A large-scale redevelopment programme is enhancing in leaps and bounds Brooklands Museum’s presentation of the site’s unique history, with major benefits for the aircraft collection — and, hopefully, the wider British aircraft preservation scene
BROOKLANDS MUSEUM
As a 20th century British heritage site, Brooklands has few equals. It is hard to overstate the place’s importance, whether as the world’s first purpose-built motor racing facility, or as one of British aviation’s most significant centres of design, manufacturing and flying. Its annals are filled with epoch-making events and names to conjure with. Brooklands Museum, first established 30 years ago, has never lacked stories to tell.
Yet Brooklands itself has undergone great change. First wartime damage, and then Vickers’ post-war aircraft manufacturing and test-flying activity, led to some of the track’s famed banking being demolished. More recently has come large-scale development. Where once part of the Vickers, British Aircraft Corporation and then British Aerospace factory stood, now one finds a housing estate and business park. The central area, including what remained of the hard runway, has for more than a decade been home to Mercedes-Be…
