In search of entertainment for a 2.5 year old on a Saturday morning in November we decided to give this place a go. Somehow we managed to arrive before it opened and were the first through the door.

After eventually prising our toddler away from the model planes in the entrance area ("don't you want to come and look at the real planes?" "no, I'm still playing with these models") we bumped into one of the museum's volunteer guides. He was fantastic - we saw him all the way around the museum and he helped us find all the things that our toddler would be interested in. I was expecting my wife and toddler to be bored after half an hour, but we managed to keep going all the way to lunchtime!

Highlights are an excellent selection of WWI and WWII planes, plus a simulation of an aircraft carrier (it truly is an amazing experience), and a real prototype Concorde. They also have a flight simulator, but we didn't try this.

The cafeteria is simple but does the job. They helped heat up our baby's jar of mush.