NASAM Update as of 12th Sep 2025
In This Edition
Summary of Contents
In this edition of the Blogs’ “Museum News“, we have information from Tripadvisor that they have listed the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum as being in the top 10% of things to do in the world.
Also in the news, we have some photos from Joe taken on Veterans Day at the Museum on the 30th Aug 2025.
From the Teams “Inside and Outside – The Museum“, there is a double update from the Paint Team, first week from Mark and the second week from Barry, and no mention of the Valetta for a change. However, there are plenty of other things going on for the Painters.
Under the “Events Information“, we have posters for the last two events of the season at the Museum.
Pete S
Museum News
General News from or about the Museum
Tripadvisor Awards
We are proud to announce that Tripadvisor has once again recognised the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum as one of the premier attractions in the UK. This year, we have also achieved recognition as one of the top attractions worldwide. Here’s what they had to say.
Veterans Day Photos
Thanks to Joe, we have a few Veterans Day photos. Veterans Day at the Museum was on Saturday, the 30th of August 2025.
Inside and Outside At The Museum
News from the Various Team
Paint Team Updates
02/09/25 Up On The Roof
No, not The Drifters from 1964, but the roof of the Bloodhound’s Radar Cabin.
Dave Dawson had removed rotting wood that covered the roof, revealing an aluminium surface in good condition. But with new wood likely to rot again, the aluminium would need a coat of paint and sand to provide grip should anyone need access.
With no real idea on exactly how to apply paint and sand, Ian and Mark started preparing the roof in the usual way (see photo’ 1) before Mark wandered off to the Manager’s Meeting.
Ian continued, still in the usual way, by applying rust killer to a few spots and by priming the whole surface.
It was after lunch that the fun started, with Ian (a.k.a. Mr. Sandman, as sung about by The Chordettes in 1954) applying topcoat, dusting that topcoat with a layer of sand, and then rolling the topcoat for a second time. See photo’s 2 and 3.
Results were far from the smooth, high-gloss finish the team normally aim for, but next week will tell if the finish is as rough as we hope.
In the meantime, Gwen (keeping both feet firmly on the ground) finished the bomb by painting its stand, before moving on to paint the door between the air-raid shelter and Room 3. The bomb looks great, and the door is ready for topcoat next week. See photo’s 4 and 5.
And not to be forgotten, Barry took a day VFH (Volunteering From Home) whilst he painted the new cockpit and nose mouldings for the Mosquito model he re-painted earlier this year. Results look fantastic and we’re looking forward to seeing them on the model in the near future. Photo’ 6.
Mark K
(Photos) Paint Team 02/09/25
Update 09/09/25 – Mosquito (back) to the skies!
OK, possibly a slight exaggeration on my behalf, but this week was all about reinstating the Mozzie model on the ceiling of Bomber Command.
The repainted model had been ‘parked’ in the middle of the BP Hangar since completion of its repaint in February, awaiting delivery of a new cockpit canopy and nose blister.
After about 6 months of to-ing and fro-ing with HJ Plastics, they finally supplied some usable 3D prints (at no cost). These were painted up by Barry last week.
So, the day kicked off with Barry fitting the nose blister and canopy to the fuselage of the Mozzie. Having let the adhesive go off for an hour, the team then extricated the Mozzie from the middle of the BP Hangar and carefully transported it to just outside the Bomber Command hut (see pic).
Quite a bit of head scratching then ensued as the boys tried to figure out how re-hang the Mozzie model and calculate the required length of the support strings, without damaging the revamped model in the process. After a while, Barry came up with the wizard idea of creating a lightweight ‘template’ of the Mozzie model and hanging that first. Thus, the alternative lightweight Mozzie model was born, with seemingly all the flying characteristics of an F35 with the computers turned off (see pic)! Casual bystanders were heard to comment that it looked like 3 planks of scrappy wood screwed roughly together, which indeed was actually the case.
After all that head scratching, a timeout for luncheon was then called.
In other morning news, our Top Titivator (Gwen) was requisitioned by Ian and the Navy crew to repaint the walls in the display cabinet in the Room 2/3 corridor. Here she is looking particularly pleased with her morning’s work (see pic)!
Having refuelled, the boys then got on with test fitting the Mozzie ‘plank’ in the afternoon (see pic). They had to calculate the support string lengths required to create the optimum angle of dangle to show off the paint job and decals on the top half of the model as visitors walk into the hut.
After three or four adjustments, the ideal string length was arrived at, and the boys then carefully manoeuvred the Mozzie model back into place (see pic).
The Mozzie was hung using some temporary strings and next week we will be looking to replace these with some narrower gauge less visible plastic line.
Barry
(Photos) Paint Team 09/09/25
Event information
What’s next at the Museum
Events This Coming Weekend
Below are the posters for the events this coming weekend. These are the last two public event days we have scheduled (unless something unexpected arises, in which case we will post the details on our blog). Click on the poster to see further information about these two events.
Pete S
The Repeat Information
Funding
Here we are in 2025, and although we now charge for admission to the Museum, we still appreciate any additional help we can get from the general public, readers of the blog and visitors to the Museum. So the repeated information below is still here, just in case you would like to help.
We are a charitable organisation, relying now on admission charges, grants and donations from the people that visit. Any and all help is greatly appreciated 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”.
Would you like to help??
One of the ways we save money is by having a dedicated group of Volunteers that keep the Museum and the exhibits both manned and maintained. We hope, therefore, that a few people would consider helping in the three ways below:
Help by becoming a Museum Member, also Volunteering to help at the Museum, or by making a Donation to help with 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
