American Air Museum

Cambridge, UK

1987-1997

Duxford airfield in Cambridgeshire was a Battle of Britain fighter station. Later, as one of a hundred US Airforce bases in

Britain, it was the headquarters of the 78th Fighter Group. Now maintained by the Imperial War Museum, it has the finest

collection of American aircraft outside the United States. Nineteen of its thirty-eight aircraft are airworthy and it attracts over

350,000 visitors each year to its summer air displays. The centrepiece of the collection is also the largest − a B-52 bomber.

The brief for the Air Museum was to provide a permanent home for the B-52 and twenty other aircraft dating from the First

World War to the Gulf War and to commemorate the role of the US Air Force in the Second World War and the thousands

of airmen who lost their lives. There was also a desire for the Museum to highlight the take-offs and landings during air shows

and create a window on to the runway. The dimensions of the B-52 (a 61-metre wingspan and 16-metre-high tail fin)

established the building's height and width, and provided the principle axis through which the Museum is entered.

The building's drama comes from the powerful arc of the roof − engineered to support suspended aircraft − and the sweep

of the glazed wall overlooking the runway. A continuous strip of glazing around the base of the vault washes the interior in

daylight. The result is a light and open space, despite the fact that the structure is partly dug into the ground, a formal device

that has been compared to the Royal Air Force's 'blister hangars', which were designed to be invisible from the air. In 1998

the Museum won the Stirling Prize RIBA Building of the Year Award. The jury wrote: 'The success of this project lies in the

resonance between the elegant engineered form of the building and the technically driven shapes of the aeroplanes. The

building itself sustains the fascination of these objects.'

Awards

Celebrating Construction Achievement Award - American Air Museum, Duxford

Concrete Society Award - Winner - American Air Museum, Duxford

Design Council Millennium Product Award - American Air Museum, Duxford

Civic Trust Award - American Air Museum, Duxford

Stirling Prize RIBA Building of the Year Award - American Air Museum, Duxford

RIBA Architecture Award - American Air Museum, Duxford

Royal Fine Art Commission BSkyB Building of the Year Award, American Air Museum, Duxford

AIA London/UK Chapter Excellence in Design Commendation, American Air Museum in Britain, Duxford

British Guild of Travel Writers Silver Unicorn Award - American Air Museum in Britain, Duxford

British Construction Industry Awards, High Commendation, American Air Museum, Duxford

Sustainability

The environment is controlled to provide a stable, dry atmosphere of 55-60% relative humidity, reducing deterioration to a

minimum.

Features

6,400 m2 of exhibition and ancillary space

General dimensions 90 x 65 metres.

90m wide front glass.

Location: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=52.09274,0.12577

Area: 7 400 m2

Capacity: It attracts some 400,000 visitors per year, 30,000 of which are school children and students

Opening Hours: Open daily except 24, 25 and 26 December.

Winter 2011/2012 (30 October 2011 to mid March 2012)

10.00am - 4.00pm (Last admission 3.00pm)

Please note that opening hours to get onboard Concorde differ from the Museum opening hours.

It is recommended that visitors enter the Museum by 3.00pm (in Winter) and by 5.00pm (in Summer). There will be no free

admission after this time.

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