ARCHIVE ENQUIRIES

Historic Film Footage

For more information, or for specific footage enquiries, please email fastarchive@airsciences.org.uk or telephone 07714 286110.

All Other Archive Enquiries

If you wish to see any of our other archives or artefacts, or to enquire whether we have a particular item, please see Enquiries & Access for details and forms.

Introduction to the Archives

Only about 2% of the FAST Collection is displayed in the Museum, the remainder is recorded, catalogued and stored securely in archives.  Items can be made available, where possible, for research and personal interest by request.

FAST has collected, and has been donated, an extensive archive of scientific, engineering, experimental and social artefacts, as well as a huge range of photographic, film and report archives. They virtually all originate from the RAE.  We have material from almost all departments within the RAE stretching throughout its long history; donated by staff at Farnborough during its closing down period; and later from donations by QinetiQ, DSTL, the Aviation Industry and a number of individuals who worked at, or were connected with, the staff at RAE.

And there are enthusiastic experts always on hand to answer your questions.

Most of the artefacts are unique, one-off items that were produced and used for the research and development programmes at Farnborough and its outstations (including Bedford, Aberporth and Pyestock). Amongst the archive there are a range of wind-tunnel models, aerial photography cameras and fittings, a complete range of Flying Clothing and Helmets, instrumentation, radio and radar items, guided weapons, gas turbines, small wind-tunnels, space department items and many, many more.

The larger artefacts, such as the Concorde engine, intakes and exhaust buckets, NGTE Pyestock research test rigs, Pendine rocket sled and gas turbine engines, are stored in a new building on the same site.

The FAST Archive collection amounts to approximately half a million different artefacts and obviously they cannot be displayed all at once so the museum displays are constantly being changed and updated in rotation. So even if you have visited us already please come again as the museum will have changed in some way.

RAE Recruitment Film

The following RAE Recruitment Film, dating from the early 1960s, provides a vivid illustration of the vast scope of work undertaken by the RAE in its heyday, and will be the period from which many of the available archives are drawn.

Archives Database

All relevant artefacts are booked in on a FAST form, photographed and individually numbered before being entered on an electronic database, thus ensuring continuity of the history of the donation.

If you wish to see any of our other archives or artefacts, or to enquire whether we have a particular item, please see Enquiries & Access for details and forms.