The Museum

SAVING GLOUCESTERSHIRE’S AVIATION HERITAGE

Jet Age Museum exists to save and commemorate Gloucestershire’s world-class aviation heritage in a permanent home open to the public.

It takes its name from the fact that Britain’s first jet aeroplane was designed, built and first left the ground at the former Gloster factory-airfield between Gloucester and Cheltenham. In 1941 this was the first aeroplane in the world to be powered by Frank Whittle’s revolutionary jet engine.

We are the only museum devoted to the former Gloster Aircraft Company.

We were previously open to the public on the former Gloucester Trading Estate and at Gloucestershire Airport but were obliged to close when our site was redeveloped. Two of our aircraft are on display at the airport and others are stored there.

Although we are currently closed to the public we have two restoration workshops with ongoing projects in the Tithe Barn Centre at Brockworth and at Cam, near Dursley.

We are now fundraising for a permanent home at Gloucestershire Airport, Staverton, where the airport management has offered us a one hectare site on a long lease at a peppercorn rent.

In parallel, we are planning a display and interpretation centre for visitors to our restoration workshop at the Tithe Barn Centre as an essential complement to the museum at the Airport.

HOW WE OPERATE

Jet Age Museum is an all-volunteer museum with more than 200 members. Its management committee meets every month to review progress and plan ahead. All members are welcome to attend. An annual general meeting for members is held between January and March each year.

Jet Age is the operating name of Gloucestershire Aviation Collection, a registered charity (no. 297818) formed in 1986. We are members of the Tewkesbury Museums Partnership, the Gloucestershire Museums Group, the British Aviation Preservation Council and the Association of Independent Museums.

We receive training from the National Aviation Heritage Skills Initiative and members attend county and regional museums training days.

Annual membership costs £10 and life membership is £250. The subscriptions, donations and goodwill of our members have made it possible for the museum to survive closure and continue many of its activities while continuing to work towards a permanent home which can open to the public once more.

ARCHIVES AND PUBLICATIONS

Jet Age Museum’s document and photographic archive houses many treasures. As well as the RusselllAdamslCollection - a remarkable resource for the study of British aviation developments in the 1950s and early 60s - there are early Gloster and Dowty company documents, factory drawings, unpublished memoirs, the papers of a former chief designer and the log book of a former chief test pilot, together with many more photographs.

We are fortunate to have the services of two distinguished aviation authors and historians, Tony Buttler and Phil Butler, as our archivists.

Drawing on these archives, the museum’s publications have helped to make the collection accessible to a wider public even while the museum is closed to visitors. Publications to date are:

“Gloucestershire’s Aviation Heritage and Jet Age Museum” by Martin R Bartram. Gloucestershire Aviation Collection 1998. £3.50 direct from us.

“Jet Pioneers: Gloster and the Birth of the Jet Age” by Tim Kershaw. Sutton Publishing in association with Jet Age Museum, 2004, £16.99.

“Jet Age Photographer: the Aviation Photography of Russell Adams” by Tim Kershaw. Sutton Publishing in association with Jet Age Museum, 2005, £25.00.

These available online or from retail shops.

MEMBERSHIP
Membership is open to all for a modest £10.00 a year. Members are invited to an Annual General Meeting and are welcome to attend monthly management meetings. Life membership is £250 and there are concessionary rates for couples and families. Members receive a free newsletter.

Forms from the Membership Secretary, 34 Kittiwake Drive, Kidderminster DY10 4RS.

FUNDRAISING
We have raised some £180,000 towards building a permanent home at Gloucestershire Airport and our planning application will soon be submitted. Almost £100,000 has been donated or pledged by members, with the balance from the BVG Clarke Trust, Tewkesbury Borough Council and Rolls-Royce plc. Another £90,000 is still needed for Phase 1 to go ahead

Appeal forms are available from the Hon. Treasurer, 57 Crown Drive, Bishops Cleeve GL52 8TA.