A gate guardian or gate guard is a withdrawn piece of equipment, often an aircraft, armoured vehicle, artillery piece, or locomotive, mounted on a plinth and used as a static display near to and forming a symbolic display of "guarding" the main entrance to a site, especially a military base. [1] [2] Commonly, gate guardians outside airbases are decommissioned examples of aircraft that were once based there, or still are.[ citation needed ]
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Examples of gate guardians include the following:
In Australia, gate guards are also often found outside Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL) clubs. These are usually artillery pieces such as 25 pounders and 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns, but the RSL club at Mulwala has a Douglas Dakota transport aircraft and Dandenong RSL club has a Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter. Several aircraft are on display at the gate of RAAF Base Wagga, as part of a small adjacent museum. RAAF Base Edinburgh has a Lockheed P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft and a Leopard 1 tank as gate guardians, reflecting its use as both an air force and an army base. RAAF Base Darwin has two Bristol Bloodhound surface-to-air missiles as gate guardians.
Martin-Baker Aircraft Company Limited is a British manufacturer of ejection seats and safety-related equipment for aviation. The company was originally an aircraft manufacturer before becoming a pioneer in the field of ejection seats. The company's headquarters are in Higher Denham, Buckinghamshire, England, with other sites in France, Italy and the United States.
Royal Air Force Coltishall, more commonly known as RAF Coltishall, is a former Royal Air Force station located 10 miles north-north-east of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk, East Anglia, which operated from 1939 to 2006.
Number 17 Squadron, currently No. 17 Test and Evaluation Squadron (TES), is a squadron of the Royal Air Force. It was reformed on 12 April 2013 at Edwards Air Force Base, California, as the Operational Evaluation Unit (OEU) for the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning.
Royal Air Force Coningsby or RAF Coningsby, is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located 13.7 kilometres (8.5 mi) south-west of Horncastle, and 15.8 kilometres (9.8 mi) north-west of Boston, in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is a Main Operating Base of the RAF and home to three front-line Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 units, No. 3 Squadron, No. 11 Squadron and No. 12 Squadron. In support of front-line units, No. 29 Squadron is the Typhoon Operational Conversion Unit and No. 41 Squadron is the Typhoon Test and Evaluation Squadron. Coningsby is also the home of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) which operates a variety of historic RAF aircraft.
Royal Air Force Northolt or more simply RAF Northolt is a Royal Air Force station in South Ruislip, 2 nautical miles from Uxbridge in the London Borough of Hillingdon, western Greater London, England, approximately 6 mi (10 km) north of Heathrow Airport. As London VIP Airport, the station handles many private civil flights in addition to Air Force flights.
Royal Air Force Brüggen, more commonly known as RAF Brüggen, in Germany was a Royal Air Force station until 15 June 2001. It was situated next to the village of Elmpt, approximately 43 kilometres (27 mi) west of Düsseldorf on the Dutch–German border. The base was named after the village of Brüggen, the nearest rail depot. Construction began in mid-1952, which involved the clearing of forest and draining of marshland. The station became active in 1953 during the rapid expansion of NATO forces in Europe. The main paint shop situated next to the main runway was responsible for the surface finishing of all aircraft, ground equipment and RAF Regiment Rapier missile systems. In 2002, it was handed over to the British Army and renamed Javelin Barracks.
The National Museum of Flight is Scotland's national aviation museum, at East Fortune Airfield, just south of the village of East Fortune, Scotland. It is one of the museums within National Museums Scotland. The museum is housed in the original wartime buildings of RAF East Fortune which is a well preserved World War II airfield. As a result of this the entire site is a scheduled monument with no permanent structures added by the museum. The hangars, control tower and stores were designated as Category B listed buildings by Historic Scotland, but this designation was removed in 2013 as they were already covered by the stricter scheduling.
Filton Airport or Filton Aerodrome was a private airport in Filton and Patchway, within South Gloucestershire, 4 NM north of Bristol, England.
The New England Air Museum (NEAM) is an American aerospace museum located adjacent to Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. The museum consists of three display hangars with additional storage and restoration hangars. Its collections include aircraft ranging from early flying machines to supersonic jets, as well as engines, and other pieces of flight-related equipment. Significant aircraft include
The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum is an aviation museum located at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Mount Hope, Ontario, Canada. The museum has 47 military jets and propeller-driven aircraft on display.
No. 331 Squadron RAF was a Second World War squadron of the Royal Air Force. The squadron was primarily manned with Norwegian aircrew. The squadron was part of Fighter Command between 1941 and March 1944 when it joined the 2nd Tactical Air Force until the end of the war. The squadron took part in the Dieppe Raid and the Normandy landings.
The Norwegian Aviation Museum was opened by King Harald V on May 15, 1994. It is the Norwegian national museum of aviation and also the largest aviation museum in the Nordic countries, covering around 10,000 square metres (110,000 sq ft). Situated in the town of Bodø, in Bodø Municipality in Nordland county, the building is shaped like a huge propeller and contains both a civil and a military collection of aircraft.
The Hellenic Air Force Museum was founded in 1986 and since 1992 has been located on Dekelia Air Base in Acharnes north of Athens. In opposition to the War Museum of Athens it displays air force history and is active in restoring and presenting old aircraft. Most aircraft in the collection come from the Hellenic Air Force; some were exchanged with other European aircraft museums.
BAE Systems Military Air & Information is a business unit of British defence company BAE Systems responsible for the design, development, manufacture and support of fixed wing military aircraft. MAI customers include the Royal Air Force, Royal Saudi Air Force, US Navy and Indian Air Force.
The 336th Bomber Squadron, callsign "Olympus", is the second oldest squadron in service with the Hellenic Air Force, forming part of the 116th Combat Wing. It is based at Araxos Air Base in the Peloponnese, and operates the F-16 Block 52 Advanced aircraft.
Brooklands Museum is a motoring and aviation museum occupying part of the former Brooklands Motor Course in Weybridge, Surrey, England.
The Militaire Luchtvaart Museum was located at Camp Zeist near the former Soesterberg Air Base. It was the official museum of the Royal Netherlands Air Force.
Norwegian Armed Forces Aircraft Collection is a military aviation museum located at Gardermoen, north of Oslo in Akershus county, Norway. The founding of the Norwegian Aviation Historical Society in 1967, gave the first boost to the idea of preserving aircraft in Norway. The Collection's Heinkel He 111 and Northrop N-3PB are among the aircraft traced, recovered and restored at the instigation of the NAHS. From the latter part of the 1970s onwards, a considerable number of historical aircraft were assembled in an old ex-Luftwaffe hangar at Gardermoen and from the mid-1980s the public were admitted to the hangar during summer. Most of the activities were - and still are - based on voluntary effort.
The Flugausstellung Peter Junior, previously the Flugausstellung Hermeskeil, is a private aviation museum in the town of Hermeskeil in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
