The Indian Air Force Museum Palam, is the museum of the

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the air force, air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during armed conflicts. It was officially established on 8 Octob ...

(IAF), and is located at the Palam Air Force Station in Delhi Cantonment,

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It was established in 1967 and exhibits details about combat operations undertaken by the air force depicting its history since its formation in 1932. Also on display are various aircraft and equipment on the IAF’s inventory since its inception. The museum was the only one of its kind in India until the opening of the Naval Aviation Museum in Goa in 1998 and HAL Aerospace Museum in

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

in 2001.

Description

The Museum entrance features an indoor display gallery that contains historic photographs, memorabilia, uniforms and personal weapons of the Indian Air Force from its inception in 1932. The gallery leads to a hangar exhibiting small aircraft and Air Force inventory including anti-aircraft guns, vehicles and ordnance. Larger aircraft are exhibited outside the hangar. The outdoor gallery contains aircraft as well as several war trophies, radar equipment and captured enemy vehicles. The Vintage Aircraft Flight services some rare aircraft and maintains them in an airworthy condition. These aircraft are not normally accessible by the general public. Large transport aircraft are stored on the apron of the airbase due to lack of space. These aircraft are displayed only on the annual Air Force Day, October 8. The museum has a small souvenir shop. Delhi aerial photo 04-2016 img5

New Aerospace Museum

To improve the presentation of aircraft and to better preserve the historic aircraft, the Indian Air Force decided to procure more space and shift the museum to a location more accessible by the masses. A new site, spread over 43 acres, near the domestic terminal of the airport was chosen. The then Chief of Air Staff and Chairman Chief of Staff Committee,

Air Chief Marshal Air chief marshal (Air Chf Mshl or ACM) is a high-ranking air officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many Commonwealth of Nations, countries that have historical British i ...

SP Tyagi, laid the foundation stone for the project on 1 December 2006. The new Aerospace museum will have two main types of displays, indoor and outdoor. The outdoor displays would have aircraft parked and hung in flying altitude with mural depicting the era and atmosphere of its time of operation. The children’s area would also be created where children could enter cockpits of display aircraft. In October 2020, the Military Engineer Services invited bids for construction of the museum in October 2020 at an estimated cost of 240

crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

Aircraft on display

Hangar

Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka on Air Force Museum New

Westland Lysander The Westland Lysander is a British Army cooperation aircraft, army co-operation and liaison aircraft produced by Westland Aircraft that was used immediately before and during the Second World War. After becoming obsolete in the army co-operat ...

P-9160 *

Westland Wapiti The Westland Wapiti was a British two-seat general-purpose military single-engined biplane of the 1920s. It was designed and built by Westland Aircraft Works to replace the Airco DH.9A in Royal Air Force service. First flying in 1927, the Wa ...

K-813 *

Percival Prentice The Percival Prentice was a basic trainer of the Royal Air Force in the early postwar period. It was a low-wing monoplane with a fixed tailwheel Landing gear, undercarriage. Front seating was in a side-by-side configuration with a rear seat p ...

IV-3381 *

Hawker Hunter The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet propulsion, jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly dev ...

A-476 in Thunderbolts colour scheme *

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

II B AB-832 *

Hawker Tempest The Hawker Tempest is a British fighter aircraft that was primarily used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the Second World War. The Tempest, originally known as the ''Typhoon II'', was an improved derivative of the Hawker Typhoon, intended to a ...

II HA-623 * Yokosuka MXY-7 Okha I-13 *

Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and other Allies of World War II, Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. It was the only British fighter produced conti ...

XVIII HS-986 * Dassault Mystere IVa IA-1329 * Dassault Ouragan IC-554 *

De Havilland Vampire The de Havilland DH100 Vampire is a British jet fighter which was developed and manufactured by the de Havilland, de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was the second jet fighter to be operated by the Royal Air Force, RAF, after the Gloster Meteo ...

NF10 ID-606 * HAL Gnat II E-2015 *

Sukhoi Su-7 The Sukhoi Su-7 ( NATO designation name: Fitter-A) is a swept wing, supersonic fighter aircraft developed by the Soviet Union in 1955. Originally, it was designed as a tactical, low-level dogfighter, but was not successful in this role. On the ...

