RAF Manston Museum

We've been here a bunch of times now - so it's definitely worth a post, and a visit!

Entry fee:

• Adults - £5
• Children - £2.50
• Under fives - Free

This quaint volunteer-run museum tells the story of RAF Manston airfield and it's use by the RAF and civil airlines up to the present day. During WW2 Manston was an important RAF station, and now the museum tells its story from 1916 to the modern day.

It's also conveniently right next door to the Spitfire and Hurricane Memorial Museum.

It's full to the brim with planes, engines, cockpits and flight instruments, hundreds of photos and memoirs, and even a morse code treasure hunt to crack - there are not many places you get this much educational and entertainment bang for your buck.

Half way through the museum tour, there is a mini-simulated blitz village with mock-up shop fronts and bomb shelters, giving an immersive and educational experience (far better than the classroom if you ask us).

Just be aware that the explosions, dark rooms and flashing lights may be a bit overwhelming if your child is more sensitive to these inputs. Ours are very sensitive to threat and peril, particularly in TV shows, but they seemed to warm to this after a gentle period of acclimitisation.

The museum has a guided route with not many available exit points, so it's great for letting adventurous little ones buzz around at their own pace.

Our favourite exhibits included:

• Hawker Hunter F.6A
• FV432 armoured personal carrier
• Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer S.2B
• WW1 truck used in the film Warhorse
• Hawker Siddeley Nimrod MR2
• RAF Mk10 fire engine

If you're a fan of old books they have a very quaint section of the shop with old aviation-themed books for sale for between £2 and £5, as well as an extremely well-priced NAAFI cafe just outside, run by delightfully friendly staff.

The museum's website is here

We cannot think of a better place to learn history, surrounded by the real-deal stories, equipment and adventures of those who actually lived through the period and designed the machinery that we take completely for granted today.

Some stuff we learned

• How they made the bouncing bombs - why they needed them to skip enthusiastically across the water, and a bit of the physics behind needing to spin the barrels up to high speed before letting them go
• How planes fly by pushing air backwards over their wings and generating lift, while helicopters fly by spinning their 'wings' around in a circle and thrusting air directly downards instead, and why this means helicopters can hover and planes can't
• Ejector seats and why they're useful
• A bit of morse code, and how the planes had radios to communicate with the ground
• That low-hanging rudders and door frames hurt

Overall - 10/10 - we will definitely be returning - a lot

The kids loved it, as did the adults, and it felt like a wholesome, educational and enjoyable way to spend time together as a family.