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Brooklands is famous as the birthplace of British motorsport. The world’s first purpose-built motor-racing circuit was opened there in 1907. Many speed records were set on the track over the following years until motor racing ceased in 1939.
Much less well known is the key role that Brooklands played in aviation. In 1908 A V Roe carried out flight trials from the racetrack in his biplane. One of Britain’s first aerodromes was then built in the middle of the track, and regular flying demonstrations were held. In 1915 Vickers started making aircraft there, and production at the site continued until the 1980s. The culmination of these efforts was the work done on Concorde – more parts for the supersonic aircraft were made at Brooklands than at any other site.
The fascinating Brooklands Museum, in Weybridge, Surrey, celebrates both the motorsport and the aviation strands of the site’s history. There is much to see, and you can easily spend a rewarding day there.
Historic racing cars are housed in the original paddock workshops and tuning sheds. Most striking is the shiny, silver-coloured 24-litre Napier-Railton (pictured), built at Brooklands in 1933 by Thomson and Taylor for the wealthy amateur racing driver John Cobb. The car became the fastest to lap the track’s Outer Circuit at 143.44mph.
Young visitors to the museum can sit inside a more modern exhibit and dream of becoming a racing driver. This is the Marlboro McLaren MP 4/6 Formula One Show Car, in which Ayrton Senna had a successful season in 1991.
An earlier speedster, Malcolm Campbell, spent much time at Brooklands. Between 1911 and 1935, he competed there in more than 300 races, nearly twice as many as any other driver. You can see his office and the shed he had built for his mechanics. Also on display is a one-third scale model of Campbell’s 1933 world land speed record car Blue Bird. The model was tested in the wind tunnel at Brooklands and used to improve the design of the actual car.
Brooklands’ aviation history is told through a collection of aircraft. There’s a Vickers Wellington bomber, the only one left that saw active war service. It ditched in Loch Ness in 1940 and was recovered in 1985, since when 100,000 hours of work have gone into its restoration.
You can go aboard several of the aircraft. One of these is a 1951 Vickers Varsity, which was built to train RAF aircrews. You can see where the navigators, wireless operators and bomb aimers sat for their lessons in this ‘classroom in the sky’.
The VC10 aircraft were designed and built almost completely at Brooklands from the early 1960s by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). You can go inside two of these planes, one of which was fitted out for the Sultan of Oman. It has an enormous sofa in gold velour and two bedrooms.
The BAC One-Eleven on display is kitted out with computer equipment used in the 1980s for flight tests. Modern planes such as the Airbus series have flight control systems incorporating features developed from this research. The work also resulted in reductions in aircraft weight. There’s a selection of flight data recorders too. One of these, from the 1960s, contained explosive to blow it clear of the plane in the event of an accident.
One of the most unusual sights at the museum is the Stratosphere Chamber, which was designed in 1946 under the direction of Barnes Wallis, of wartime Dambusters fame. This was once the UK’s largest climatic test chamber. It was built to test components under the environmental conditions found at an altitude of 70,000ft – temperatures down as low as -65°C and an air density one-twentieth of that at ground level.
You can look at the enormous plant alongside the chamber that was used to create these conditions. You can clamber up steep steps to inspect the air locks at the top of the apparatus, and at ground level go into the chamber itself and stand alongside an aircraft cockpit positioned for testing.
Brooklands’ very own Concorde, Delta Gold, was the third to be built and was never in passenger service, being used to train pilots. It’s well worth paying an extra £5 to hear a talk about the plane and to climb aboard. Once there you take a seat, appreciate the generous legroom, and experience a simulated take off, complete with noise and vibrations.
For more details, see: www.brooklandsmuseum.com