Newark Air Museum soars past half a century with 50th anniversary celebrations and visit from Johnny Vegas

A museum celebrated in style and was visited by special guests as it marked its 50th anniversary.

Newark Air Museum first opened to the public on April 14 1973, since then it has grown into one of the largest volunteer run museums in the country.

Over the weekend special celebrations took place, with cockpit openings, guided tours from veterans, talks from experts and an aerojumble sale.

There were even special guests including a special advisor to the Ministry of Defence advisor who flew many of the aircraft at the museum and Johnny Vegas who was filming for a TV show.

Museum trustee, Howard Heeley, said: “Our 50th Anniversary celebrations were really well supported, with over 750 people visiting, or participating in this two-day event.

"We would like to thank everyone for their ongoing support at the weekend, and indeed across each and every year that we have been open to the public.”

“There were many high spots to the weekend, however a particular favourite for the museum volunteers and staff related to the General Aircraft Monospar — one of our earliest acquisitions back in the late 1960s.

“The Monospar is one of only two examples in the world and we never had the aircraft’s official log book in our archive.

"On Sunday the presumed lost document was presented to the museum by Doug Revell, who, along with Mike Hutchinson hasdoriginally acquired the aircraft for the museum.”

“This was a complete surprise and proved to be a wonderful end to a very special occasion.”

The museum was visited by Air Marshal Martin (Sammy) Sampson, who is currently serving as UK Defence Senior Advisor to the Middle East and North Africa.

Sammy has high praise for the museum, saying: "I think it's amazing. Anything that brings aviation and our history and heritage to life for older and younger people is hugely important.

"You look through here and you see all the ingenuity, creativity, enthusiasm and the blood sweat and tears of all the people involved from coming up with these crazy ideas for making tonnes of metal fly.

"A lot of these aeroplane models are actually aeroplanes that I've flown. From the Chipmunk, to the Harrier, Hawk, Typhoon and I actually learnt to fly on the Jaguar here in particular.

"It's also a very human thing. A lot of the names on the sides of these aircraft are people I know and items in the museum halls are things that I remember using, touching and wearing.

"Without places like this, children and grand-children will only ever see these aeroplanes as model kits or in films. It's physical history.

"This is part of the great in Great Britain. This is heritage, we effectively exported aircraft and air forces around the world and we should be proud of it."

On Sunday there was even a special appearance from Johnny Vegas who was filming for the second series of his Carry on Glamping programme at the museum.

Last year Johnny’s company purchased the shell of a 1970 Puma helicopter — which saw active service in Chile and Sierra Leone — from the museum after spare parts had been recovered to restore another helicopter in the collection.

This was then converted into a unique glamping pod, complete with a roof terrace and able to sleep four, and will be featured on the new series of the show at Vegas' Field of Dreams site in the grounds of Melbourne Hall, Derbyshire.

Johnny also took time to meet with the public and was pictured enjoying his time in the cockpit of a Falklands conflict Sea Harrier.

Museum trustee and volunteer, Colin Savill, said: "We do get families coming here who say my dad flew that or my dad flew this and it's nice to hear about the connections.

"From being a little lad I was always interested in flying and I went into the RAF.

"A lot of out volunteers are ex-military. I came here about 13 years ago, caught the bug again and stayed and had fun and I'll probably be here until the day I die.

"Anything that gets the younger generation interest is a good thing."

The current chairman of Newark and Sherwood District Council, Sue Saddington was also in attendance to show the continued link between the museum and the council who in the past helped fund the construction of one of the display buildings and supported the volunteer run organisation through the covid pandemic.