Low Countries museum visits.
The major
aviation museums in Holland (the KLu museum at Kamp Zeist, and Aviodrome at
Lelystad) and Belgium (Royal Army museum in Brussels) are probably quite well
known to readers and group members, and in themselves are very worthwhile
locations to visit. Many of us had visited these places in recent years, so we
were looking for some of the lesser known collections for a day out.
There is a large reserve collection for the Dutch Air Force museum stored just across the road from Kamp Zeist on the active airfield at Soesterberg. This collection is not normally accessible, and its future is still not completely agreed upon with the imminent closure of Sosterberg air base. However, the collection does open its doors to the public on occasion, and we decided to take advantage of one of these for a day trip across to the continent. We chose the Sunday as this was the only day that the Stampe Museum at Antwerp in Belgium opened, so this gave us a chance of visiting this often bypassed collection too.
We had a good take up for this trip, and 9 of us from the Suffolk Division set-off around 4am on the Sunday morning, heading for the Eurotunnel. It was a beautiful hot sunny April day and good progress enabled us to get into Holland (our fourth country that morning) before 10am local time, arriving at Kamp Zeist by 11:45.
We collected our tickets, and boarded the coach just in time before it departed for the short journey to Soesterberg air base. The main museum storage hangar is reached first, and we all disembarked for a wander through, with ample opportunity for photographs.
| 218 | SP-2H Neptune | Forward fuselage only | |
| I-189 | 7E-5 | Meteor F8 | Sectioned |
| J-230 | F-16A | Named "Mo Money", wings detached | |
| M-5 | T-33A | ||
| R-11 | Auster | AAC scheme, ex MZ236 | |
| N-122 | Hunter F4 | ||
| N-205 | Hunter T7 | ||
| R-87 | Piper Cub | ||
| S-6 | U-6A | ||
| E-22 | Fokker S-11 | ||
| (T-2) | Lockheed L12A | ||
| Also a civilian Beech marked up as "G-10" | |||
Back onto the coach, we then proceeded to the HAS site to check out further stored aircraft.
| (16-212) | Catalina | ||
| I-19 | Meteor T7 | Sectioned, ex WH233 | |
| K-3029 | NF-5B |
A recently arrived ex-German Navy Atlantic is parked on a dispersal near the runway, and is being repainted to represent a former Dutch Navy example.
| 61+20 | V | Atlantic | Being painted as MLD "250, c/n 55" |
The final HAS we went into contained no fewer than SEVEN Lockheed F-104 Starfighters, what a sight!
| D-5803 | TF-104G | ||
| D-5806 | TF-104G | ||
| D-5810 | TF-104G | ||
| D-8061 | F-104G | ||
| D-8244 | F-104G | ||
| D-8318 | F-104G | ||
| D-8338 | F-104G | Marked as "D-5805" |
Back on the coach for the short journey back to the Museum at Kamp Zeist, and I can only have praise and thanks for the Air Force and Museum staff for their hospitality during the visit.
Kamp Zeist Museum collection (from http://www.eurodemobbed.org.uk)
| 134 | Sikorsky S-58 UH-34J | V, ex MLD, USN |
| 160 | Tracker US-2N | V, ex MLD, USN |
| 201 | Neptune SP-2H | V, ex MLD |
| 225 | AB.204 B | K, ex MLD |
| 374 | CM-170 Magister R | F-GPHU, ex AdlA |
| 42265 | Super Sabre F-100D | FW-871, '41871', ex AdlA, USAF |
| 436/18 | Fokker D.VII | 266, N4729V, ex GAF |
| 5307 | Sabre F-86F | FU-385, '25385', ex FAP, USAF |
| 15858 | Sea Fury FB50 | Ex MLD |
| 61052 | Delta Dagger F-102A | FC-032, '61032', ex HAF, USAF |
| 65-1 | Dornier Do.24 T3 | X-24, N99225, ex EdA |
| 74-0083 | Eagle F-15A | CR, '77-132', ex USAF |
| 940MS13 | MiG-21 PFM | 47 red, ex CCCP |
| A-29 | Alouette II | H-4, ex BAF |
| A-465 | Alouette III | Ex KLu |
| B-37 | Bolkow Bo.105 CB | Ex KLu |
| C-10 | Fokker F-27 | Ex KLu |
| D-8022 | Starfighter F-104G | Ex KLu |
| D-8245 | Starfighter F-104G | Ex KLu |
| FH131 | Harvard IIB | B-175 |
| FT419 | Harvard IIB | B-103, K, '099' |
| H-20 | Alouette III | Ex KLu |
| H-307 | Mustang P-51K | Ex KLu, USAF |
| J-215 | Fighting Falcon F-16A | Ex KLu |
| K-171 | Thunderjet F-84G | DU-24, ex KLu |
| K-4011 | Freedom Fighter NF-5B | Ex KLu |
| K-688 | Dakota C-47A | X-5, ex KLu, RDAF, RNAF, USAF |
| K-8 | Thunderjet F-84E | Parts only, ex KLu |
| KL-40 | Northrop KD2R-5 | Ex KLu |
| L-11 | Fokker S-14 | Ex KLu |
| M-464 | Mitchell B-25J | Ex KLu, USAF |
| MJ143 | Spitfire LFIXC | H-1 |
| MM53-8305 | Sabre F-86K | Q-305, ex AMI, USAF |
| N-144 | Hunter F4 | Ex KLu |
| NF869 | DH.89 Dominie | V-3, PH-OTA, 'Gelderland' |
| O-36 | Hiller OH-23C | Ex KLu |
| P-226 | Thunderstreak F-84F | Ex KLu |
| PG690 | Tiger Moth | A-10 |
| VZ409 | Meteor F4 | I-69 |
| WM983 | Sea Hawk FB5 | D, '131' |
Just before we departed the museum, we had been informed of a stored Bolkow Bo.105 and NF-5 in a nearby building. We duly found these, but were unable to identify them, in fact, the Bolkow had been halved vertically lengthwise, presumably being prepared for some sort of display, so was more like a Bo.52½.
Next stop for the day was the light airfield at Seppe, which houses a small museum, again with limited opening hours.
| 15343 | Bf.109G (being restored to taxiable condition) | |
| 44-80597 | PH-GEN | Piper Cub |
| N6866 | G-AJHS | Tiger Moth |
| TJ347 | PH-NET | Auster |
| R-213 | OO-OAA | Piper Cub |
| 41-20805 | N56028 | PT-13 |
Our final plan for the day was the Stampe Museum, next to the terminal building at Antwerp airport.
| 21 | G-AIYG | Stampe | |
| 7727 | N4109C | T-6 Texan | ex SAAF |
| V-4 | OO-EIR | Stampe | |
| V-5 | OO-PAX | Stampe | |
| V-18 | OO-GWD | Stampe | |
| V-29 | OO-GWB | Stampe | |
| V-43 | OO-SVB | Stampe | c/n 1185 |
| V-52 | OO-BPL | Stampe | |
| Plus civvy Stampe marked as "V-66" | |||
On the way back to Calais we went past Beervelde, where our 10th Starfighter of the day (ex Belgian Air Force FX-79) is displayed near the motorway.
Despite a brief detour via Oostende airport (African DC-8s etc) we had yet another excellent day trip out to Europe for us, roll on the next outing!