Vulcan XJ823

After a lovely breakfast at the hotel, we popped in to the Solway Aviation Museum for a quick visit.  CyclopsJnr enjoyed getting inside some of the planes and sitting in the pilot seat.

We're pictured here with their Vulcan, XJ823.  It looks in much better condition than the one at East Fortune with fresh paint and no signs of corrosion.  Even better, it's possible to climb inside.  We really enjoyed scrambling up the ladder into the crew compartment, where we could sit in the seats in the lower part of the crew compartment and have a good look around, helped by our guide.  From there we could see into the cockpit too, although it's too cramped to get into.  Fascinating.

The kind guide took this picture of the three of us afterwards.

There are a huge number of exhibits which we had little time for but I saw enough to know I want to come back and spend a lot more time poking around.  I did spot a mockup of the radio station in a Lancaster bomber, including a "bathtub" morse key just like mine!