A museum in a seaside resort is being expanded to tell the story of aviation pioneer Amy Johnson.
The Spitfire Visitor Centre Hangar 42 at Blackpool Airport said it needed more space to tell the story of the pioneering pilot who became the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia in 1930.
Mrs Johnson took off from Blackpool Airport in January 1941 to deliver an RAF aircraft to Kidlington Air Base in Oxfordshire, but her plane was forced to make an emergency landing in the Thames Estuary four and a half hours after takeoff.
Museum volunteers are restoring a “very rare” replica of the plane she used to make her fateful final flight and are raising funds for a new hangar to display the aircraft.
Volunteers from the Lytham St Annes Spitfire aerobatic team are restoring a rare Airspeed Oxford Mk.V EB518, identical to the aircraft flown by Mrs Johnson, which had connections to the Fylde coast.
Her family ran an ice-packaging business in Fleetwood and she was in Blackpool to visit her sister who lived in the resort before taking her fateful final flight.
Raymon Messih, one of the volunteers working on the Saving Amy project, said: “It is a privilege to have this opportunity because these are very rare these days.”
He said it would be an honor to bring people to the museum and “tell the story of Amy Johnson with the aircraft stationed here that recreates that flight.”
Mrs Johnson’s flight departed from what was then RAF Squires Gate in January 1941 to Kidlington Air Force Base for the Air Transport Auxiliary.
The flight was supposed to last 90 minutes, but for unknown reasons their plane had to make an emergency landing in the Thames Estuary four and a half hours after takeoff.
Mrs Johnson, who was from Hull, was 100 miles off course and 12 miles off the coast of Herne Bay. Her body was never found.
As the replica aircraft take shape, the museum has outgrown its premises and the Lytham St Annes Spitfire exhibition team is raising funds for a second hangar.
Volunteer Maurice Saunders, who looks after the buildings and facilities, said: “At the moment we don’t have enough physical space for everything in the hangar.”
He said a new hangar would mean “everything could be displayed properly” and that there would be a better experience for visitors too.
