The Museum of Aviation (''Múzeum letectva Košice'') is a

transport Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

and military history museum in

Košice Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...

, Slovakia. It is a branch of the Slovak Technical Museum in

and is located near the

Košice International Airport Košice International Airport () is an international airport serving Košice, Slovakia. It is the second largest international airport in Slovakia. It is located to the south of St Elisabeth Cathedral, Metres above sea level, above sea level, c ...

, on the outskirts of the city. It opened on August 23, 2002. After a general reconstruction and enlargement period that lasted since 2004, the museum reopened on September 2, 2006.

Collections and exhibits

Its collections include a wide variety of heavier-than-air aircraft,

aircraft engine An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Aircraft using power components are referred to as powered flight. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbin ...

s and other technical accessories from various eras of aviation, with a focus on Slovak and European aviation history. Aircraft are displayed both indoors and in open-air displays on the museum's grounds. As of 2014, the collections include over 60 types of civilian and

military aircraft A military aircraft is any Fixed-wing aircraft, fixed-wing or rotorcraft, rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary military of any type. Some military aircraft engage directly in aerial warfare, while others take on su ...

from various periods and countries of origin, sans larger airliners. The three main exhibits of the museum are displayed in three interconnected exhibition halls. They consist of collections pertaining to the development of aviation in Europe,

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

and Slovakia until the end of World War II (i.e. the pre-jet era), the development of aviation in Czechoslovakia during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

(jet era, 1950s domestic helicopter developments), and the development of aviation elsewhere in Europe during the Cold War, in that order. The aircraft inventory of the third exhibition consists largely of decommissioned military jet aircraft donated by the governments and militaries of various European countries and the United States. Due to the donations commonly being addressed to a current Slovak president, the exhibit is often dubbed "The Presidential Aircraft Gallery". The museum's collection of former

Slovak Air Force The Slovak Air Force, known since 2002 as the Air Force of the Armed Forces of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic (), is the aviation and air defense branch of the Military of Slovakia, Slovak Armed Forces. Operating 15 aircraft and 18 helicopters fro ...

aircraft is one of the largest in the country. Several of the decommissioned aircraft are kept in storage, awaiting restoration work. Smaller side exhibits focus on aviation-related technological accessories (mostly from the jet age), sports aviation history and related topics, and

model aircraft A model aircraft is a physical model of an existing or imagined aircraft, and is built typically for display, research, or amusement. Model aircraft are divided into two basic groups: flying and non-flying. Non-flying models are also termed s ...

displays.

References

External links

Official homesite
(as part of the overall Slovak Technical Museum site)

(Slovak)

(English)
Official Facebook page of the museum
{{Authority control

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 ...

Museums established in 2002

Museum of Aviation (Kosice)

Collections and exhibits

See also

References

External links