Looking forward to hosting our 2026 visitors.
NOTE: We are located on an operational military base therefore we are subject to their plans and schedules.
Our 2026 Opening dates are listed here:
Sunday 12th AprilSunday 2nd August
Sunday 10th May
Sunday 7th June
Sunday 5th July
Visit booking information is available here…..
With 2026s summer heatwave continuing, it allowed our volunteers to carry on with the seemingly ever-growing list of tasks.
Our recently arrived Lynx demanded some immediate attention, which obviously distracted us (temporarily) from our ongoing Phantom repaint work. Never fear though, we will get back to the Phantom once our initial Lynx tasks have been attended to.
We managed to obtain a huge amount of Lynx knowledge and tips recently, which is being put to great use. One of our more pressing tasks was the Lynx wheels, which we really needed to be made a bit more serviceable, not just for appearances sake, but of a practical necessity.
Some minor Meteor and Phantom maintenance tasks ware also attended to this weekend, so these aircraft have not been forgotten with all the Lynx excitement.
So, yet another weekend of superb teamwork in great weather, and progress is always being made.
Wattisham Station Heritage Museum are pleased to announce a recent new arrival to our collection.
In keeping with our stated aims in recording, maintaining and preserving ALL of Wattisham’s history, our latest exhibit is a former Army Air Corps helicopter, Lynx AH9A ZG920.
The Army Air Corps have been present at Wattisham for well over 30 years, so are a significant part of the stations history, and fittingly, this particular airframe has a significant Wattisham connection.
Our aim is to fully document ZG920’s history, and to commence a restoration programme to static display standard in order to showcase the significant Army Air Corps presence at Wattisham.
Please book yourself on a visit if you want to see our Museum and collection here: https://wattishamstationheritage.com/book-a-museum-visit
The Museum’s Facebook Page is here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/894311664264850
If you are specifically interested in this particular restoration project, there is a Facebook page dedicated to it here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590523633048
Another weekend had our small band of determined volunteers continue to progress the work tasks on our Phantom XT914.
To complete Phase One, we still had a few areas of Camouflage Grey (BS381C:626) to complete, as well as a couple of little touch-up repair areas too.
The starboard outer wing, and starboard tailplane and the brake-chute door were tackled and completed successfully, with judicious keying in and masking off, followed by painting.
In addition, we had a look at tyre pressures and other minor maintenance tasks.
In all, we had a very successful weekend, and can now make plans for Phase Two, the Medium Sea Grey (BS381C:637) areas including the upper inner-wings and the upper areas of the Sargent Fletcher underwing fuel tanks.
Another glorious Suffolk sunny day attracted a great variety of visitors to our Museum and HAS.
We started the day off by preparing the aircraft for display to the public, especially our recently painted Phantom, allowing the public to see the recent work that has been undertaken on it by our volunteers.
We used the morning to teach some aircraft towing and tractor driving techniques to some of our volunteers, getting the aircraft re-positioned to show off the recent work.
Plenty of interested and interesting visitors were shown round the exhibits, and many tales were regaled by them for our enjoyment. We are always pleased to learn new facts and tales from our visitors.
We are also pleased to welcome new volunteers into our ranks, we all get a great buzz helping out and giving something back, and are always welcoming to prospective new volunteers. If you fancy joining our ranks, please get in touch here: https://wattishamstationheritage.com/contact-page
If you want to arrange to visit us to see our work, take a look here: https://wattishamstationheritage.com/book-a-museum-visit
We were very grateful to receive some very relevant donations to our Museum recently.
An aircraft panel from Phantom XV494 was kindly donated to us by Peter Cooper, and this will now be displayed in the Museum alongside the Phantom canopy from the very same aircraft.
Also, a fantastic Lightning painting which will be displayed for the public to see was also gratefully accepted.
Thanks again to all our visitors and generous donors.
Please check out or visit page to book yourself in to see us and our progress, https://wattishamstationheritage.com/book-a-museum-visit
Another glorious day allowed a keen group of volunteers to continue our ongoing program of work on Phantom XT914.
As always, preparation is the key, and complex masking is tedious but ultimately worthwhile.
Masking off first allows a much easier and better application of the final paintwork without making mistakes.
Our artist-in-chief worked on the more intricate details.
Debates raged about whether to leave out the “Chicken in a basket” markings.
Everyone got stuck in, gaining practice and experience for future ventures.
The reveal is always very satisfying.
This picture shows how faded the airframe actually had become over time.
Another gracious donation to us will be well used.
Come and visit us to see the progress for yourself…….
Another few hours spent over at the HAS to tidy up our Phantom XT914 to make it a bit less faded and patchy.
As usual, preparation is the key, and although the sanding and extensive masking takes a decent amount of time, this really pays off at the painting stage.
The finished result really does show that it is worth while taking the time.
Please visit us over the summer to see how our work is progressing. https://wattishamstationheritage.com/book-a-museum-visit
A summer Saturday Open Day allowed for a large number of visitors to enjoy visiting us. We were regaled with tales from our visitors, including aircrew who had flown our very own Phantom XT914.
The day went very well, and the feedback we had from the visitors was very encouraging.
Thanks go out to the volunteers who kept the day running smoothly.
Throughout the summer we have kept ourselves busy as usual.
As well as hosting the normal public open days, there is always a number of ongoing maintenance and upkeep tasks to be attended to, as well hosting additional private visits for individuals and groups.
Yet another successful day across at the HAS Site today.
As part of our routine maintenance of the aircraft, the jets need to be moved periodically to avoid the tyres getting flat spots. This is a standard aviation industry procedure for aircraft that are parked up for a long period of time.
So, since we were going to be moving the aircraft for maintenance purposes anyway, we thought it would also be a good idea to make it an aircraft towing practice day.
This allowed us to train and refresh the skills of a number of our volunteers so that there are more people available to carry out these tasks in the future.
An initial bit of instruction on the basics of using and operating our tractor was followed by some aircraft ground handling and manoeuvring lessons, with all aims achieved.
By expanding the knowledge and skills to more volunteers, we are in a better position in the future as we now have a larger number of competent and confident aircraft towing team members.
