THE Yorkshire Air Museum has been given a major boost with a five-figure sponsorship deal.

East Yorkshire car dealership, Drakes MG Rover, at Shiptonthorpe, has joined forces with the museum at Elvington to drive forward the attraction's Sixty Years On events, which look back at the Second World War.

The sponsorship has been in the pipeline for almost a year. It is the first time such direct support has been secured by an independent charitable museum.

The deal will help the museum promote its events, which will mark the 60th anniversaries of the Allied campaigns leading to the Liberation of Europe and Asia.

Drakes MG Rover will be a regular exhibitor during all the museum's major events during 2004 and 2005 and everyone who buys a Rover car from Drakes will receive a year's free membership of the Yorkshire Air Museum.

Ian Dewar, operations manager of the Yorkshire Air Museum said: "For self-supporting museums, sponsorship like this is of enormous value in the 'unlevel playing field' in which we compete against government-funded institutions."

Updated: 09:41 Tuesday, December 09, 2003