Imperial War Museum Duxford, Military museum in Duxford, England
Imperial War Museum Duxford is a military museum in Duxford, England, displaying nearly 200 aircraft, military vehicles, artillery pieces, and naval vessels across seven exhibition buildings. The hangars are spread across a large site that once served as an active airfield and now houses one of Europe's largest aviation collections.
The site was used as a Royal Air Force base during the Second World War and later also hosted American fighter units. After the war, it remained militarily active for decades before opening as a museum site in 1976.
The site still bears traces of its past as an airfield, and you can see the runways where fighter planes once took off. Today the name is often associated with the American air power collection, which displays machines from several decades.
The museum is open daily from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and the different collections are spread across several hangars, so a full visit can take several hours. Sturdy footwear is helpful, as many exhibition areas are outdoors and the paths between buildings are sometimes unpaved.
The museum has an active airfield where vintage aircraft take off and land throughout the year, allowing visitors to experience flying demonstrations in real time. Some machines are flown by volunteer pilots who recreate historical flight maneuvers, bringing the daily life of earlier times to life.
Location: Duxford
Inception: 1977
Official opening: 1977
Accessibility: Wheelchair limited access
Operator: Imperial War Museums
Part of: Imperial War Museums
Address: Duxford Airfield, Cambridge CB22 4QR
Opening Hours: 10:00-16:00
Website: https://iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-duxford
GPS coordinates: 52.09306,0.12944
Latest update: December 4, 2025 23:44
Aerospace museums hold airplanes that have marked the history of flight, often displayed in large hangars or outside. You can see military aircraft used during world conflicts, commercial planes that carried the first passengers, as well as experimental prototypes and objects from the early days of flying. These collections tell the story of how flying has grown, from early attempts to space rockets. Important places include the national museum of the United States Air Force in Ohio, which shows hundreds of aircraft sorted by period, and the Royal Air Force Museum in London, which shares British aviation history. In Europe, the Museo del Aire in Madrid displays over 150 Spanish military planes, and the Caproni Museum in Trentino gathers dozens of Italian aircraft along with many technical documents. In Russia, the Central Museum of the Air Forces near Moscow keeps Soviet-era airplanes and engines. These museums help visitors understand how flying developed in each country and how it changed travel and moving around.
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