The museum site at Colindale was once part of the RAF Hendon station and prior to that, one of the first civilian airfields, acquired by Claude Grahame-White in 1911.

Hendon became a Royal Naval Air Station, training new pilots in the flying schools on site.

The last flight to Hendon by a fixed-wing aircraft took place on 19 June 1968, when the last operational Blackburn Beverley was delivered to the museum prior to its royal opening in 1972.

The museum was officially opened at the Colindale (then part of Hendon) London site on 15 November 1972 by Queen Elizabeth II.

Retired Air Vice-Marshal Peter Dye replaced Fopp as director general on 9 June 2010.

For example, in recent years landscaping had taking place to illustrate what the former Hendon airfield was like, in what has become a heavily urbanised area.

Added in 2018, as part of the RAF Centenary exhibitions, were a Westland Sea King helicopter (once flown by Prince William, Duke of Cambridge), a Gnat jet trainer of the Red Arrows, and a full-scale mock-up of the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter.

Also known as the Grahame-White Factory shows the earliest days of flight on the site of The London Aerodrome, through to the formation of the independent Royal Air Force in 1918.

[20] The museum's archives, containing thousands of paper documents, books and photographs are situated on the top floor of Hangars 3/4/5.