RAF Air Defence Radar Museum
@rafadrm.bsky.social
Award-winning, Norfolk Broads-based, volunteer-run museum of all things radar and air defence from 1941 onwards at the former RAF Neatishead base. Open Easter-November, Tues-Sat, 10am-5pm. Got a question on WW2/Cold War air defence? Send us a DM
We were very pleased to show aviation artist Mark Postlethwaite around the museum recently, as he researched a short film about the specific Defiant that Airfix adopted for their model kit. You can watch Mark's moving tribute to an aircraft and her crew here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xagq...
The Amazing history of the Airfix Defiant N3333
YouTube video by Wingleader Films
youtube.com
An amazing day celebrating all things SR-71 at the American Air Museum at IWM Duxford today, meeting the real crews, demonstrating the heat resistant strength of the Blackbird's materials and a bit of friendly competition between the IWM volunteers and the RAF cadets on the reaction test!
Whilst we tire of the AI slop filling social media (including from some high-profile museums), it's our pleasure to share this beautiful montage of our museum created by talented work experience student Daisy last week. The art shows some of her favourite objects in the museum, see Alt text.
It's worth us repeating that we are probably the coolest museum in Norfolk right now! The Cold War room in particular is the best place to be at the moment, not only for the wonderful talks delivered by our expert volunteers, but it is also pleasantly cool in here!
Today marks the 82nd anniversary of Operation Overlord - otherwise popularly known as 'D-Day'. Here at the museum we have an exhibition of the little-known stories from that day in our Gallery, featuring the men and women who had vital roles in the successful landings and the ensuing battles inland.
17,340 a year, 578 a week - that's how many hours our volunteers put in to our museum in 2025. Without them we wouldn't even be able to open, let alone give an excellent experience to our visitors.
The RAF Air Defence Radar Museum has dropped out of the White House concert
'The Battle of the Denmark Strait: Clash of the Titans that Lasted Eight Minutes'. The opening engagement of the famous Bismarck Action on this day in 1941 during WW2 was a brutally short fight that saw great loss of life in a very short space of time. Article www.bismarckbattle.com/battle-of-de...
Perfectly timed for #ColdWarWeek we were joined by Burkhard and Dieter Dreyer, German exchange officers who served in the RAF in the '70s and '80s at West Drayton and Neatishead respectively. You can hear Dieter describe his service here thanks to WISE Archive: www.wisearchive.co.uk/story/the-ge...
This week sees the beginning of #ColdWarWeek and we've been honoured to be joined by not only Elton John but also Bernie Taupin (if you squint a bit)! #ColdWarHistory #coldwarweek
We love having great reviews left on TripAdvisor and Google, or in our visitor book. But we should also say we'd rather you didn't touch our amazing staff...
We're very proud to have received the Tripadvisor Travellers' Choice Award 2026! Thanks to all of our visitors for writing such wonderful reviews, and a big thanks to the volunteers who dedicate their time and skills in engaging with visitors and creating this special museum.
Inspiration please! We're planning a small exhibition as part of Cold War Week in May. What 5 things come into your head when you think of the 1980's? I'll start with my 5, (I was born 1984) Dire Straits, Fireman Sam, crispy pancakes, birthday cakes in the shape of a train, Greenclaws.
This week we've got more Easter egg hunts, talks in the Second World War and Cold War Ops room, cockpits to explore and our ever-popular Lego room.You can find out more about the Bloodhound system - even the chance to push the big red button. Open until Saturday this week,10am-5pm each day.
It's International Day of Happiness, and we're very happy to announce we'll be reopening tomorrow Saturday 21st March! Some of you will be familiar with the Sector Clock - if not come and find out from our Second World War team. But do you know why adverts for clocks show them at 10:10?
#NavalHistory people! Help! Our local museum has a life raft we're trying to research. Does anyone know anything about it? It is triangular, and is stamped with a 1940 date.
Not long now until the museum reopens for the 2026 season, and make sure you're following us to stay up to date on our latest events! From 21st March step back into our award-winning, volunteer-run attraction that explores the history of the people and technology involved in the UK's air defences.
International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women #iwd and who better to feature than Group Captain Joan Hopkins from 'Fighter Controller' a BBC 1985 documentary about RAF Neatishead and its Cold War role.
On 27/28 February 1942 the British executed Operation BITING, raiding a radar installation at Bruneval to gain insights into German radar technology. In is one of the forgotten little episodes of the desert war, they tried the same thing in December 1941 at Benina, but seem to have failed.
Before Bruneval – Chasing Radar in Libya
Background 28 February 1942 was the day of Operation BITING, the Bruneval raid (see this link), in which a combined operation managed to obtain German radar equipment from a Würzburg site, which le…
rommelsriposte.com
It's been wonderful to see so many visitors today, especially so many new people! We'll have more science activities tomorrow from 10am, and you can get yourself one of our new badges to show everyone you enjoyed your visit!
The museum won't be open tomorrow, we'll be at the Forum, Norwich for the norwichsciencefestival.co.uk But we haven't forgotten Valentine's Day, see, we found this lovely heart shaped plotting counter for you. Does anyone know why it is a different shape to the regular arrow shapes?
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. (see Alt text)
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.
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!
norwichsciencefestival.co.uk
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.
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.
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?
