NASAM Update as of the 8th Jan 2026
In This Edition
Summary of Contents
In this edition of the Blogs “Museum News“, we have news on our reopening date in February 2026. and a few photos from Steve on the first workday back at the Museum on Tuesday, the 6th of January 2026, including one from John of a potentially supersonic pigeon.
From the “Teams At The Museum“, we have a double update from Barry in the Paint Team …. In Barry’s defence, I have to say that Barry sent this in before the Christmas break, but I have only just got round to putting it into blog format.
Under the “Events Information“, we detail the 2026 events so far arranged. We have submitted flypast requests for these dates, and fingers crossed, we will manage to obtain a few flypasts this year as we have done in the past.
Pete S
Museum News
General News from or about the Museum
Reopening date 18th Feb 2026
The Museum is due to reopen on Wednesday, the 18th of February 2026, after our winter maintenance period. The museum will be open from 1000 to 1600 on this day.
The museum will then be open 1000 to 1600 on every Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday and all Bank Holiday Mondays until further notice.
Winter’s Day At The Museum
A few brave or possibly foolhardy volunteers braved the weather for the first work day of the year. The sight that awaited them was worth the drive.
Steve B
(Photos) Winter’s Day At The Museum
Teams At The Museum
News from the Various Team
Paint Team Updates
From December 2025 …
09/12/25 – Lightnings strike twice!
The boys rocked up to inspect last week’s Lightning tail polishing on XG329 with Ian W. (absent last week) unable to detect, without help, what part of the tail had been polished last week. Harrumph!
Not wishing to spend any further time on XG329 to realise only marginal improvements, Barry took a further time out to consider the best approach to bring the shine back. Maybe what we need is a larger alternative test bed on which to try some slightly more aggressive techniques. Ahaah! What about Lightning ‘nose’ XP743?
Consequently, Barry set up shop on the starboard side of XP743. First up he tried the Aluminium pre-cleaner (Flitz). Although the surface was undeniably cleaner, the Flitz did nothing to arrest the underlying surface corrosion. Second strike was to try a little bit of 2000 grit ‘wet and dry’ sandpaper before polishing. This seemed to get rid of some of the lighter surface corrosion/dirt. After a polish out with Alusol, the test panel came up quite nicely (see pic, left hand side), albeit at the price of some swirl marks, but only if you got up really close to the aircraft. A good ’10-footer’ though.
Next door, Mark and Ian W. spent the morning giving the P6 a clean with the Anti-Mould agent (see pic).
Elsewhere, our Top Titivator (Gwen) repainted one of the peeling panels on the Main Hangar door (see very exciting pic!).
After that, Gwen painted one of the walls in the back of the Shop, so that Marion has got a better backdrop onto which she can hang Prints for Sale (see another very exciting pic!).
After luncheon, and the sampling of ‘high end’ but microscopically small mince pies, Mark and Ian set about cleaning the over wing section of the fuselage on XG329 (see pic).
Buoyed up by this morning’s successful ‘cut and polish’, Barry continued down the starboard side of XP743, pausing momentarily to ‘reflect’ on his work, ho ho (see pic). With time running out, Mark and Ian lent a hand with the buffing out (see pic). By close of play, the starboard side of XP743 had been polished up to the back of the blue ladder, with the new shine very evident when strolling down Luftwaffe Weg.
(Photos) Paint Team 09/12/2025
16/12/25 – Two lane blacktop!
As we wound down for crimbly, there was a veritable mixed bag of jobs undertaken by the team today.
In the BP Hangar, Gwen gave the P6’s wooden prop a ‘tickle’ with a fresh coat of clear lacquer, using her now patended ‘look, no hands’ painting technique (see pic).
In the Main Hangar, Barry picked up where he left off last week and continued to clean and polish the customer facing side of Lightning XP743 (see pic). In order for this to happen, Mark and Ian W. had to ‘unpick’ the blue steps from the cockpit. This took a bit of ‘persuasion’ with a blunt instrument. With the steps out of the way, Barry was able to crack on and by close of play the starboard side repolish was complete (see very shiny pic). Mark and Ian then re-fitted the cockpit steps. This proved to be quite an exercise with little ‘play’ available in the securing chains and brackets. A blunt instrument was once again called for and some fruity words may have been said.
With the museum due to open for a couple of days over Christmas, Mark and Ian also took down the ladders and scaffolding around the tail on Lightning XG329. After that they toddled off to the Valetta to put down the anti-slip floor tape that Gary had ordered. Mark and Ian then laid 2 x 200mm strips of the tape down the centre of the Valetta’s cabin. The end result looked like a two-lane blacktop, to me anyway (see pic).
The day was rounded off with a cuppa and some German Christmas cakery, courtesy off John S. He assured us that it wasn’t knocked off or nicked. It was just Stollen!
Barry
(Photos) Paint Team 16/12/2025
Event information
What’s next at the Museum
2026 Event List
Below are a list of the planned events for 2026 so far booked in by the Museum Manager.
The Repeat Information
Funding
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 who keep the Museum and its exhibits both manned and maintained. We hope, that a few people would consider helping in any the three ways below:
Help by becoming a Museum Member, volunteering to help at the Museum, or by making a Donation to help with our running costs. To learn more about these three methods of assistance, please click the corresponding button below to access the relevant information.
Click to see how to becomeMUSEUM MEMBER Click to see how to becomeMUSEUM VOLUNTEER 
Click to make aDONATION
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Pete S
