Where: Jet Age Museum, Meteor Business Park, Staverton, GL2 9QL

When: Saturday and Sunday, April 21-22, 10am-4pm

Time is running out to see the Cheltenham Branch of the Royal Air Forces Association's special Cheltenham Remembers RAF Centenary Exhibition at the Jet Age Museum.

The record-breaking interactive display opens its doors for the last time this Saturday and Sunday (April 21-22).

Originated and co-ordinated by ex RAF Air Secretary and boss of RAF Innsworth, Air Vice Marshal Tony Mason, the exhibition celebrates 100 years of the Royal Air Force and the creation of the aircraft industry in Cheltenham.

On show are over 100 exhibits including a ¾ scale SE5a model WW1 fighter plane, a replica airfield workshop, an operational airfield tableau and original RAF flying training posters.

Visitors can also enjoy a display from GCHQ of previously top secret cryptographic and other items released for the first time to the local public.

The exhibition took two years to organise and has smashed every attendance record for the Gloucestershire Airport-based museum since the commemorative exhibition was officially opened on March 31 by the Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire, Dame Janet Trotter.

Funds to put on the exhibition were raised by the organising committee led by Air Marshal Mason and president of the Royal Air Forces Association Cheltenham Branch Air Marshal Sir Dusty Miller, together with trustees and volunteers from the Jet Age Museum.

The Cheltenham Branch of the RAFA, organisations and individuals throughout Gloucestershire, together with the National Heritage Lottery Fund and Cheltenham Borough Council, donated generously to meet the target.

The schools' education programme for the exhibition was sponsored by the Regent Arcade shopping centre. The £1,800 sponsorship contributed towards the cost of transport for 250 schoolchildren and interactive exhibition equipment for several hundred more on public opening days.

Children visiting the exhibition can sit in real aeroplane cockpits, dress up in WW1 uniforms, take part in a wartime navigation exercise and assemble model wooden aeroplanes with mechanics in the exhibition's field workshop.

Commenting on the sponsorship, Air Vice Marshal Mason said: "We are extremely grateful to the Regent Arcade. Their generosity and that of so many others has enabled us to deliver a comprehensive and enjoyable exhibition which has attracted a lot of media interest and broken all attendance records at the Jet Age Museum."

The Cheltenham Remembers RAF Centenary Exhibition is open this weekend from 10am to 4pm. Admission is free.

Picture caption: Air Vice Marshal Tony Mason and Scott Lahive, centre manager of the Regent Arcade, with the ¾ scale model of the SE5a WW1 fighter plane in the background.