hope that you like them, please let us know your thoughts.
Now I just need to let the archivists know where everything is…
Steve B
(Photos) Room 3 Update
Paint Team Update
25/02/25 – Getting all hot under the collar!
Upon arrival, you could cut the tension in the team with a knife. There was an air of general tetchiness following the result of the weekend’s north/east London derby at the Emirates. Mark (a Gooner) was uncharacteristically quiet, while Ian W. (a Hammer) fought back every temptation to rub it in further.
The atmosphere thawed as the morning progressed and thoughts turned to Norma Jeane instead. Mark and Ian W. finished off the repaint of one of the alcoves in Room 2, ready for the arrival of Marilyn. Unfortunately, the Marilyn mannequin had already been removed to a ‘safe place’ but that didn’t stop Ian W. getting a bit hot under the collar with the prospect of a close encounter with Marilyn, the poster version (see pic).
Elsewhere, Barry toddled off to the Restoration Workshop annexe to finish the decals on the Mozzie model (see pic*). Barry also masked off the propeller tips and gave them a couple of coats of Hammerite yellow (see pic). And that’s the Mozzie model finished, except for the nose blister and canopy. We are now in a holding pattern, waiting for the 3D printers to respond.
In the arvo, Mark and Ian W. did a bit of tidying up in Room 3 after the recent repaint while the ‘Leccies sought to resolve the lighting issues (see pic).
Having finished the Mozzie model, there was also time for Barry to make a start on cleaning up the tail boom on the Skeeter (see pic).
(*The keen eyed amongst you may have spotted that your correspondent managed to fit the squadron codes the wrong way on the Mozzie. A schoolboy error that led to a short burst of teeth gnashing and general grumping while I got over it. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough sky grey vinyl to cut another set. Still, it looks a lot sharper than when we took it down from the ceiling in Bomber Command)
Barry
(Photos) Paint Team Update
The Repeat Info
Here we are, the start of a new year, and despite the fact that we will now raise some monies through our admission charges, the repeat information is still here, I’m afraid, and I make no apologies for keeping his section in our blog. We are a charitable organisation relying on some grants and monies from the public to keep us going. Any help we receive is gratefully accepted and enables the museum to continue in our mission “To conserve, preserve and promote the history of aviation in East Anglia, whilst providing a fun, family-friendly and interactive museum, promoting education and remembrance of the events of the past“.
Are you thinking of helping ??
We save money by having a dedicated group of volunteers that keep the museum and the exhibits both manned and maintained. We hope therefore a few people may consider helping in the ways below.
There are three easy ways to help: Help by becoming a Museum Member, also by Volunteering to help at the museum, or by Donating to assist in our running costs. Please click on the appropriate button below to access the appropriate information:
Click to see how to becomeMUSEUM MEMBER Click to see how to becomeMUSEUM VOLUNTEER 
Click to make aDONATION
Keep Up To Date
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Pete S
