Free entry on Doors Open Day prompted us to visit the East Fortune National Museum of Flight at the preserved WWII airfield which was originally opened in 1915.  There is still a block which helped to anchor the huge Airship R34 which made the first transatlantic flight from Britain to the United States in 1919.  During WWII it was a very important base and many of the original wartime buildings including four hangers remain.
The main attraction is the huge sleek Concorde which enabled people to fly to America in half the usual time at supersonic speed.  It was a luxurious aeroplane, one of which came to a tragic end in Paris in 2000 when it ran over a piece of metal on the runway which caused a tyre to burst with the fragments puncturing a fuel tank so causing a fire.  It was the only accident in its 27 years but within four years Concordes ceased being used due to various factors including being very expensive to fly and the effect of 9/11 and by standards today the cabin looks cramped and old.  In order to bring this plane to East Fortune it was partly dismantled and carried through the streets of London before being put on a barge where it was unloaded at Torness then continued on the A1.  The last part of its journey was an hour long journey through muddy fields on a track laid by the army.
It is possible to walk through a couple of aeroplanes outside and visit the three other hangers which house military, commercial and civil and recreational aircraft with one hanger being used for conservation.   Of interest to me was one particular aircraft that my father had often piloted. There are also exhibits and accounts of life during the war as well as the part that aircraft have played up to modern times and many children were having fun in the interactive section in the Fantastic Flight building.