This video of a Ukrainian Yak-52 crew taking down drones with a shotgun is incredible, but the music is deeply, and profoundly inappropriate. There was really only one option. So I've fixed it.
Inspiration please! We're planning a small exhibition as part of Cold War Week in May.
What 5 things come into your head when you think of the 1980's?
I'll start with my 5, (I was born 1984)
Dire Straits, Fireman Sam, crispy pancakes, birthday cakes in the shape of a train, Greenclaws.
This week we've got more Easter egg hunts, talks in the Second World War and Cold War Ops room, cockpits to explore and our ever-popular Lego room.You can find out more about the Bloodhound system - even the chance to push the big red button.
Open until Saturday this week,10am-5pm each day.
Photo, colour, a Sector clock used by the royal air force in wartime to help coordinate information coming into the filter rooms. The clock shows numbers 1-12 as well as an outer ring of seconds. Red, yellow and blue triangles point outwards between every hour, and the hands are pointed at the 10:10 position
It's International Day of Happiness, and we're very happy to announce we'll be reopening tomorrow Saturday 21st March!
Some of you will be familiar with the Sector Clock - if not come and find out from our Second World War team.
But do you know why adverts for clocks show them at 10:10?
Image of the life raft, showing the triangular shape. It is a light brown colour.
Image showing the information printed on the raft: It says C2176, then D.R.Co. Jul 1940, and Mid/30.
#NavalHistory people! Help! Our local museum has a life raft we're trying to research. Does anyone know anything about it? It is triangular, and is stamped with a 1940 date.
That's classified information
*Finger hovers over ERASE button*
A good guess but not quite, you'll have to visit to find out - a clue is that it's more to do with copying a pigeon's super power
With interactive exhibits, real jet fighter cockpits and volunteer talks throughout the day, this is history brought to life by real people telling real stories.
The museum is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-5pm, from 21st March 2026 to 14th November 2026. Tickets last 12 months from date of booking
photo, colour, illuminated buttons from a radar console in the RAF Air Defence Radar Museum's preserved operations room
Not long now until the museum reopens for the 2026 season, and make sure you're following us to stay up to date on our latest events!
From 21st March step back into our award-winning, volunteer-run attraction that explores the history of the people and technology involved in the UK's air defences.
photo, black and white, Group Captain Joan Hopkins takes command at RAF Neatishead 1982. The photo shows a man and woman, both in RAF uniforms, with the man passing over comically large keys to the woman.
Known as “Auntie Joan” and well-respected by everyone who worked with her and by many others who came into contact with her, Joan became the first female officer to command an operational station in 1982. Joan would retire as an Air Commodore and passed away in 2010.
International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women #iwd and who better to feature than Group Captain Joan Hopkins from 'Fighter Controller' a BBC 1985 documentary about RAF Neatishead and its Cold War role.
photo, black and white, a representation of the crew and vehicles of an RAF AMES Type 9 convoy (Chain Home Mobile) used during the Second World War.
An excellent article, the radar mast is an AMES type 9 (Chain Home Mobile) which was the first RAF radar in North Africa.
On 27/28 February 1942 the British executed Operation BITING, raiding a radar installation at Bruneval to gain insights into German radar technology.
In is one of the forgotten little episodes of the desert war, they tried the same thing in December 1941 at Benina, but seem to have failed.
Photo, colour a circular badge with "I was dragged to the RAF Air Defence Radar Museum and enjoyed it" written on it
It's been wonderful to see so many visitors today, especially so many new people!
We'll have more science activities tomorrow from 10am, and you can get yourself one of our new badges to show everyone you enjoyed your visit!
photo, colour, a red heart shaped metal counter, the counter is worn with blunted dark edges and scuffs
photo, colour, plotting table counters from an RAF filter room, the counters are thin metal painted either red, blue or yellow. The counters have been placed on the squared white table with black lines
The museum won't be open tomorrow, we'll be at the Forum, Norwich for the norwichsciencefestival.co.uk
But we haven't forgotten Valentine's Day, see, we found this lovely heart shaped plotting counter for you.
Does anyone know why it is a different shape to the regular arrow shapes?
