Tangmere Military Aviation Museum from Hayling Island: Spitfires, speed record jets and flight simulators near Sandy Point

Tangmere Military Aviation Museum is one of the best rainy-day outings within reach of Sandy Point, and one of the few places where children can sit in a real jet cockpit and then try a flight simulator in the same morning. It sits on a corner of the former RAF Tangmere airfield, about 21 miles, or roughly 35 to 40 minutes by car from Wittering Sands, our exclusive-use house at 14 Wittering Road, Hayling Island PO11 9SP, and about three miles east of Chichester.

This guide covers what you will see, when the museum is open (it closes for the winter after 29 November 2026), what it costs, how it works for children, dogs and older relatives, and how to pair it with the rest of our West Sussex guides.

What is Tangmere Military Aviation Museum?

The museum stands on one of Britain's best known fighter station sites. RAF Tangmere opened in 1918, and until RAF Fighter Command left in 1958 it helped defend the country through two World Wars and the early Cold War. The airfield closed in 1970.

A small group of volunteers set out to keep its story alive. West Sussex County Council gave them a former hut in 1981, and the museum opened to visitors in June 1982. It became a registered charity in 1987, is still run largely by volunteers, and received the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service in 2017. The collection now covers military aviation from the First World War to the Cold War: aircraft, engines, uniforms, medals, photographs, documents and personal stories, alongside cockpits you can climb into and a set of flight simulators.

When is it open?

The museum's 2026 season runs every day from 14 February to 29 November.

• February and November: museum 10am to 4pm, café 10am to 3.30pm (last orders 3.15pm).
• March to October: museum 10am to 5pm, café 10am to 4pm (last orders 3.45pm).
• Last admission is one hour before closing, and the gift shop closes 30 minutes before the museum.

So for a November stay at Sandy Point it is open every day until Sunday 29 November, and then it closes until the next season. The museum has not yet listed its 2027 opening dates, so if you are planning around February half-term, check its visiting page before you go.

How much are tickets?

The museum's 2026 day ticket prices are:

• Adults: £15
• Over 65s, Service ID and students (18+): £13
• Children aged 5 to 16: £7
• Children under 5: free
• Family ticket (2 adults and 2 children): £37; (1 adult and 2 children): £24

There is also a slightly higher Gift Aid version of each ticket. Carers of disabled visitors are admitted free with suitable ID, and children aged 16 or under must be with an adult. You can buy tickets online or at the counter on arrival. Prices can change, so check the tickets page before you travel.

What is there to see inside?

The museum is laid out as a series of halls, and a free map of the main exhibits comes with your ticket. Start in the reception area, which has a large scale model of RAF Tangmere's domestic and technical sites around 1940 and a small cinema with a short introductory film.

• Merston Hall is the hangar-style hall most people remember. It holds the museum's two world air speed record aircraft. Gloster Meteor F4 EE549 set a record of 615.78 mph on 7 September 1946, flown by Group Captain Teddy Donaldson off the Sussex coast at Rustington. Hawker Hunter WB188, the only Hunter Mk 3, took off from Tangmere on 7 September 1953 with Neville Duke at the controls and set a record of 727.63 mph along a course between Bognor and Littlehampton. Both were on loan from the RAF Museum from 1992 and were gifted to Tangmere in 2025. The hall also has a Supermarine Swift, a Canberra cockpit, full-size replicas of the Spitfire prototype K5054 and a Hurricane, cutaway jet engines, propellers, flying helmets, ejector seats and three of the flight simulators.
• Battle of Britain Hall focuses on the air battles over southern England in 1940: the excavated remains of Sergeant Dennis Noble's Hurricane, recovered Merlin, Junkers Jumo and Griffon engines, an original searchlight, and displays on 16 August 1940, the day RAF Tangmere was heavily bombed. There are exhibitions on James Nicolson, the only Fighter Command pilot awarded the Victoria Cross in the Second World War, and on Douglas Bader.
• Tangmere Hall tells the station's story from 1917 to 1970, including a detailed exhibition on the SOE agents and the Lysander pilots who flew them to and from occupied Europe from Tangmere. There are sections on the Royal Flying Corps, wartime radio, medals and uniforms, a small gallery of aviation paintings, a Bomber Command touch-screen, an exhibit on a Lancaster raid on Berlin in 1944, and tributes to the WAAF and the Air Transport Auxiliary.
• Middle Hall has RAF Regiment armaments, an exhibition on the Czechoslovak and Polish squadrons that flew from Tangmere and its satellite airfields, a Home Front display and wartime pilots' logbooks.
• Meryl Hansed Memorial Hall, the newest hall, is built around a 1950s line hut, with a Hunter Mk 5 and an English Electric Lightning F53.

Free guided tours of the halls may be available if you ask at reception, staffing permitting, and audio guides in English and Polish can be hired for a small charge. Photography is allowed throughout, but not with flash in the Battle of Britain, Middle and Tangmere halls.

Why is the Spitfire blue?

It is the question the museum says it is asked most. The prototype Spitfire, K5054, was lost in a landing accident in 1939. Test pilot Jeffrey Quill felt designer R. J. Mitchell's contribution had never been properly recognised, and from 1983 he worked with Mitchell's son and members of the original design team on a full-size replica. It was unveiled at the RAF Museum in May 1993, when Quill described it as "99% the original prototype", and it was given to Tangmere by the Spitfire Society in April 2013.

The colour comes from the prototype's high speed trials in front of the press. Mitchell wanted it painted, and blue was the paint the engineers found in the workshop. 2026 marks the 90th anniversary of the Spitfire's first flight, and the museum's Spitfire 90 events page invites visitors to come and see K5054.

