Tu-134 PLL LOT w Krakowie Tu-134 LOT Polish Airlines stored in Cracow

The Polish Aviation Museum ( pl, Muzeum Lotnictwa Polskiego w Krakowie) is a large

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

of historic

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines ...

and aircraft engines in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. It is located at the site of the no-longer functional

Kraków-Rakowice-Czyżyny Airport Kraków-Rakowice-Czyżyny Airport is a disused airport in Kraków, Poland, one of the oldest permanent airfields in Europe, open for occasional traffic by certain types of aircraft. A portion of it is now the site of the Polish Aviation Museum ...

. This airfield, established by

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

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 CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

. 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.

Collection

The collection consists of over 200 aircraft as of 2005. Several of the aircraft displayed are unique on the world scale, including

sailplane A glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the leisure activity and sport of gliding (also called soaring). This unpowered aircraft can use naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to gain altitude. Sailplan ...

s and some 100 aircraft engines. Some of the exhibits are only in their initial stages. The museum houses a large aviation

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

and photographic

archives An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...

. The museum has 22 extremely rare airplanes that until 1941 were displayed at the ''Deutsche Luftfahrtsammlung museum'' (German aviation museum) in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. These planes were evacuated during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

to rescue them from Allied bombing (the museum itself was destroyed in air raids) to German-occupied Poland. The

German Museum of Technology (German Museum of Technology) in Berlin, Germany is a museum of science and technology, and exhibits a large collection of historical technical artifacts. The museum's main emphasis originally was on rail transport, but today it also features e ...

in Berlin regards these exhibits as their property. The restitution demand is especially directed to those of great significance to German aviation history. 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

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

German occupation of Poland German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

, including those displayed in Polish pre-war aviation museums. The only two examples of prewar Polish military aircraft in the collection: a

PZL P.11 The PZL P.11 was a Polish fighter aircraft, designed and constructed during the early 1930s by Warsaw-based aircraft manufacturer PZL. Possessing an all-metal structure, metal-covering, and high-mounted gull wing, the type held the distinction of ...

(the only surviving example in the world) and a

PWS-26 The PWS-26 was a Polish advanced training aircraft, used from 1937 to 1939 by the Polish Air Force, constructed in the PWS (''Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów'' - Podlasie Aircraft Factory). It was the second most numerous Polish pre-war aircraft ...

, survived only because they were displayed as war trophies by the Germans, and so were part of the above-mentioned collection acquired after the war. In addition, a few Polish pre-war civilian planes were returned by Romania after the war and eventually found their way to the museum. 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 publishing venue, in particular for dozens of

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...

s, photo albums, memoirs and

brochure A brochure is originally an Information, informative paper document (often also used for advertising) that can be folded into a template, pamphlet, or Folded leaflet, leaflet. A brochure can also be a set of related unfolded papers put into a po ...

s devoted to aviation history, including the subject of Polish design and manufacture of aircraft from before the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

in 1939 and the post-1945 to the 1960s

era An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

s. Among its more popular books are the histories of 16 Polish squadrons in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

(RAF) during the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

and the fight for Poland's independence during the First World War.

Fixed-wing motorized aircraft

The Museum also possesses some other incomplete aircraft and some stored.

Gliders

More gliders in temporary storage.

Motor gliders

* HWL Pegaz

Helicopters

Aérospatiale Alouette III The Aérospatiale Alouette III (, ''Lark''; company designations SA 316 and SA 319) is a single-engine, light utility helicopter developed by France, French aircraft company Sud Aviation. During its production life, it proved to be a relatively p ...

* Bell CH-136 (Canadian

Bell OH-58 Kiowa The Bell OH-58 Kiowa is a family of single-engine single-rotor military helicopters used for observation, utility, and direct fire support. It was produced by the American manufacturer Bell Helicopter and is closely related to the Model 206A ...

) *

BŻ-1 GIL The BŻ-1 GIL was the first Polish experimental helicopter, constructed in 1950. Developed by the Main Aviation Institute (Warsaw), the only constructed GIL saw service until 1960 when it was irreparably damaged and subsequently decommissioned. ...

* BŻ-4 Żuk * JK-1 Trzmiel *

Mil Mi-4 The Mil Mi-4 (USAF/DoD reporting name "Type 36", NATO reporting name "Hound") is a Soviet transport helicopter that served in both military and civilian roles. Design and development The Mi-4 was designed in response to the American H-19 Chick ...

A * Mil Mi-4 ME * WSK Mi-2 URP * WSK Mi-2Ch * WSK SM-1 (licence

Mil Mi-1 The Mil Mi-1 (USAF/DoD reporting name "Type 32", NATO reporting name "Hare") was a Soviet three- or four-seat light utility helicopter. It was the first Soviet helicopter to enter serial production. It is powered by one Ivchenko AI-26V radial ...

) * WSK SM-2

Engines

References

External links

Official website of the museum
(in English and Polish)
Images from the museum collected on www.airliners.net
{{authority control Aerospace museums in Poland Museums in Kraków Transport museums in Poland Aviation in Poland Registered museums in Poland 1964 establishments in Poland Museums established in 1964