Very interesting and really like the design
Imagine if that's where the filling for Jaffa Cakes comes from...
photo, black and white, clockwise from top left, Dr Mary Taylor, British mathematician and theoretical physicist. She carried out the research and calculations for Watson-Watt and Wilkins when experimenting with using radio waves to detect aircraft. Top right, a WAAF (unnamed) moves information tags on a tote board inside a fighter control post. Bottom, Women's Auxiliary Air Force personnel pose for a photo outside their wooden hut in the grounds of the Petersfield Hotel, Horning, Norfolk in the 1940s. The women were based at RAF Neatishead and RAF Coltishall.
Today is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science
By 1944 the UK's radar stations and filter rooms were largely operated by the WAAF.
Chain Home owed greatly to Dr Mary Taylor who carried out the calculations for Robert Watson-Watt when first experimenting with radar.
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Just a week to go before the Norwich Science Festival norwichsciencefestival.co.uk
You can come and see us and loads of other great organisations Saturday 14th February at the Forum, running activities throughout the day, with a special ticketed quiet hour starting from 9:30am-10:30am.
The Hunt for Red Sausage
What's the maximum dosage? Asking for a friend
We may have to demote Mr Knapman to Flight Lieutenant as it could just be a trick of the light reflecting off those glasses that has given him an extra stripe...
photo, colour, two men sit at a radar console. The console has banks of white buttons and a yellow tracker ball which the RAF Wing Commander is controlling.
One from the RAF Air Defence Radar Museum archives: January 1992
Wing Commander Knapman explains a sortie to Mr Bert Edwards. Mr Edwards was the winner of a local radio auction, with the prize being the chance to control an RAF fighter aircraft from RAF Neatishead.
A formal color portrait of the STS-51-L crew of the Challenger, wearing their blue flight suits and holding their spacesuit helmets. On the left side of the table at which the three in front are seated is a model of the space shuttle with its external fuel tank and solid-rocket boosters. Top row: Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, and Judith Resnik Bottom row: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, and Ronald McNair.
The space shuttle Challenger clearing the tower moments after launch on January 28, 1986. A flock of startled birds is visible in the foreground.
A color photograph showing the moment the external fuel tank and the Challenger exploded, sending the two solid rocket boosters off in opposite directions.
At this moment 40 yrs ago, the Space Shuttle Challenger’s external fuel tank exploded and the shuttle disintegrated 73 seconds after liftoff from Kennedy Space Center, killing all 7 astronauts aboard. Investigators later found failure of O-ring seals in the right solid rocket booster was the cause.
Photo, colour, of inside a workshop, a large green lorry stands with a metal staircase against it as well as tools and ladders
A sneaky peak of what the hardy volunteers have been up to this week, building a viewing platform for the Leyland Hippo cabin, repainting handrails and attempting to upgrade some of the computers from Windows Vista...can you guess which is causing the most headaches?
Instead of grit bins, we might just get a couple of these
photo, black and white, showing representatives of various nations at the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission in January 1946, the US representative was Bernard Baruch, Sir Alexander Cadogan was the United Kingdom's representative
#Onthisday 1946 The UN Atomic Energy Commission was founded "to deal with the problems raised by the discovery of atomic energy."
It proposed for “the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons” and the use of atomic energy “only for peaceful purposes.”
It was disbanded in 1952.
photo, colour of the cockpit of a Tornado F3 fighter at the RAF Air Defence Radar Museum. The cockpit is full of instruments and dials, control sticks and buttons. The ejector seat has a green padded cushion and drab canvas straps.
Our Tornado F3 ZE936 carried out border patrols with 43 Squadron, and you can learn more about the Coltishall Jaguars in the Coltishall collection when the museum reopens in Spring.
photo, colour, front cover of the 1991 RAF Yearbook, a special publication about the air war in the Gulf. The cover has a painting, by Hardy, of a Tornado Gr1 and a Blackburn Buccaneer jets flying over an Iraqi airfield. The jets are painted a beige sandy colour and both have cartoon nose art. The aircraft are dropping dark green laser guided bombs and the sky is filled with explosions from anti-aircraft sells exploding, a surface to air missile is climbing behind the jets.
#OnThisDay 17th January 1991 Operation Desert Storm began five weeks of strikes on Iraq.
The UK element, Op Granby, involved RAF Tornados, Jaguars, Buccaneers, supported by Victors, Tristars, Hercules and Nimrods as well as Chinooks and Pumas.
We're excited to be working with the wonderful Sheringham Little Theatre in showing the classic Cold War thriller The Hunt for Red October at 2pm on Friday 24th April 2026.
Our volunteers will be on hand for a Cold War Q&A afterwards.
sheringhamlittletheatre.com/shows/the-hu...