BMK B-888 *

MiG-21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet aircraft, jet fighter aircraft, fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan, Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB, Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nicknames in ...

FL C-992, C-2216 * HAL Krishak HAOP-27 *

HAL HF-24 Marut The HAL HF-24 Marut ("Maruts, Spirit of the Tempest") is an Indian jet Fighter aircraft, fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) during the 1960s and early 70s. The Marut was designed by the German ae ...

D-1205 *

PZL TS-11 Iskra The PZL TS-11 ''Iskra'' () is a Polish jet trainer, developed and manufactured by aircraft company PZL-Mielec. It was used by the air forces of Polish Air Force, Poland and Indian Air Force, India. It is notable as being the first domestically d ...

W-1757, W-1758 *

F-86 Sabre The North American F-86 Sabre, sometimes called the Sabrejet, is a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as the United States' first swept-wing fighter that could counter the swept-wing Sov ...

606 in

Pakistani Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...

colour scheme

Outdoor Gallery

* BAE Canberra B(I)58 IF-907 *

Consolidated B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models desi ...

J HE-924 *

Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar The Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar (Navy and Marine Corps designation R4Q) is an American military transport aircraft developed from the World War II-era Fairchild C-82 Packet, designed to carry cargo, personnel, Litter (rescue basket), litte ...

IK-450 * Sikorsky S55C IZ-1590 *

Mil Mi-4 The Mil Mi-4 (USAF/DoD reporting name "Type 36", NATO reporting name "Hound")'' Jane's all the World's Aircraft 1963-1964'', p. 303 is a Soviet transport helicopter that served in both military and civilian roles. Design and development The Mi ...

BZ-900 *

MiG-23 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 (; NATO reporting name: Flogger) is a variable-geometry fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau in the Soviet Union. It is a third-generation jet fighter, alongside similar Soviet aircra ...

MF SK434 *

MiG-25 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 (; NATO reporting name: Foxbat) is a supersonic interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft that is among the fastest military aircraft to enter service. Designed by the Soviet Union's Mikoyan-Gurevich bureau, it is a ...

R KP-355 *

MiG-27 The Mikoyan MiG-27 (; NATO reporting name: Flogger-D/J) is a variable-sweep ground-attack aircraft, originally built by the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau in the Soviet Union and later licence-produced in India by Hindustan Aeronautics as t ...

Vintage Aircraft Flight

* De Havilland DH-82 Tiger Moth HU-512 *

FB52 IB-799 *

VIII NH-631 * HAL Gnat II E-265 *

HAL HT-2 The HAL HT-2 is an Indian two-seat primary trainer designed and built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The HT-2 was the first company design to enter production in 1953 for the Indian Air Force and Navy, where it replaced the de Havilla ...

IX-737 * North American Harvard HT-291 *

Douglas C-47 The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II. During the war the C-47 was used for troo ...

IJ-302 *

IX-732

Transport Aircraft Section

Antonov An-12 The Antonov An-12 ( Russian: Антонов Ан-12; NATO reporting name: Cub) is a four-engined turboprop transport aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. It is the military version of the Antonov An-10 and has many variants. For more than thr ...

BL-727 * De Havilland DHC-4 Caribou BM-774 *

IJ-817 *

Ilyushin Il-14 The Ilyushin Il-14 (NATO reporting name: Crate) is a Soviet twin-engine commercial and military personnel and cargo transport aircraft that first flew in 1950 in aviation, 1950, and entered service in 1954. The Il-14 was also manufactured in East ...

IL-860 *

Tupolev Tu-124 The Tupolev Tu-124 (NATO reporting name: Cookpot) is a 56-passenger short-range twin-jet airliner built in the Soviet Union. It was the Soviet Union's first operational airliner powered by turbofan engines. Design and development Developed fro ...

V-644

References

External links

Air Force Museum, webpage
at

{{authority control Air force museums Indian Air Force Museums in Delhi Military and war museums in India Aerospace museums in India Year of establishment missing