‘Heaven for plane geeks’: Why Imperial War Museum Duxford is a must-visit UK museum

Crabs, computers, cars, ancient cures – you name it, the UK probably has a museum for it. But with roughly 2,000 museums spread across the land, some are far more worth your time than others. That’s why Time Out has compiled a guide to what we consider the finest museums in the country right now. 

Our list includes the fascinating Natural History Museum in Tring for people into animals, the impressive Gladstone Pottery Museum for ceramics-heads and the National Maritime Museum in Cornwall for anyone interested in the ocean. But if you’re mad for aircraft, you should head to number 17 on our list: the Imperial War Museum (IWM) Duxford. 

Duxford was one of Britain’s most important airfields. It was built during WWI to be used as a training base for the Royal Flying Corps. Then in the 1930s it was the home of the first squadron to be equipped with the revolutionary Supermarine Spitfire and when WWII broke out, it became one of the RAF’s most crucial front-line fighter bases.

After retirement in 1961, the airfield was turned into a storage site for artefacts too large to fit inside the Imperial War Museum in London. Then, in 1977, it officially opened as the second branch of the Imperial War Museum and became the largest aviation museum in the UK. 

The IWM Duxford is made up of seven hangars filled with more than 200 planes, tanks and boats. You’ll find World War I warplanes, all kinds of WWII aircraft, Cold War bombers and reconnaissance planes, and the chance to sit at the controls of a Spitfire Mk I. It’s not all military stuff, though. There’s also an impressive test model of a supersonic jet and a revolutionary early commercial airliner to admire. All in all, our writer called it a ‘heaven for plane geeks’. 

The best days to visit this place are during the Duxford Flying Season from May to October. With just a couple months of the season left, there’s the Duxford Battle of Britain Air Show on September 12 and 13, and the Duxford Flying Finale on October 3. 

🏛️ The best museums in the UK to visit in 2026.

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