Royal Air Force Museum What's On
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| Welcome to the Royal Air Force Museum London's Newsletter! |
Hello and welcome to our Summer 2012 e-newsletter which gives details of the various events taking place at our London site during August and early September. It has been a couple of months since we last made contact via email, as we have been devoting our energies to the development of the RAF Museum's new website (see below).
If you are reading this now, it is because you have signed up to receive news from the Museum. If you would prefer not to receive the Museum's monthly e-newsletter in the future, please let us know by clicking on the link to unsubscribe.
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 | New Website Launched
After successful testing in a live environment the Museum's new websitewas officially launched on Monday 23rd of July.
Specifically designed to be much more user friendly the website contains a host of new features to enable our online visitors to interact more fully with the Museum's collections and to plan their visit more easily.
New features that currently exist include podcasts linked to various aircraft within the Museum's collection; the ability for online visitors to post their stories about various items in the Museum's collection onto the page; and to like various items. Over the next few months we will be rolling out virtual tours of the cockpits of selected aircraft. As each tour goes live we will announce each occurrence in this newsletter.
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 | Wild Bird Week - 30th of July to 5th August The Museum starts its summer programme of events with Wild Bird Week - back by popular request - when we will be displaying some of nature’s most beautiful and majestic flying predators on our Helipad.
Suitable for children of all ages, the museum will hold three free falconry displays daily at 11.30am, 1.30pm, and 3.30pm showcasing a different set of birds each display: either falcons, owls, hawks or eagles with one lucky child given the active role of Junior Falconer in Training as part of the display.
After each session children will have the opportunity, for a limited time, to handle an owl and have their photograph taken with these wise and wondrous animals. If you would like to view a video of our sessions over Easter, please go to read more.
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 | Land Army Week - 6th to 12th August
During this week the Museum will display on its Helipad the various animals that members of the public were encouraged to keep during World War II. These animals were either used to provide fresh produce for families, such as chickens and goats for eggs and milk, or to aid people with their day to day lives such as ponies who were invaluable for transport at a time when petrol was heavily rationed.
Animals that will be on display on the Museum’s Helipad throughout the week include miniature Shetland ponies, goats, chickens, sheep, rabbits and ferrets. Animals will be on view to the public from 10am to 5pm. As with our Wild Bird Week, participation in the above activity is free of charge.
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 | Tales for Future Olympians - 13th to 19th August
Tales for Future Olympians is a week of interactive story workshops about the original Olympians of Ancient Greece narrated by the Museum’s professional story-tellers. These workshops have been specially created for those children aged 3 to 9 who have been inspired by London 2012 to learn more about the Olympic Games.
Held three times a day at 11.30 am, 1.30pm and 3.30pm in each 30 minute session children will explore various legends about Greek Heroes and Heroines who excelled at sport – from the mighty Heracles, the world’s strongest man to Atalanta the Greek Princess so quick at running that no-one could catch her.
As well as one of these tales each session will also include songs and riddles that will help children explore the themes of teamwork, believing in yourself and never giving up on your goals: important lessons for any future Olympian or member of the RAF to learn.
Sessions are restricted to 40 children at a time, on a strictly first come, first served basis. To help each child get as much as possible from each session it is requested that they are accompanied by a responsible adult. Again as with our other summer activities participation in this event is free of charge.
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 | Airfix Fortnight - 20th Aug to 2nd of Sep
The Museum rounds off its summer of activities with Airfix Fortnight which runs for the above dates.
Since the launch of its first Spitfire Kit in 1953 Airfix has regularly based its range of aircraft models on aeroplanes contained within the Museum’s collection.
To celebrate this fact, the Museum is giving its visitors, aged 5 and above, the opportunity to make and paint for free their own 1:72 scale model Spitfire. Sessions will be held daily in the Museum’s Dermot Boyle Wing, at the back of Historic Hangars, from 11am to 1pm and from 2pm to 5pm. As with all our summer activities in London participation in this activity is free of charge.
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 | Other Summer Activities
The Museum will throughout August have on display two temporary exhibitions that reflect the best that the RAF has to offer :
In Athletes and Olympians : Sport in the RAF we trace the histories of various members of the Service who have represented the United Kingdom in previous Olympic and Commonwealth Games whilst highlighting those current and ex-members of the Service who will be competing in the Olympic and Paralympic Games of London 2012. Athletes and Olympians : Sport in the RAF is on display in the Museum's Temporary Exhibition Gallery.
Our London Art Gallery will be displaying at the same time, the Museum's latest art exhibition : Fresh Air, where we conduct a retrospective on the career of former Artist in Residence to the Red Arrows, David Bent. Considered challenging and iconoclastic by many, David's witty imagery has won him a plethora of fans from within the Service, including the Red Arrows.
On 28th July we will be hosting renowned aviation photographer Keith Wilson as he signs his latest book, the Red Arrows in Camera, in our Museum shop.
Finally, though not quite part of our summer programme details are currently in the process of being finalised for our Battle of Britain Weekend which will be held at the Museum on 15th and 16th of September. Elements that have been confirmed at the time of this newsletter include a Spitfire Flypast, concerts underneath the Museum's Lancaster and a scramble re-enactment on our Helipad. Further details will be posted in our September Newsletter.
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