I first heard about Brooklands Museum because of its bus collection. I was curious whether this was a branch of the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden, which I visited many years ago. But apparently it's a separate museum in the far outskirts of London, charging a fairly hefty admission fee.

The ticket includes admission to 2 museums on the site. Thanks to the many friendly volunteers offering detailed commentary throughout the site, I learned that this museum sits on the world's first motor racing circuit, which opened in 1907. I left very impressed and the admission was well worth the experience.

Aircraft manufacturing arrived during World War I and continued during World War II. Over 5700 military aircraft were produced here, and after the war, a few successful civilian planes were also made here. During its 80 year history, nearly 19,000 aircraft made their first flights at Brooklands.







On the other side of the Concorde is a special VC10 that was used by the Sultan of Oman. The first VC10 flew from Brooklands in 1962 and was the biggest, most luxurious aircraft produced in the country.











The BAC 1-11 flew for 29 years and arrived here in 1994. Developed in the 1960s, this type was one of Britain's best-selling planes, with the largest version able to carry 119 passengers cruising at 21,000 feet.













This Vickers 806 Viscount was built in 1958 and the model was the world's first turboprop plane for passenger use. After 444 planes were made, production ceased in the early 1960s. It can seat up to 71 passengers.









The "Superb" was built in 1961 for British European Airways. It was converted into a cargo plane in 1970, and flew until 1996 when Hunting Cargo donated the plane to the museum. The Vanguard came at the wrong time when turboprop planes were no longer competitive and only 44 of these were built, all at this site.











This unsuspecting-looking building is actually quite historic. This was the world's first booking office offering recreational flights to the public, dating from 1911.



More photos on my website : https://www.globalphotos.org/surrey.htm