Visionary director of the Imperial War Museum whose history of the air offensive against Germany became a cause clbre

In 1966 the Queen visited the Imperial War Museum (IWM) in London to open an extension that Noble Bunny Frankland, its director, had persuaded the Treasury to fund. Minutes after she and her entourage had passed, a deluge of oil fell on to the red carpet. It came from a reconnaissance aircraft that had, at Franklands behest, been hoisted aloft and suspended from the ceiling, without anyone first checking that its engine had been drained. Lesser men would have sunk to the ground, clutching at their heart, but Frankland, a veteran of Bomber Command, was made of stronger stuff. He merely counted his blessings.

His appointment as director arose from fortuitous circumstances. In May 1960, as a 38-year-old deputy director of studies at the Royal

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Noble Frankland obituary | Register - The Times