Collection: Jet Age Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  The Jet Age Museum is part of the Gloucestershire Aviation Collection.  It promotes and preserves the history of Gloucestershire’s contribution to world aviation; to do so for the inspiration, enjoyment and information of the public; and to provide an educational resource and a focus of aviation interest.

  Gloucestershire Aviation Collection, an all-volunteer membership organisation, was set up as a registered charity (no. 297818) in 1987. Based in a series of temporary premises, it collected aircraft, other artefacts and archive material relating primarily to the Gloster Aircraft Company, but also to local aerospace companies Dowty, Smiths and Rotol and to other aspects of the county’s aviation history, such as early pioneers, World War 1 and World War 2, Gloucestershire Airport and other county airfields. Jet Age Museum was adopted as the charity’s trading name in 1997.

  From 1992 it set out to assemble a representative collection of Gloster-built aircraft, including building replicas ourselves where applicable, and to raise funds for a permanent home. In spite of many setbacks, it attracted significant funding, donations and support in kind from local authorities, other museums, businesses, trusts and individuals.  It opened to the public in its permanent home in 2013 next to Gloucestershire Airport at Staverton near Gloucester.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2024

  Licence: CC BY-NC