Brooklands is a British Motorsport & Aviation Museum. Thanks to Graham Nice (incl. Lynn & Jennifer) for providing me accommodation in Prestwood, picking me up at Gatwick and touring me around. After fetching me from Gatwick airport we made a stop at the Brooklands Museum in Weybridge, Surrey.

Click here to meet the Nice family (missing Jonathan who was on British Army maneuvers in Europe) and our stop at Brooklands

Brooklands is now an multi-purpose museum but historically been: 1) the world’s first purpose-built motor racing circuit: 1907 – 1914 . A small part of the original auto racing circuit banking is still visible. 2) Aerodrome with aircraft hangars 3) aviation design studio — developed aircraft used in WWI & WWII 3) research lab (the 617 Squadron ‘Dambusters’ developed the bombs used to destroy the dams in the Ruhr Valledy in WWII) 4) produced 18,600 new aircraft of nearly 260 types between 1908 and 1987 5) Vickers purchased the site in 1946 for £330,000, which allowed them to produce 444 Vickers Viscount here and Bournemouth 6) The Vickers Vanguard was test flown from Brooklands 7) The first UK meeting between Great Britain and France to discuss Concorde took place here and more than 30% of every Concorde airframe, British and French, was manufactured here Sections of the 1937 Campbell Circuit, the 1907 Finishing Straight and Banking still exist.

Racetrack Banking Now her flying days are over, the Concorde G-BBDG is retired at Brooklands Museum. The first aircraft ever to carry 100 people at twice the speed of sound – 1,350 mph – she arrived at Brooklands in 2004 and, after a two-year restoration, opened to the public in July, 2006. They have an interesting 35-minute Concorde ‘flight’ including the sound of the takeoff and reaching mach 1.