Museums with commercial airliners

[832ark]

I’m trying to find a museum which has some kind of airliner on display that you can board/tour. I’m based in the Midlands but can’t seem to find anything locally. My 4 year old is terrified of planes but we’ve now bitten the bullet and booked a holiday involving flying. I’d like to get her onto a plane beforehand so it’s not a completely alien experience.

Any assistance much appreciated!

[832ark]

Thanks chaps!

[832ark]

Shakermaker said:

Has she been on a plane before, or is the fear based on some other factor, such as the noise or what she's seen of them from the outside etc?

Its natural for her to be scared based on all the noise they make if she's never been on one before, but a lot of what you can do to help as well will be around how much fun it is going to be to go on holiday.

There's a few episodes of things like Peppa Pig where she goes on a plane, the kind of stuff aimed towards 4 year olds, or you can do more work as well and play games and just show everything going on, there's loads to see when you're at the airport, might take some of the "scare" factor out of it.

No, she’s never been on one before but was at a point where she was scared of planes at high altitude overhead (not anymore). We made the mistake of taking her to a viewing field for the Cosford air show a couple of years ago which is directly under the flight path a few hundred meters from the end of the runway. It’s epic but noisy, she was fine with the prop driven stuff but the fast jets scared her. Last year we took her round the Cosford museum, I thought maybe if she got up close to some “sleeping” aircraft it might desensitise her. She didn’t like it but it think it worked somewhat. She’s still very much of the opinion that she doesn’t want to go on a plane though so I want to try and make her feel slightly more comfortable when she does go on one for real.

[832ark]

Shakermaker said:

832ark said:

No, she’s never been on one before but was at a point where she was scared of planes at high altitude overhead (not anymore). We made the mistake of taking her to a viewing field for the Cosford air show a couple of years ago which is directly under the flight path a few hundred meters from the end of the runway. It’s epic but noisy, she was fine with the prop driven stuff but the fast jets scared her. Last year we took her round the Cosford museum, I thought maybe if she got up close to some “sleeping” aircraft it might desensitise her. She didn’t like it but it think it worked somewhat. She’s still very much of the opinion that she doesn’t want to go on a plane though so I want to try and make her feel slightly more comfortable when she does go on one for real.

Which airport are you due to fly from, and with which airline?

But I can understand that having stood udnerneath a fast jet at an airshow its going to be hard to make her understand that actually hopping onto an Airbus isn't quite the same thing, but I think its worth starting your process as being more about the journey and the experience more than the actual mode of transport going to be used, just as a starting point.

Flying Ryanair out of East Mids, I think we’ll start focusing on the enjoyment to be had the other end. Will definitely try and get her inside Concorde before we go though.

[832ark]

Thanks again for all the suggestions guys I think we’ll take a trip up to Manchester and have a look at Concorde. A ratty 737-800 should be a bit of a comedown for her.

She’s not great in the car, normal driving is fine but doesn’t enjoy hardish acceleration or going “fast”. In a standard EP3 anything more than 50mph results in being told to slow down and that’s on a DC with very gentle acceleration. Took her out in an M6 once - very gingerly, lightest possible throttle openings, didn’t exceed 60mph - she hated it.