Over our 30-year history, Skyview is proud to have worked with many aviation teams. Here we look back at one of our favourites, IWM Duxford. As Britain’s largest aviation museum, Imperial War Museum (IWM) Duxford remains an active airfield for civilian flying companies and large-scale air shows. We are proud to count IWM Duxford as a one of our long-standing customers, working in partnership since 1999.
The aviation industry is one of the most heavily regulated sectors to operate in. Airports, aerodromes and airfields are legally required to have primary and contingency sources of information such as visibility measurement, pressure measurement, lightning detection, weather radar measurement, wind, temperature runway surface conditions, and current weather.
About IWM Duxford
Imperial War Museum (IWM) Duxford is Britain's largest aviation museum, housing large nearly 200 aircraft, military vehicles, artillery and minor naval vessels across seven main exhibition buildings.
The site was originally operated by the RAF during World War 1 and played a prominent role during the Battle of Britain in World War 2. It was later used by US Army Air Forces fighter units and remained an active RAF airfield until 1961. The MoD declared the site surplus to requirements in 1969, and the IWM was given permission to use part of the site for storage, with full site usage approved in February 1976.
Operated in partnership with Cambridgeshire County Council and the Duxford Aviation Society, the site remains an active airfield used by civilian flying companies, as well as hosting popular regular air shows.
The Challenge
Adverse weather conditions can have a severe impact on aircraft safety, with cloud height, visibility and fog requiring consistent and reliable monitoring.
Hosting over 450,000 visitors per year, visitor safety remains the number one priority for Duxford IWM. The management team required an on-site weather monitoring system to measure weather parameters affecting aircraft operations, to ensure the safety of pilots, crew and visitors alike and comply with stringent aviation industry standards.
Our Solution
With over 30 years’ experience in weather monitoring across a multitude of sectors, Skyview Systems provides reliable, high-accuracy instruments for airports, helipads and airstrips to enable safe aviation operations.
After a thorough site survey and a detailed briefing with the IWM team, our engineers installed a full ATC weather system, including OMC-160 wind sensors, temperature, humidity and barometric pressure sensors with display options, as well as the provision of suitable radio telemetry equipment, a mast and SkyMet data display.
The team at Duxford IWM are also subscribers to Skylink-pro, Skyview's unique web-based service. The system enables the team to view weather data collected by the sensors on any internet-enabled PC anytime, anywhere. The dedicated, personalised site for Duxford IWM, allows the team to make timely management decisions based on real-time weather data. Data can be viewed in a variety of formats, including visible and infrared satellite images, Meteox Rainfall maps and METARs and TAFs charts.
Skyview Systems’ equipment for use in airports is also fully compliant with FAA, ICAO and WMO measurement standards, regulations and recommendations.