Location: Flixton, Suffolk. NR35 1NZ
Airborne lifeboat displayed: Mark IA
Link: https://www.aviationmuseum.net/AirSeaRescue.htm
The Museum has a very large collection of Air Sea Rescue artefacts and documents covering all aspects of that part of the RAF. It also includes a Mark IA lifeboat in the hangar which would have been carried by a Warwick airplane.
Airborne Lifeboat (ABL) Mark IA – No. MVIII
The history of this World War II, RAF Airborne Lifeboat Mark IA has been traced by the number on the stern post: MVIII. The record card held by the RAF Museum identifies that it was built under contract by Ranelagh Yacht Yard on the Isle of Wight and later converted to a dinghy – Sailing Training – S/No 4097. The brief unit history includes Thornaby, 84 Maintenance Unit (Repair), Calshot (1945), Thorney Island (1946), 238 MU Mount Batten (1947), disposed of (1948).
It was donated to the museum in april 2007 by a collector in Ludham, Norfolk; following long-term external storage it arrived in very poor condition. It is now displayed as near as possible to its operational configuration in World War II – 1943 Onwards – and deck components have been fabricated for completeness.