A visit to the National Museum Of Ireland.

The National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks, Dublin has a large collection of historical artifacts covering the history of Ireland.  Among these are two aircraft moved from the Irish Aer Corps Museum in 2006.

 

De Havilland Vampire T11, c/n 15563 was the 260th Vampire Trainer built .  Built at the De Havilland factory at Broughton, it was delivered to the RAF as XE977 on June 7th 1955.  Withdrawn from RAF use in 1963 it was donated to the Irish Aer Corps as an instructional airframe on August 30th 1963.  Assigned the serial number 198 when delivered to Baldonnel, it wasn't applied until years later when 198 was placed on display outside the officers mess at Baldonnel.  Eventually it was moved indoors again to the Aer Corps museum and then moved to the National Museum in 2006.

Miles M14.A Magister 1, c/n 1028 was one of a batch of 50 ordered by the RAF and built by Philips and Powis Aircraft Limited. Ten of these were diverted to the Irish Aer Corps and never entered RAF service.  Delivered new to Baldonnel on March 22nd 1939, 34 flew until March 1952 when it was transferred to the Aer Corps engineering school as an instructional airframe. Restored in 1981 it was moved to the Irish Aviation Museum at Dublin Airport until 1996 when it returned to Baldonnel.  34 along with 198 moved to Collins Barracks in 2006.

Another item of aviation interest on display is a World War 1 era airspeed indicator.  Built by Wilhelm Morell in Leipzig these anemometer type indicators were fitted to many aircraft at that time.