RAF Air Defence Radar Museum

Imagine if that's where the filling for Jaffa Cakes comes from...

photo, black and white, clockwise from top left, Dr Mary Taylor, British mathematician and theoretical physicist. She carried out the research and calculations for Watson-Watt and Wilkins when experimenting with using radio waves to detect aircraft. Top right, a WAAF (unnamed) moves information tags on a tote board inside a fighter control post. Bottom, Women's Auxiliary Air Force personnel pose for a photo outside their wooden hut in the grounds of the Petersfield Hotel, Horning, Norfolk in the 1940s. The women were based at RAF Neatishead and RAF Coltishall.

Today is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science

By 1944 the UK's radar stations and filter rooms were largely operated by the WAAF.

Chain Home owed greatly to Dr Mary Taylor who carried out the calculations for Robert Watson-Watt when first experimenting with radar.

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Norwich Science Festival Norwich Science Festival is an epic celebration of all things science, which takes place every year, throughout Norwich and at The Forum, during the February Half Term!

Just a week to go before the Norwich Science Festival norwichsciencefestival.co.uk

You can come and see us and loads of other great organisations Saturday 14th February at the Forum, running activities throughout the day, with a special ticketed quiet hour starting from 9:30am-10:30am.

The Hunt for Red Sausage

What's the maximum dosage? Asking for a friend

We may have to demote Mr Knapman to Flight Lieutenant as it could just be a trick of the light reflecting off those glasses that has given him an extra stripe...

photo, colour, two men sit at a radar console. The console has banks of white buttons and a yellow tracker ball which the RAF Wing Commander is controlling.

One from the RAF Air Defence Radar Museum archives: January 1992

Wing Commander Knapman explains a sortie to Mr Bert Edwards. Mr Edwards was the winner of a local radio auction, with the prize being the chance to control an RAF fighter aircraft from RAF Neatishead.

A formal color portrait of the STS-51-L crew of the Challenger, wearing their blue flight suits and holding their spacesuit helmets. On the left side of the table at which the three in front are seated is a model of the space shuttle with its external fuel tank and solid-rocket boosters. Top row: Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, and Judith Resnik Bottom row: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, and Ronald McNair.

The space shuttle Challenger clearing the tower moments after launch on January 28, 1986. A flock of startled birds is visible in the foreground.

A color photograph showing the moment the external fuel tank and the Challenger exploded, sending the two solid rocket boosters off in opposite directions.

At this moment 40 yrs ago, the Space Shuttle Challenger’s external fuel tank exploded and the shuttle disintegrated 73 seconds after liftoff from Kennedy Space Center, killing all 7 astronauts aboard. Investigators later found failure of O-ring seals in the right solid rocket booster was the cause.

Photo, colour, of inside a workshop, a large green lorry stands with a metal staircase against it as well as tools and ladders

A sneaky peak of what the hardy volunteers have been up to this week, building a viewing platform for the Leyland Hippo cabin, repainting handrails and attempting to upgrade some of the computers from Windows Vista...can you guess which is causing the most headaches?

Instead of grit bins, we might just get a couple of these

photo, black and white, showing representatives of various nations at the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission in January 1946, the US representative was Bernard Baruch, Sir Alexander Cadogan was the United Kingdom's representative

#Onthisday 1946 The UN Atomic Energy Commission was founded "to deal with the problems raised by the discovery of atomic energy."

It proposed for “the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons” and the use of atomic energy “only for peaceful purposes.”

It was disbanded in 1952.

photo, colour of the cockpit of a Tornado F3 fighter at the RAF Air Defence Radar Museum. The cockpit is full of instruments and dials, control sticks and buttons. The ejector seat has a green padded cushion and drab canvas straps.

Our Tornado F3 ZE936 carried out border patrols with 43 Squadron, and you can learn more about the Coltishall Jaguars in the Coltishall collection when the museum reopens in Spring.

photo, colour, front cover of the 1991 RAF Yearbook, a special publication about the air war in the Gulf. The cover has a painting, by Hardy, of a Tornado Gr1 and a Blackburn Buccaneer jets flying over an Iraqi airfield. The jets are painted a beige sandy colour and both have cartoon nose art. The aircraft are dropping dark green laser guided bombs and the sky is filled with explosions from anti-aircraft sells exploding, a surface to air missile is climbing behind the jets.

#OnThisDay 17th January 1991 Operation Desert Storm began five weeks of strikes on Iraq.
The UK element, Op Granby, involved RAF Tornados, Jaguars, Buccaneers, supported by Victors, Tristars, Hercules and Nimrods as well as Chinooks and Pumas.

The Hunt for Red October: Screening and Q&A Join us in collaboration with RAF Air Defence Radar Museum in Neatishead, in as we bring the classic 1990 film, The Hunt for Red October to the big screen once again. A brilliant Soviet submarine capt...

We're excited to be working with the wonderful Sheringham Little Theatre in showing the classic Cold War thriller The Hunt for Red October at 2pm on Friday 24th April 2026.

