The ‘1946 Record Attempt’ exhibition was held in the Museum’s ASTRA cinema from 1 September until the end of November 2021 to mark the 75th anniversary of the RAF’s High Speed Flight’s successful attempt from RAF Tangmere in 1946.
Approximately 2,000 visits came to see the exhibition and the actual aircraft that achieved the World Airspeed record – Gloster Meteor EE549, on display in the Museum’s Merston Hall (the aircraft is on loan from the RAF Museum).
Two films were made in-house for the exhibition on the ‘Gloster Meteor Record Breakers’ and on the ‘Development of the Gloster Meteor’. Explanation boards were created on ‘The World Airspeed Record Achieved from Tangmere’, ‘The RAF High Speed Flight’ and on two of the pilots involved; ‘Teddy Donaldson and Bill Waterton. Colouring sheets were provide for children with drawings of Meteors to colour and a painting was commissioned from Jack Froelich, one of the Museum’s artists, showing ground crew preparing one of the ‘Star’ Meteors for the record attempt.
