Polish Aviation Museum
Established | 1964 |
---|---|
Location | Kraków, Poland |
Type | Aviation museum |
Website | http://www.muzeumlotnictwa.pl |
The Polish Aviation Museum (Polish: Muzeum Lotnictwa Polskiego w Krakowie) is a large museum of historic aircraft and aircraft engines in Kraków, Poland. It is located at the site of the no-longer functional Kraków-Rakowice-Czyżyny Airport. This airfield, established by Austria-Hungary in 1912, is one of the oldest in the world. The museum opened in 1964, after the airfield closed in 1963. Has been scored as eighth world's best aviation museum by CNN.[1]
For the first half century of its existence the museum used four hangars of the former airfield to display its exhibits. These buildings were not originally designed for this purpose and suffered from various inadequacies, notably insufficient heating in winter. The situation improved when a new main building for the museum opened on 18 September 2010.[2]
Collection
The collection consists of over 200 aircraft as of 2005. Several of the aircraft displayed are unique on the world scale, including
The museum has 22 extremely rare airplanes that until 1941 were displayed at the Deutsche Luftfahrtsammlung museum (German aviation museum) in Berlin. These planes were evacuated during World War II to rescue them from Allied bombing (the museum itself was destroyed in air raids) to German-occupied Poland. The German Museum of Technology in Berlin regards these exhibits as their property.[3] The restitution demand is especially directed to those of great significance to German aviation history.[4] As of 2009 however, there was no sign that this would happen in the foreseeable future. Given the scale of destruction caused by German occupation in Poland between 1939-1945 and the recent German unwillingness to discuss reparation payments for Poland, it is likely this collection will remain in Polish hands.
The museum has very few Polish planes from the years 1918-1939, as these were almost all destroyed during the
In contrast, the museum has an essentially complete collection of all airplane types developed or used by Poland after 1945.
Book imprint
The Museum also functions as a
Fixed-wing motorized aircraft
The Museum also possesses some other incomplete aircraft and some stored.
Gliders
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More gliders in temporary storage.
Motor gliders
Helicopters
- Aérospatiale Alouette III
- Bell CH-136 (Canadian Bell OH-58 Kiowa)
- BŻ-1 GIL
- BŻ-4 Żuk
- JK-1 Trzmiel
- Mil Mi-4 A
- Mil Mi-4 ME
- WSK Mi-2 URP
- Saunders-Roe Skeeter AOP.12
- WSK Mi-2Ch
- WSK SM-1 (licence Mil Mi-1)
- WSK SM-2
Engines
See also
- Culture of Kraków
- List of aerospace museums
References
- ^ Cynthia Drescher, Tamara Hinson and Tara Donaldson. "20 best aviation museums around the world". CNN. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
- ^ Announcements on museum webpage Archived June 29, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Deutschland-Polen: Streit um eine Luftfahrt-sammlung Der Tagesspiegel21 September 2010
- ^ "Wyborcza.pl". krakow.wyborcza.pl. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
- ^ M.L. (2015). "Samoloty, odrzutowce, zabytki, ekspozycja plenerowa, warsztaty, lotnictwo, Messerschmitt, renowacja". Wydawnictwa [Publications]. Muzeum Lotnictwa Polskiego w Krakowie. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
Books are available at the Museum.
External links
- Official website of the museum (in English and Polish)
- Images from the museum collected on www.airliners.net