Eileen Brolls teaches class 4b at Duddingston Primary School, Edinburgh
The first thing that struck the children was the sheer scale of everything.
On a country road suddenly you see, just beyond the hedge, a Vulcan aircraft. It was so exciting. Then we were on a First World War airfield - the buildings exactly as they were 60 years ago.
Once inside Hangar 2 the children were thrilled to be so near the planes on the guided tour. Later they could walk under wings and see the wheels up close.
Flight has huge appeal. Much as the pupils loved looking at pictures of aircraft, books don’t prepare you for the real thing.
The activities were geared to the age group. Making paper gliders, then flying them, was every bit as popular as the tour of the planes.
Though our visit was “building planes”, a bonus was Concorde. One of the mothers with us had flown to New York in Concorde and described it to the children. We built up this visit to round off our work on the history of flight. It was beyond our expectations.
