Welcome to Navigator Online Collections
Navigator contains information and in some cases images relating to items in the RAF Museum collection. While it is not a complete catalogue, it does offer you an opportunity to search and discover more about the variety of objects we hold. To help you there are listings of current subject areas and updates in What's New. To introduce our collections we have compiled a small selection of highlights below...
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain was a pivotal moment in the history of the world. The Luftwaffe's failure to destroy RAF Fighter Command between July and October 1940 proved to be a major turning point in the Second World War.
The RAF Museum holds some of the most important objects relating to the Battle of Britain, including the medal groups of Fighter Command's only Battle of Britain VC, Flt Lt Eric James Brindley Nicolson, and ACM Hugh Dowding, commander of Fighter Command. Here you will find a small range of objects, some of which can now be seen in the Battle of Britain upper gallery at RAF Museum London.
Charles Brown Photographs
Charles Edward Brown (1896-1982) was an active aviation photographer from the 1920's to the 1960's. His collection of aviation photographs is one of the largest compiled by a single photographer and he is reknowned as one of the finest air-to-air photographers.
Having begun his career as a society photographer he gradually produced more and more work for the Admiralty, War Office, Air Ministry and aircraft manufacturers until this became his main body of work. He retired in 1965 and the RAF Museum acquired his collection in 1979.
So far the Museum has catalogued over 16,000 Charles Brown photographs, mainly 4x5in glass plate negatives, from the collection and all these records and images can now be found on Navigator. Here can be found a sample from the period 1929-1940.
A proportion of the photographs, including colour images, have also been made available to purchase at http://www.rafmuseumphotos.com/
Radar Equipment
The Royal Air Force was the first armed service to exploit Radar (Radio Detection and Ranging) as a means of air defence.
In 1935 Robert Watson-Watt successfully used Radar to detect a passing Handley Page Heyford bomber near Daventry. This led to the the installation of a Radar network called Chain Home which is regarded by many as having saved the RAF during the Battle of Britain through providing vital early warnings of impending air raids. Since then Radar has continued to play an important part in Britain's air defences.
The RAF Museum holds a large collection of Radar equipment, some of which can be seen here.
Air Diagrams
Air diagrams are posters first produced during the First World War as pictorial training aids designed to impress a particular message on trainees, be they air or ground crews. They covered a variety of topics, including flight safety, parachute and ditching drills and survival tactics.
Many graphic artists were employed by the Air Ministry and Ministry of Aircraft Production to produce the designs, but the majority of them remain anonymous. Shown here is a small selection of posters from the Museum's collection of over 10,000 air diagrams.
Vehicles
Various types of vehicle have been used by the RAF during its history.
Here is a selection of just some of the many and varied vehicles in our collection, which includes armoured cars, tractors, refuelling tankers, motorcycles, a rescue launch, a barrage balloon winch lorry and a locomotive.
Aircraft
The RAF Museum holds one of the largest and most significant collections of aircraft in the world. Over 250 aircraft are preserved by the Museum.
The selection shown here gives you an idea of our diverse collection, which includes fighters, bombers, transport aircraft, monoplanes, biplanes, triplanes, seaplanes, flying boats, gyroplanes and helicopters.
