A Personal Connection — Since 1911
Not just any museum — and not just any guide
The RAF Museum at Hendon is one of the greatest aviation museums in the world — a vast, extraordinary collection spanning the entire history of flight, from the earliest hot air balloons and the feats of the Wright Brothers right through to the Eurofighter of today. Spitfires and Hurricanes, Harrier jump jets, a Vulcan bomber of almost incomprehensible scale, and the newly restored workshop of the pioneering aviator who started it all.
That pioneering aviator was Claude Grahame-White, who founded the Hendon Aerodrome in 1911 — and who is one of your guide’s own family relations. There are very few tours anywhere in the world where your guide has a genuine personal family connection to the place you’re visiting. This is one of them.
Inside the Museum — A Century of Flight
A Spitfire and Hurricane welcome visitors — the aircraft that saved Britain
The Vulcan bomber — photographed from the front, because the rear is simply too vast
From Balloons to the Eurofighter
The entire history of flight — in one extraordinary place
RAF Hendon is not just a collection of aircraft — it is the story of how human beings conquered the sky in little more than a century. From the very first tentative flights at the dawn of the twentieth century to supersonic jets and nuclear deterrents, every chapter of that story is here. Machines you can stand beneath, walk around and in some cases actually sit inside.
This tour is perfect for anyone with any interest in aviation, military history, WW2 or the Battle of Britain — but it is genuinely captivating even for those who arrive knowing nothing about aircraft. The scale, the craft and the human stories behind them are extraordinary.
👨👩👧 Claude Grahame-White founded the Hendon Aerodrome in 1911 and is one of your guide’s own family relations — making this one of the most personally connected tours on the whole site.
A day not to be missed
The only problem is seeing everything — and not buying too many goodies from the museum shop.
✉ Book NowA Family Story — From Hendon to the Western Front
The guide’s cousin fought the Red Baron — and impressed him enough to earn a personal visit
The family connection to this museum runs deeper than Claude Grahame-White and the founding of the aerodrome. Sergeant Reuel Dunn — the guide’s third cousin — flew a Sopwith Strutter, the very type of aircraft on display at Hendon, as an observer-gunner in the Royal Flying Corps. He had three confirmed kills to his name.
On 2nd April 1917 — the beginning of what became known as Bloody April — his plane was singled out by the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen, and his entire squadron. With his fuel tank hit and unable to escape, the pilot brought the plane down in a field near Givenchy. At that point, any reasonable man would have surrendered. Sgt Dunn was not that man. He kept firing his machine gun — a sitting duck on the ground — inflicting enough damage on the Red Baron’s plane that von Richthofen was forced to break off and attack again. Sgt Dunn was shot in the stomach and died of his wounds later that day, aged just 24.
The Red Baron, so moved by his opponent’s extraordinary courage, broke with all convention and visited the dying man in a German military hospital to pay personal tribute to his bravery.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, moved by this story, commissioned your guide to make an official film for the 100th anniversary of Sgt Dunn’s death — filming on the old Western Front in France, retracing the exact events of that April morning in 1917.
Sgt Reuel Dunn RFC
Pricing — ~3 Hour Tour
Per Person — All Entry Fees Included
Child prices available on request. Departure 9:30am.
Book by email or through Viator. No on-site booking calendar for this tour.
Frequently Asked Questions for the RAF Hendon Tour
Departure Time:9.30am
City Location: London
Duration of Tour: 3 hours
(Approximate times as all tours are bespoke)
How to book the RAF Hendon Tour
For more information or to make a booking contact us above or alternatively you can book the RAF Hendon Tour by using the automated booking process with Viator below.
