The RAF Museum London was officially opened by Her Majesty the Queen on 15 November 1972. The museum was built on the historic RAF Hendon site. Originally the museum housed a collection of 36 aircraft, housed in two original Belfast-truss hangars, built in around 1914. The museum was expanded in 1978 with the addition of the Battle of Britain Hall. Later, in 1983, the Bomber Hall was constructed, housing aircraft of the Royal Air Force and US Air Force. In 2003 the Milestones of Flight building was opened to house a landmark collection of aircraft. Also in 2003 the nearby Grahame-White Factory building was dismantled and relocated to the museum site.

The Royal Air Force Museum London, based at (Colindale) Hendon in North London, houses over a hundred historic aircraft. These aircraft form five unique collections housed in hangars across the museum site, the Milestones of Flight Collection, the Battle of Britain Collection, the Bomber Hall Collection, the Historic Hangars Collection and the Grahame-White Factory Collection. These collections include aircraft from the earliest days of the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force such as the Royal Aircraft Factory FE2b, through to aircraft from the Second World War such as the Avro Lancaster, up to present-day RAF aircraft such as the Eurofighter Typhoon.