Rare additions winging their way to RAF Cosford museum

A Messerschmitt BF109G-2 and a de Havilland Tiger Moth II, are the first of six new aircraft to arrive at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford.

They were transported by road from the museum's sister site in London.

Visitors can now see the new arrivals on display in the museum's hangars with four more aircraft due to arrive before Christmas.

The Messerschmitt BF109G-2, designed by Willi Messerschmitt, was flown in 1935, and it remained the backbone of the German Air Force's day fighter force and was flown by many of her allies during World War Two.

In production right up to the end of hostilities, more than 33,000 were built and post-war versions served with the Czech, Israeli and Spanish Air Forces.

The museum's rare example was disassembled by the museum's team of aircraft technicians and apprentices in London and transported on a low loader lorry along the M1, M6 and M54 before being reassembled in its new display hangar at Cosford.

Members of the public can now view the aircraft in the museum's 'War in the Air' hangar alongside fellow German fighter the Focke Wulf Fw190, facing their British equivalents the Supermarine Spitfire 1 and Hawker Hurricane IIc.

The second of the two new arrivals is the 1930s bi-plane the de Havilliand Tiger Moth II. Originally produced as a development of the well-known Gipsy Moth it went on to become one of the world's most famous training aircraft and provided the majority of RAF pilots with their elementary flying training during the Second World War.

The Tiger Moth was eventually succeeded and replaced by the de Havilland Chipmunk in the early 1950s and both aircraft can now be viewed alongside each other in Hangar 1 at Cosford, positioned next to the Scottish Aviation Bulldog T Mk 1, a further progression in training aircraft.

The Tiger Moth also travelled by road to Cosford, alongside the Bf 109.

Other aircraft still to wing their way to Cosford before Christmas include the Wolverhampton built Boulton Paul Defiant M1, Junkers Ju 88R-1, Gloster Gladiator 1 and the Westland Lysander III.

Work is already under way at the museum's London site to prepare the aircraft for transportation.

Visitors will be able to see all of the new aircraft fully reassembled and in their new display positions by early 2017, with the exception of the Lysander which will spend a short period in the museum's conservation centre before eventually going on display.

RAF Museum Cosford Curator Al McLean said: "This will be the first time that we have been able to display a Bf 109."