HAT has awarded a £4000 grant to the The National Aerospace Library (NAL) with Farnborough Sixth Form College for a digitisation, research and training project. NAL holds programmes from the first Farnborough Airshow held in 1948 up until 2014, alongside the trade programmes from 1958-1992. This project seeks to digitise, catalogue, and make publicly accessible this significant archive collection. These programmes represent a rich history of one of the most important aerospace events in the UK, and their digitisation will enable researchers, enthusiasts, and the public to explore the development of aviation and international trade in the post-war period to the 21st century.
This project will facilitate the digitisation of all the Farnborough programmes and trade programmes (roughly 7,500 pages) by an external conservator.
Once digitised the NAL will collaborate with the local Sixth Form College Farnborough to train approximately 20 Year 12 students in archival cataloguing that adheres to the best practice cataloguing standard ISAD(G), developed by the International Council on Archives (ICA). The students will then write catalogue entries for the digitised records, aiding research into them by a wider audience. Through this partnership, students will gain valuable hands-on archival experience in cataloguing the collection and later recording oral histories that explore the rich social history and legacy of the Farnborough Airshow.
This initiative not only preserves local heritage but also encourages the wider knowledge and understanding of archives, inspiring young people in Hampshire to explore careers in the heritage and archival sector. Once digitised and catalogued, the collection will be made available on NAL’s online catalogue, displayed and accessible for public benefit.
Once the records have been digitised, students would then carry out a research project based on them. They would each take an area of interest and write a short essay based on the records in the collection. This would be published on the Sixth Form College Farnborough History and Heritage website. This would further promote research into and the publication of archival material, and would also display the records for public benefit. It would further encourage the young historians’ knowledge of, understanding of and academic enjoyment of archives. It would also be linked on the National Aerospace Library website/social media to further increase accessibility.
It is intended to attend the 2026 Farnborough Airshow as a platform to further showcase the project to a wider audience to display archives for public benefit. As part of this project, the participating students from the Sixth Form College Farnborough will be given oral history training. This training will equip them with the skills to join the Society’s stand at the 2026 Farnborough Airshow and collect oral history interviews from attendees, veterans, and aviation professionals reflecting on their memories of the airshow across the years.
It is intended to work with the Society’s Farnborough Branch and the local community to identify further potential interviewees to share their recollections of earlier airshows. These interviews could span the decades- ranging from the 1940s through to more recent years- though we will consider focusing on specific time periods (e.g. the 1940s-1960s) if that allows for more in-depth exploration. The oral history interviews will be featured across NA:’s podcast channels on Spotify, Soundcloud, Podbean and promoted across the Society’s social media channels (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and X). The recordings with transcripts made by the students will also be added to the online catalogue, enhancing the archival collection perspectives and experiences are captured offering insight into the impact of the Farnborough Airshow on the Hampshire community that are missed from the traditional written record. This will further support research into and the publication of archival material.
This project aims to celebrate and preserve an event of historic significance to Hampshire, with outreach to the local Sixth Form College enabling the community to be involved in preserving Hampshire’s heritage while providing archival skills and training to students. The oral history aspect of the project also aims to capture the voices of the Hampshire community and their memories of the Airshow to support community history and preserve local stories.
The project will be actively promoted across the Society’s social media channels, increasing public awareness of the collection. This project’s combination of digitisation, education, outreach, and oral history offers a rich, multifaceted way to preserve and share the heritage of Hampshire archives and the Farnborough Airshow, while also equipping a new generation with meaningful heritage skills that reach beyond the traditional boundaries of archives and libraries.