Cold War exhibition at the Yorkshire Air Museum in York

‘Minutes to Midnight – Hot Jets in the Cold War’, at the Yorkshire Air Museum in Elvington on the outskirts of the city, examines the role that aircraft played in the 40-year stalemate between east and west.

George Orwell described it as, “Two or three monstrous super-states, each possessed of a weapon by which millions of people can be wiped out in a few seconds”.

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The museum’s theme for 2023 covers the whole site but its focal point is the main hangar, where visitors can see RAF Buccaneer XV 168, which has been freshly repainted for the exhibition.

The exhibition starts later this month (Image: Yorkshire Air Museum)The jet, built in the 1960s by the Blackburn aircraft company at Brough in East Yorkshire, was tasked with providing part of the UK’s nuclear deterrent and would have been armed with the WE 177 nuclear bomb, to strike targets within the Eastern Bloc.

Other aircraft featured in ‘Minutes to Midnight’ include the Handley Page Victor, which was one of the first RAF aircraft to carry nuclear weapons, and a Panavia Tornado, which was the last.

Colourful and engaging displays telling the story of the Cold War, including its effects on British culture, have been produced in collaboration with York St John University.

In the museum’s cinema, visitors can watch, ‘Cold War Stories’, a series of eyewitness accounts of the Cold War from those who were there, ranging from former military personnel to someone who grew up behind the Iron Curtain.

Minutes to Midnight – featuring Cold War Stories – runs from April 21 until the Autumn.