A major fund-raising initiative has been launced to build a large new display hangar and learning centre at an aircraft museum.

At its Annual General Meeting the de Havilland Aircraft Museum officially launched the initiative Buy A Plaque - where members of the public can purchase a commemorative brass engraved plaque which will be permanently placed on the walls of the hangar to be built at the museum at Salisbury Hall, London Colney.

"We believe this will prove a very popular way of recognising the work and the achievements of people not only in the aviation and aircraft industries but in many other walks of life," museum marketing director Mike Nevin said when announcing the initiative.

Four sizes of plaques are available, ranging in price from £25 to £200, including engraving.

Groundworks for the new hangar are planned to start in December this year.

The new hangar will nearly treble the amount of undercover display space at the museum, dedicated to preserving aircraft designed and built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company at its Hatfield factory over seven decades up to the 1970s.

"It is essential for the preservation of our historic de Havilland aircraft that we get many more of them under cover as soon as possible," said Mr Nevin.

It is Britain’s oldest aviation museum, founded in 1959 with just one aircraft, the 1940-built Prototype of de Havilland’s famous Second World War Mosquito twin-engine fighter-bomber.

It now has three of them among more than 20 of the company’s civil and military aircraft and is dedicated to preserving the de Havilland heritage.