Our volunteers will be on hand for a Cold War Q&A afterwards.

sheringhamlittletheatre.com/shows/the-hu...

A four-engined Soviet Tu-95 Bear, likely making enough noise to cause the escorting Royal Navy Harrier of 801 NAS and US Navy Grumman F-14 Tomcat of VF-142 Ghostriders, permanent hearing issues. Image: San Diego Aviation Museum

✈️New Episode✈️

For 40 years, NATO and Soviet naval air power vied for control of the seas. This week, @michaelnbooks.bsky.social joins us for a whistlestop tour of naval aviation over the cold seas of the Cold War.

📺: youtu.be/Zwl9jJns3gk
🎧: pod.fo/e/3746eb

@ospreypublishing.bsky.social #avgeek

Photo, colour, the entrance to the RAF Air Defence Radar Museum with the ground covered in snow

With Norfolk recording the lowest temperature so far this winter (-12.5), it's a balmy -1 inside the museum today!

The museum remains closed until Spring, with our hardy volunteers continuing to prepare for reopening.

Photo, colour, a rubber duck dressed in RAF uniform on a table covered in squares and numbers, a leaflet advertising becoming a volunteer sits next to the duck

We were so busy with the snow we nearly forgot #InternationalUnsolicitedDuckPicDay

A toy brown horse is pulling a red sleigh, a piece of radar equipment is sticking out of the sleigh too. The piece of equipment is something that guides radio waves to an aerial

'You've heard of Elf on the Shelf, now get ready for...'

That Tom Gauld meme of the two opposing nations perfectly mirrored, but edited to be between archives and museums.

slow day in the office so figured we'd start some beef with museums

a man in a suit is sitting on a sailboat in the ocean Alt: Duran Duran singing on a yacht in the ocean, a lady winks

👍

Hard to do without giving away clues, but it's a mashup of a 1980s lead singer from a popular British band and a critical piece of radar equipment that you can often find in your kitchen

Well it's that time of year again, so time for several days of our most excellent followers answering that tired question: 'You've heard of Elf on the Shelf, now get ready for...'

(We're starting strong for this one)

Benghazi had only been recaptured by the Eighth Army a month before, no doubt there was quite a bit of plunder around, and a helmet could prove useful for bailing out water from your tent or covering up a vital can of rations/tobacco

a close up of a stuffed monkey wearing a green shirt and blue overalls . Alt: a close up of a stuffed monkey wearing a green shirt and blue overalls looking very suspicious.

Ahem

archive photo, black and white, four men around the open flap of a large tent, three sit on boxes looking sad due to horrible wet weather flooding the tent. The men are dressed in various coats and jackets of the RAF Signals Unit they belong to, a German infantry helmet is perched on a can in the foreground.

One from the #RAFADRM archives:

'Home in a tent'

Christmas Day 1942 for the RAF 303 Signals Unit in Benghazi, Libya, looking a bit glum having been flooded out the previous night due to a horrific rainstorm.

YouTube video by ScanRange Frontline/TIME: The Defense of Europe (1988)

Fascinating 1988 documentary showing Warsaw Pact officers observing NATO exercises among many other nuggets. youtu.be/PucaA4kxmBs?...

#OnThisDay in 1939, the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan was established, over 130,000 aircrew would be trained under the scheme.

▶️ www.canada.ca/en/air-force... #ww2 #WorldWar2

Secret Norfolk - The Norfolk museum that guards Britain’s skies. - BBC Sounds The RAF Air Defence Radar Museum, is home to the longest running active radar site.

Earlier this year we had a visit from BBC Radio Norfolk's Edd Smith to set a conundrum and investigate this secret part of Norfolk. You can hear what Edd discovered at the link below.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

#OnThisDay in 1942, Squadron Leader Brian Lane, 25, was posted missing while serving with No. 167 Squadron. He was last seen chasing a pair of Fw 190s over the North Sea.

During the war, he wrote Spitfire! About his experiences during the Battle of Britain. #ww2 #WorldWar2

Marc Valentine's new single released December 5th on @WickedCoolRecords . https://linktr.ee/marcvalentine Marc Valentine - You Are The Jet (Official Music Video)

We are becoming quite popular as a filming location 😉 I'm sure I recognise that lady mannequin from our Radar School events at Halloween!

A pleasure to host the wonderful Marc Valentine and his band at the museum www.marcvalentine.co.uk

m.youtube.com/watch?v=N9n6....

Eyes at the Edge of the Iron Curtain – Life in a 1960s British Reconnaissance Regiment Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on YouTubeListen on Amazon MusicListen on Podcast AddictBecome a Patron! This is the 2nd episode with Miles, a national s

NEW EPISODE - Eyes at the Edge of the #IronCurtain - Life in a 1960s #British #Reconnaissance #Regiment

Listen here 🎧 coldwarconversations.com/episode434/

#eastgermany #coldwar #militaryservice