The museum is housed in the Hucknall Wing Hangar, a rare Grade II listed industrial building put up in 1944 to give Rolls-Royce dedicated ground test facilities for Merlin and Griffon engine development.
There are two test hangars, each built around an aircraft wing section suspended inside, joined by a central blockhouse that held the test control room. Engines were mounted on the articulating wing exactly as they would be on a service aircraft, so the full range of simulated stress tests could be carried out on the ground.
Today you can see exhibits from the flight testing at the largely secret Rolls-Royce Hucknall Flight Test Establishment, from 1934 to 1971, and from the specialist ground testing that carried on here right up to the early 2000s.
