The Icelandic Aviation Museum ( ) covers the history of
aviation
Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as h ...
in
Iceland
Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...
. It is housed at
Akureyri Airport
Akureyri Airport ( , regionally also ) is an international airport in Akureyri, Iceland, south of the town centre.
Icelandair and Norlandair link the airport with several domestic locations. The airlines easyJet, Edelweiss Air and Transavia s ...
and was formally opened on 24 June 2000.
History
The museum was founded on 1 May 1999 and formally opened on 24 June 2000
by
Halldór Blöndal
Halldór Blöndal (born 24 August 1938, Reykjavík, Iceland) is a politician of the Independence Party (Iceland). He is the son of Kristjana Benediktsdóttir, Bjarni Benediktsson's sister. He worked as a teacher and a journalist from 1959 until ...
, the
Speaker of the Althing.
It was initially known as the Aviation Museum at Akureyri;
another aviation collection existed at Hnjótur in Örlygshöfn.
[ It was renamed in 2005 to reflect its national role. Svanbjörn Sigurðsson, a principal figure in the foundation of the museum, was its first director.]hangar
A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...
rented by Íslandsbanki
Íslandsbanki (, ) is an Icelandic bank with roots tracing back to 1875, formerly being the domestic part of Glitnir (bank), Glitnir banki hf., but on 15 October 2008 being split from the bankrupt Glitnir and reestablished into a new independent ...
, the museum moved in 2007 to a purpose-built building with of space, approximately five times what it previously had;[ the building was officially opened by Sigrún Björk Jakobsdóttir, the mayor of Akureyri. It celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2009.][
The aircraft collection has been used for training by the .]
Collection
The museum has many photographs of Icelandic aviation through the years and also a number of historic aircraft, many of which it maintains in airworthy
In aviation, airworthiness is the measure of an aircraft's suitability for safe flight. Initial airworthiness is demonstrated by a certificate of airworthiness issued by the civil aviation authority in the state in which the aircraft is registe ...
condition[ the first plane to land in the ]Vestmannaeyjar
Vestmannaeyjar (, sometimes anglicized as Westman Islands) is a municipality and archipelago off the south coast of Iceland.
The largest island, Heimaey, has a population of 4,414, most of whom live in the archipelago's main town, Vestmannaeyja ...
[
* ]Waco YKS-7
The Waco Standard Cabin series is a range of American single-engine 4–5 seat fabric covered cabin biplanes produced by the Waco Aircraft Company beginning in 1931 with the QDC and continuing until 1942 when production ended for the VKS-7F.Brandl ...
identical to TF-ÖRN, the first aircraft operated by Flugfélag Akureyrar, later Flugfélag Íslands, when it began service in 1938[
* a twin-engine ]Beechcraft
Beechcraft is an American brand of civil aviation and Military aircraft, military aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of Beech Aircraft Corporation, an American manufacture ...
identical to that first brought to Iceland in 1942[
* Björn Pálsson's Auster V, with which he flew the first ]air ambulance
Air medical services are the use of aircraft, including both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to provide various kinds of urgent medical care, especially prehospital, emergency and critical care to patients during aeromedical evacuation an ...
service in Iceland[
* a 1943 ]Douglas DC-3
The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II.
It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper ...
that saw duty at Keflavík Air Base
Naval Air Station Keflavik (NASKEF) was a United States Navy air station at Keflavík International Airport, Iceland, located on the Reykjanes peninsula on the south-west portion of the island. NASKEF was closed on 8 September 2006 and its faci ...
before transfer to civilian use by Flugfélag Íslands in 1946[
* the ]cockpit
A cockpit or flight deck is the area, on the front part of an aircraft, spacecraft, or submersible, from which a pilot controls the vehicle.
The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the controls th ...
of ''Gullfaxi'', Boeing 727
The Boeing 727 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
After the heavier Boeing 707, 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter ...
TF-FIE, the country's first jet aircraft
A jet aircraft (or simply jet) is an aircraft (nearly always a fixed-wing aircraft) propelled by one or more jet engines.
Whereas the engines in Propeller (aircraft), propeller-powered aircraft generally achieve their maximum efficiency at much ...
, recovered from the Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...
Icelandic Coast Guard
The Icelandic Coast Guard (, or simply ) is the Icelandic defence service responsible for search and rescue, maritime safety and security surveillance, national defense, and law enforcement. The Coast Guard maintains the Iceland Air Defence ...
rescue helicopter that was in service for 22 years and is credited to have been involved in the rescue of around 250 lives[
* Coast Guard ]Fokker F-27
The Fokker F27 Friendship is a turboprop airliner developed and manufactured by the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. It is the most numerous post-war aircraft manufactured in the Netherlands; the F27 was also one of the most successful Europe ...
TF-SYN[
* Árnason JFP-2S-8, an experimental canard aircraft, making use of ]Blown flap
Blown flaps, blown wing or jet flaps are powered aerodynamic high-lift devices used on the wings of certain aircraft to improve their low-speed flight characteristics. They use air blown through nozzles to shape the airflow over the rear edge of ...
propulsion.
See also
*List of aviation museums
This is a list of aviation museums and museums that contain significant aerospace-related exhibits throughout the world. The aviation museums are listed alphabetically by country and their article name.
Afghanistan
* OMAR Mine Museum, Kabul - inc ...
References
External links
*
Official website
{{coord, 65.6514, -18.0757, type:landmark_region:IS, display=title
Buildings and structures in Akureyri
Aerospace museums
Museums in Iceland
1999 establishments in Iceland