Major changes at the de Havilland Aircraft Museum have led to the appointment of its first curator.

The latest development was announced on Monday and comes as the museum, a volunteer-run registered charity, is preparing the final stages of its Heritage Lottery Fund application for a £1.5 million grant to build a big new hangar.

The role is being filled by Berkhamsted-based engineering consultant Alistair Hodgson, a chartered engineer who became a volunteer there 10 years ago and is currently restoring a de Havilland Sea Venom jet fighter.

With a large collection of historic de Havilland aircraft, engines, components, documents, photographs, models and artefacts, Mr Hodgson said: “It is important that all these items are properly conserved for the use and enjoyment of future generations.

"The curator’s role is to see that they are suitably stored, and displayed with information that tells visitors about their history and significance.”

He will also oversee the cataloguing and documenting of the entire collection.

Explaining the decision to create the new role, museum marketing director Mike Nevin said: “The museum has changed dramatically over the last few years, and with our application for an HLF grant it is now entering a whole new phase where it must demonstrate a totally professional approach to the management of its historic collection of famous aircraft. A curator is seen by the museum board as essential in achieving this.”

The museum, at Salisbury Hall, London Colney, has a collection of more than 20 civil and military, jet and piston engine aircraft designed and built at de Havilland’s factory in Hatfield over nearly seven decades.

Among some 20 aircraft on display are three all-wood Mosquito fighter-bombers of the Second World War – more than in any other museum in the world – and the sole surviving unmodified fuselage of the DH Comet, the world’s first passenger-carrying jet airliner.

Many thousands of visitors have been to the museum since it opened in 1959 on the site where the Mosquito prototypes were designed by the secret design office in Salisbury Hall, and built in a special hangar there.

Besides looking after the Museum’s internal standards and procedures, Mr Hodgson will be supporting the Museum’s growing programme of Outreach activities by expanding his current work of giving talks to clubs and societies about the history and work of the museum.

He will also become more involved in hosting group visits to the museum.