Monday August 11th was the Museum’s 40th Anniversary Celebration – marking four decades since we held our first Open Day (where we charged a mere £1 for entry!). 1985 was also the year the Yorkshire Air Museum and Allied Air Forces Memorial was officially registered as a Charitable Trust.
The anniversary event saw a flying display, consisting of three vintage aircraft, one of which flew over the site at that first Open Day 40 years ago. The Blackburn B2, now owned by the Shuttleworth Collection, had flown into Elvington in 1985 and was then out through its paces by trustees Robert, ‘Bobby’, Sage, an ex Halifax pilot who had trained on that very aircraft in the 1930s!
Bobby Sage is now longer with us but it great to see this machine perform some incredible manoeuvres in front of a suitably impressed audience.
There were also vintage cars from the 80s, a band and the opening of a new display on the museum’s own story.
The Museum’s Chair of Trustees, and a founder of YAN, Rachel Semlyen MBE invited former volunteers and supporters to the event, at which she cut a suitably decorated cake.
Here is a selection of images from the day. Credits: Keiran Wilkinson, David Harrison.
