Airports with Aviation Museums

Posted in Airport Tourism by Susan on the September 14th, 2009

If you’ve got a few hours to kill in an airport, one way to pass the time is to check out whether or not they have an onsite aviation museum you could take a look at. There are a number of airports around the UK and Europe which have collections of historic planes. Some of them are set up in Visitors’ Parks; others require a bit more research and investigation to track them down. There’s a guide to some of these below. However, none of them can compare to the collection at Washington Dulles Airport in Virginia. Their exhibition forms a truly staggering record of aviation history, from its very earliest days. For the enthusiast, it would be worth making a special trip to this museum.

Manchester Airport

Concorde into hangar

Manchester is the resting place of one of the Concorde fleet, once the world’s favourite and fastest aeroplanes (did you know it was supersonic and could reach New York in 3.5 hours!!). You can book a tour to get the inside story on this aviation legend. With a Classic Tour, you can spend time in the cabin and cockpit, which is the only fully accessible Concorde flight deck in the world. You also learn about the technology of the aircraft and about its famous passengers (it was expensive and so most passengers were wealthy). A Technical Tour allows more time to appreciate this supersonic feat of engineering.

The Manchester Aviation Viewing Park also has a couple of other planes. There is a fully restored BEA Hawker Siddeley Trident 3B, a British airliner built in the 1960’s. You can also see an AVRO RJX, the last civil airliner to be built in the UK.

Cologne/Bonn Airport

AlphaJet 40+43

It doesn’t have an official museum, but for those prepared to look for them, Cologne/Bonn airport has several interesting relics. There is a number of decaying aircraft in the storage areas, including a good collection of Fokker F-27s. At the gate to the military compound there is a FIAT G91R/3, and a walk around the perimeter could yield a glance of some other classic fighters through the trees.

Toulouse

There is an aviation museum on the western perimeter of the airport, with a collection of historic aircraft, helicopters, gliders and engines. There are more than 25 planes on display, including the Super Guppy above, with a further 10 undergoing restoration.

Another big draw for aviation enthusiasts is the Airbus France factory on site. There are regular test flights of the latest models, and tours of the flight line and assembly hall can be booked in advance.

Munich Airport

Children on JU 52

Munich Airport has a display of 3 historic aircraft at its Visitors’ Park. There is a Douglas DC-3, which rose to fame as a cargo jet, being used to carry supplies to the city during the Berlin Airlift. This model was a passenger jet of 1946, when air travel was at its most glamorous. The second craft is a reconstruction of a Junkers Ju 52. This legendary plane was used in the 1930’s for exploratory trips to the Far East and across the Pamir mountain range. Completing the collection is a Lockheed Super Constellation, built in 1955 and considered by some to be the most beautiful passenger aircraft ever designed. It was also the first to have a pressurised cabin.

Visitors are welcome to explore the park every day and learn about these fascinating aircraft. You can even climb aboard the last two planes, and films and sound recordings help to bring their stories to life.

Washington Dulles International Airport

Udvar-Hazy Center

The largest collection of aviation artefacts in the world is held by the National Air and Space Museum in the USA. Some of its treasures are on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center, at Dulles Airport in Virginia.

There are 3 levels of aircraft on show, including the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest jet in the world (it cruises above Mach 3, that’s 3 times the speed of sound), and the deHavilland Chipmunk aerobatic plane. You can also see engiines, helicopters and experimental flying machines from the early days of aviation. You can even explore flight that is out of this world, in the Space Hangar, full of famous spacecraft, rockets and satellites.