What is outside?

Five aircraft stand in the grounds: a Phantom FGR2, Sea Vixen FAW2, Sea Harrier FA2, Wessex HU5 helicopter and Harrier GR3. The museum's Sea Harrier served in the Falklands War aboard HMS Hermes, and its Harrier took part in the Daily Mail Transatlantic Air Race in 1969. A Folland Gnat is being refurbished in the green conservation hangar next to the car park, where you can also see a Vampire T11 when the hangar is open, usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Behind the café is the Memorial Garden, where more than 200 people are remembered with individual plaques, many with a rose bush or a bench. In front of the main entrance there is a grassed picnic area with benches.

Is it good for children?

Yes, and especially for children who like to press buttons. The museum's own site invites visitors to climb into the cockpits and try the simulators:

• Two Red flight simulators let you "fly" several aircraft types linked to Tangmere, and one of them is fully usable from a wheelchair.
• The Lightning simulator was designed and built by a small team of museum volunteers and opened in 2010.
• The Combat Simulator, built from a Link Trainer fuselage, imitates a Second World War fighter cockpit, with a joystick and gun button. The museum says it is very popular with younger visitors.

Children under 5 go free, which helps for a three-generation group. Two practical points from the museum: many exhibits are in large hangars that can be cold in winter, so bring a warm layer, and no food or drink is allowed in the museum or Memorial Garden apart from bottled water, so snacks are for the café or the picnic area. The gift shop has Airfix kits of some of the museum's own aircraft and the Biggles Tangmere Bear. For more family ideas through the year, see our October half-term, Easter and summer holidays guides.

Can you bring the dog?

Only assistance dogs are allowed inside the museum buildings. Dogs are allowed in the grounds and the picnic area, so a dog can see the outdoor aircraft with you, but plan on someone staying outside, or leave the dogs at the house and save the long walk for afterwards. Our dog-friendly Hayling guide covers beaches and walks straight from the door at Sandy Point, and our West Wittering and East Head guide has a bigger beach walk on the same side of Chichester Harbour.

Is it accessible?

The museum says it has step-free access to all areas and is wheelchair and mobility scooter friendly. The exhibition halls, hangars, café and Memorial Garden are all on one level, and the Neville Duke Hall has a ramp. Several adult wheelchairs can be borrowed free of charge, though large heavy duty mobility scooters cannot be accommodated because of the width of some corridors. There are four Blue Badge spaces in the flat car park, one accessible toilet near the entrance, and seating throughout.

Where do you eat?

The Cockpit Café has seats inside, on a covered terrace and at picnic tables on the lawn. The menu includes speciality coffee and tea, cakes and cream teas, sandwiches, toasties and paninis, a cooked breakfast menu, homemade soup, jacket potatoes and locally made ice cream. Three-tier afternoon tea is available if you book ahead. In November the café closes at 3.30pm, so have lunch before the last part of your visit.

How do you get there from Sandy Point?

• By car: about 21 miles and roughly 35 to 40 minutes in normal traffic. Cross the Langstone bridge, join the A27 eastbound past Chichester, and follow the signs for the museum, which is clearly signposted from the A27 in both directions. Use PO20 2ES (Gamecock Terrace, Tangmere). The museum says there is ample free parking.
• By bus and train: Stagecoach route 500 runs from Chichester bus station towards Littlehampton via Tangmere, every 30 minutes or hourly on Sundays. The nearest stops are Church Lane (westbound, about a 5 minute walk) and Copper Beech Drive (eastbound, about 7 minutes). Chichester station is the nearest from the west. From Sandy Point it means several changes, so with a group of up to nine the car is simplest.

What else could you combine it with?

Chichester city centre and the cathedral are only about 5 miles, or around 10 minutes, back along the road, so a morning at Tangmere and an afternoon in town works well; see our Chichester guide. Goodwood is about three miles west of the museum. Other nearby days out include Fishbourne Roman Palace, the Weald and Downland Living Museum, Arundel and Bosham.

If your group likes military history, Tangmere pairs well with the Portsmouth side of the coast on another day: Southsea seafront and The D-Day Story, Fort Nelson and the Portsmouth harbour guide. For a late season stay, our November weekend guide has more ideas, and our milestone birthday guide covers three-generation trips. Closer to home, the Around Hayling guide covers beaches, pubs and walks on the island.

What is coming up in 2027?

The museum has already listed some 2027 events: a Cold War Day on Sunday 28 March 2027 (10am to 4pm) celebrating Cold War aircraft, and the return of Swing for Victory on Sunday 23 May 2027. Its programme of talks is due to restart in 2027 on the first Saturday of each month. Tickets were not yet on sale when we checked, so watch the events page.

What are the stay details?

Check-in at Wittering Sands is from 4pm and checkout is by 10am. The house sleeps up to nine across four bedrooms and five beds, with 3.5 bathrooms. Children are welcome, and infants under 2 are welcome too, with a travel cot and highchair on request. Up to two well-behaved dogs are welcome. The house is for the booked guests only and does not allow parties or events. The minimum stay is usually 3 nights, and the booking calendar shows the minimum for your dates.

Rates vary by season and length of stay. The live calendar shows the current figure for your dates; this guide does not indicate availability.

How do you book?

Check the live booking calendar for current dates and pricing. If you want to talk through the group, dogs or travel plans, get in touch.

Opening times, prices, events and dog rules can change. Check the Tangmere Military Aviation Museum website before you travel.