A SECOND World War RAF bomber veteran was “humbled” to have his three foot-long model of the Red Baron’s triplane chosen for a new museum display.

Don Briggs, 86, built a scale model of the First World War German air ace’s Fokker aircraft, and the piece was chosen by students to feature at the Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock.

Pupils from the town’s Marlborough School decided on the display piece after using museum artefacts to uncover stories of the First World War.

Mr Briggs, from Freeland, near Witney, said: “I’m very thrilled and very moved; humbled. The students are so keen, and the way they tackled their project was really most impressive.”

Mr Briggs built the plane by collecting pieces from a weekly magazine, putting it together over nearly 100 weeks.

The project was passed on to him after a close friend and neighbour died just after starting the project.

Mr Briggs, who has built numerous aircraft models in the past, said: “It was very, very difficult to build. But in actual fact, since I really got into it, it was quite absorbing.”

He said he thought the way the plane had been displayed in the museum was “absolutely phenomenal”.

Mr Briggs had a distinguished career in the RAF, clocking up nearly 64 years of continuous flying.

He was an engineer on Lancaster bombers during the Second World War as part of the Pathfinder teams who would fly out, find targets and drop flares as markers for the following bombers.

He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service.

After the war he trained as a pilot and flew as captain during the Cold War.

He was a crew member on the third British plane to drop a test atomic bomb, over the Pacific Ocean, close to Christmas Island, in 1957. He described it as “one hell of a big bang”.

Prime Minister and Witney MP David Cameron visited the museum last month to see Mr Briggs’ craftsmanship.

Mr Cameron said: “It was a great honour to see the model, meet the man and hear about his great project.”

In September the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust was granted permission for a new £4m building, which will be in the grounds of the Oxfordshire Museum.

It will tell the story of the county’s armed forces from the 1700s to the present day.

The Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust was formed in 2000 to establish a joint museum in Oxfordshire under the title of ‘Soldiers of Oxfordshire’.”

Its trustees include representatives of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars, the Oxford University Officer Training Corps and the Royal Air Force.

No date has yet been set for the opening of the new museum.