A NEW exhibition marking 90 years of the Royal Air Force has officially opened at Felixstowe Museum.Mayor Joan Sennington opened the displays, which will be in place in the Felgate Room all summer as an added attraction for visitors to the museum, which is housed in the Ravelin Block alongside Landguard Fort.

A NEW exhibition marking 90 years of the Royal Air Force has officially opened at Felixstowe Museum.

Mayor Joan Sennington opened the displays, which will be in place in the Felgate Room all summer as an added attraction for visitors to the museum, which is housed in the Ravelin Block alongside Landguard Fort.

It is part of a special year for the RAF, which has been invited to mark the 50th anniversary of being granted the Freedom of Felixstowe and to march through the resort with bayonets fixed, colours flying, drums beating and bands playing later in the year.

The museum decided to mark the 90th anniversary because of the RAF's close links with the resort.

Felixstowe was commissioned as a seaplanes base in 1913 and during the first world war aircraft from the base patrolled the coast from Southwold to Clacton looking for German U-Boats and by the end of the war it was the largest RAF air station in the world.

In 1924 the base - which was where the port now stands - took on a new role as the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment.

During the following years more than 250 types of seaplane and flying boat - military and civilian aircraft - and others were tested and designed at Felixstowe.

The base was responsible for inventing the technology which led to the development of Concorde and also the space shuttle.

Its special high-speed flight also won the world famous Schneider Trophy for Britain three times in a row.

Felixstowe Museum in the Ravelin Block next to Landguard Fort opens Sunday from 1pm to 5pm. It will be open Sundays and Bank Holidays until November, and also Wednesdays from June to October.