Exploring the Horrible Histories: Up in the Air Adventure event

There is a new Horrible Histories event, so naturally we had to ask Kai if he wanted to go! With him being a teenager now, I am always surprised when he is willing and even excited to go to an event, and Horrible Histories has always been one he really likes. The Horrible Histories: Up in the Air Adventure was very different from previous performances that they have put on, as this wasn’t a play and instead is an event around the Royal Airforce Museum with several sections of activities that children can take part in.

When we first arrived at the hanger that this activity took place in, we were given a time slot for our challenge and recommended to go to the build a plane workshop first, then our challenge, then explore the other areas. This build a plane area had a bunch of boxes of connects, lego and mobil items that you could use to create a series of airplanes, birds and other things that fly. Robin sat down with the mobil and was given a challenge by one of the workers there, and got to work. Kai set himself down at the connects section, where he started following an airplane guide, and Amelia sat next to him, building something out of her own imagination. The place filled up fast with people creating their own flying things! There wasn’t quite enough connects, but everyone was able to make something fun!

Once we had some creations made, it was time to do our challenge. This had six different areas, each with a riddle or question, that answered with a word to write on our card. Some were a bit easy with the word written across a big picture, others were more challenging and required you to know history. Each of these puzzles at the Horrible Histories: Up in the Air Adventure had a clue to them, to help you out. We made pretty light work with them, only getting stuck on two puzzles, and ended up filling in our sheet. These words then went into a bigger message, which we had to say to Eric Brown, to get some stickers from him. He was all dressed up in a hanger of his own.

After that, we went around the museum and read some of the new Horrible Histories sign, which included one that said a king had trained eagles to carry his chair, allowing him to fly for several days before they got tired, and he lived to “tell the tale”. There were lots of interesting aspects of history dotted around, though some of the signage had clearly been handled a bit by children. We then went to the photo area, which again was a little too handled by children with lots of broken dress up items, where we took some pictures with the props. After that, we headed up to the Creation Station.

The Creation Station allowed children to create masks and paper airplanes, or just draw. Kai drew an airplane, while Amelia and Robin drew their own masks to wear when flying a plane. Robin then made some paper airplanes and the staff there taught her how to create a special paper airplane that loops around when you throw it. This area was very fun for everyone and we did spend quite a bit of time creating and throwing our creations to see how far they fly.

After the Creation Station, the Horrible Histories: Up in the Air Adventure closed with the Meet an Inventor, where a lady came out to tell the story of how her husband was the first person to fly from France to England across the channel. This was pretty funny and had a lot of children-involvement with them waving their arms to swim across the water, pat out the fire, and being asked lots of questions to shout out the answer. We also learned a lot too, which is always a plus! Though this didn’t feel like it had a lot of the quirk of a Horrible Histories branded event, all three of our children really enjoyed themselves, and it made for a fun and educational day out.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!