Malta Aviation Museum

The terrace at Fontanella’s, our lunch venue, looked out over the plain between Mdina and Valletta and a little over a mile away we could see Ta’Qali. Now the site of a national park and the national football stadium, in World War II it was one of Malta’s 3 airfields. At the time, it was little more than a grass strip but it has a rich aviation history and is now the site of the Malta Aviation Museum.

We were all interested in visiting the aviation museum but it was particularly poignant for Sheena because her father had flown RAF Lightning fast jets in Malta during the late 1970s. The museum even houses the front end of a Lightning from his squadron.

In 3 or 4 hangars (2 almost brand new and built after a major fund-raising exercise, and one or 2 WWII-era Nissan hut style ones) there are numerous fully restored aircraft and loads of really interesting memorabilia. A World War II map showed the airfield drawn on next to the Malta Lunatic Asylum. The lunatic asylum building apparently became the Officers’ Mess which made me chuckle. I presume that the junior ranks regarded it as a highly appropriate location to house the officers.

Whilst the restored aircraft are well worth looking at (and pride of place has to go to the immaculate Spitfire and Hurricane), we found the ‘work in progress’ projects equally interesting.

 

Tucked at the back behind the Hurricane we saw the components of a Swordfish biplane of the sort used by the Fleet Air Arm to attack the Italians Navy so successfully at Taranto. And, behind the main hanger, we wandered around several Nissan huts all crammed with broken aircraft, engines, radios, flight instruments and all manner of salvaged bits and pieces. It was like a huge aviation jumble sale; the aircraft restorers are definitely not short of future projects.

Last look at Mdina   

After a couple of hours of immersion in the military aviation history of Malta we headed back towards Senglea. The route gave us one last look at Mdina up on its hill and beautifully skylined and then we were out of the country and back into the driving madness of Malta’s rush hour. We discovered that being overly cautious does not work: let one car in and it’s seen as an invitation for the whole queue to pull out in front of you. Similarly, waiting for your turn at a roundabout is all very well but after 3 or 4 priority cars have joined, it’s clearly your turn to drive onto the roundabout! All good fun and the hire car survived the experience without a scratch [Ed: or rather, without a new one joining the large number of scratches it already sported!].

Back on BV we plotted a feast of spicy kofta meatballs (cooked on the Cobb barbecue, of course) with cous cous and ratatouille. Making the koftas, Sheena discovered an excellent nautical way of protecting her eyes from the sting of slicing onions, a shame for her that the diving mask came out of the locker so late in the proceedings! And Barry and Catherine joined us for drinks before dinner; the start of another very enjoyable evening in excellent company.

Malta