The Aeronautical Museum Belgrade, formerly known as the Yugoslav Aeronautical Museum, is a

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 th ...

located in

Surčin Surčin ( sr-Cyrl, Сурчин, ) is a municipality of the city of Belgrade. As of 2011 census, it has a population of 43,819 inhabitants. It is the newest municipality of Belgrade, having split from the municipality of Zemun in 2003. Its most ...

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...

, the capital of Serbia. Founded in 1957, the museum is located adjacent to

Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport ( sr, / ) or Belgrade Airport ( sr, / ) is an international airport serving Belgrade, Serbia. It is the largest and the busiest airport in Serbia, situated west of downtown Belgrade near the suburb of Su ...

. The current facility, designed by architect

Ivan Štraus Ivan Štraus (24 July 1928 – 24 August 2018) was a Bosnian architect. Life Born in 1928, in Kremna, Zlatibor county, Serbia, to a Slovenian father and mother from Herzegovina. He identified as a "Bosnian of Slovenian and Herzegovinian d ...

, was opened to the public on 21 May 1989.

History

In 1975 JAT, the national

flag carrier A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by the government for international operations. Hi ...

, donated of land for the museum and the museum later purchased further . Construction of the present building of the museum began in the mid-1970s. The construction work dragged on, so it was only in late 1988 that the setting of the first permanent exhibition began. The museum's new location was ceremonially opened on 21 May 1989. The museum owns over 200 aircraft previously operated by the Yugoslav Air Force (both

royal Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ...

and

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

), Serbian Air Force, and others, as well as aircraft previously flown by several civil airliners and private

flying club A flying club or aero club is a not-for-profit, member-run organization that provides its members with affordable access to aircraft. Many clubs also provide flight training, flight planning facilities, pilot supplies and associated services, as ...

s. It also owns the only known surviving example of the

Fiat G.50 The Fiat G.50 ''Freccia'' ("Arrow") was a World War II Italian fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by aviation company Fiat. Upon entering service, the type became Italy’s first single-seat, all-metal monoplane that had an enclosed co ...

.Marinkovic, Vlado
"Air Museum."
''pbase.com,'' 11 September 2010. Retrieved: 9 September 2013. The most valuable collections are housed in

geodesic In geometry, a geodesic () is a curve representing in some sense the shortest path ( arc) between two points in a surface, or more generally in a Riemannian manifold. The term also has meaning in any differentiable manifold with a connecti ...

glass building, with additional aircraft displayed on the surrounding grounds. The museum also displays wreckage of a downed

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

F-117 Nighthawk The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is a retired American single-seat, twin-engine stealth attack aircraft developed by Lockheed's secretive Skunk Works division and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). It was the first operational aircr ...

and

F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successf ...

, both shot down during the

NATO bombing of Yugoslavia The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) carried out an aerial bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The air strikes lasted from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999. The bombings continued until an a ...

in 1999. In addition, the collection consists of more than 130 aviation engines, more radars, rockets, various aeronautical equipment, over 20,000 reference books and technical documentation as well as more than 200,000 photographs.

Collection

New 'Rocket and Radar' museum exhibition will be constructed. Existing missiles and radars in museum: *

P-15 Termit The P-15 ''Termit'' (russian: П-15 "Термит"; en, termite) is an anti-ship missile developed by the Soviet Union's Raduga design bureau in the 1950s. Its GRAU designation was 4K40, its NATO reporting name was ''Styx'' or SS-N-2. China ...

S-75 Dvina The S-75 (Russian: С-75; NATO reporting name SA-2 Guideline) is a Soviet-designed, high-altitude air defence system, built around a surface-to-air missile with command guidance. Following its first deployment in 1957 it became one of the most w ...

Gliders

Helicopters

File:S-55.jpg, Sikorsky (SOKO) S-55-5 File:Ka 25-1.jpg, Kamov Ka-25PL File:Mi-8 at the Aeronautical Museum Belgrade.jpg, Mi-8

Piston-engine aircraft

File:Yu Hurricane.jpg, Hawker Hurricane Mk IVRP with Yugoslav Air Force markings File:Yu Yak-3.jpg,

Yak-3 The Yakovlev Yak-3 (Russian: Яковлев Як-3) was a single-engine, single-seat World War II Soviet fighter. Robust and easy to maintain, it was much liked by both pilots and ground crew.Glancey 2006, p. 180. One of the smallest and light ...

File:Bf109 messerschmitt.JPG,

Messerschmitt Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War an ...

with Yugoslav Air Force markings captured and used by

Yugoslav Partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene: , or the National Liberation Army, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska (NOV), Народноослободилачка војска (НОВ); mk, Народноослобод� ...

during World War II. File:P-47 YU 01.jpg,

Republic P-47D Thunderbolt The P-47 Thunderbolt was a World War II fighter aircraft built by Republic Aviation from 1941 to 1945. Early designs XP-47 (AP-10) In response to a USAAC requirement for a new fighter aircraft, Republic Aviation engineer Alexander Kartveli p ...

with Yugoslav Air Force markings. File:Polikarpov Po 2.jpg,

Polikarpov Po-2 The Polikarpov Po-2 (also U-2, for its initial ''uchebnyy'', 'training', role as a flight instruction aircraft) served as an all-weather multirole Soviet biplane, nicknamed ''Kukuruznik'' (russian: Кукурузник,Gunston 1995, p. 292. NA ...

File:Fizir FN.jpg,

Fizir FN The Zmaj Fizir FN () was a plane designed for primary (initial) training of pilots in Yugoslavia before World War II. It was constructed in Zmaj, a Zemun-based factory, in the Rogožarski factory in Belgrade, and Albatros in Sremska Mitrovica ...

File:Kraguj.jpg,

Soko J-20 Kraguj The Soko J-20 Kraguj (''Sparrowhawk'') is a light military, single-engine, low-wing single-seat aircraft with a metal airframe, capable of performing close air support, counterinsurgency (COIN), and reconnaissance missions, that was designed by ...

File:Utva 213.jpg, Utva 213 File:Yu Spitfire.jpg,

Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Gri ...

LF Mk VC used by Yugoslav RAF squadron. File:Predator MQ-1 (war trophy in Museum of Aviation, Belgrade, Serbia).jpg,

MQ-1 Predator The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator (often referred to as the predator drone) is an American remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) built by General Atomics that was used primarily by the United States Air Force (USAF) and Central Intelligence Agency ...

File:F-117 Canopy (shot down over Serbia 1999, Museum of Aviation, Belgrade).jpg, Canopy of

F-117 The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is a retired American single-seat, twin-engine stealth attack aircraft developed by Lockheed's secretive Skunk Works division and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). It was the first operational aircr ...

shot down on 27 March 1999, near the village of

Buđanovci Buđanovci (Serbian Cyrillic: Буђановци) is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the municipality of Ruma, Srem District, Vojvodina province. The village has a Serb ethnic majority and its population numbering 1,757 residents (2002 cen ...

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hu ...

File:Ju52 Luftfahrtmuseum am Flughafen Belgrad.jpg,

Junkers Ju 52/3m Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG (JFM, earlier JCO or JKO in World War I, English: Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works) more commonly Junkers , was a major German aircraft and aircraft engine manufacturer. It was founded there in Dessau, Germ ...

(exF-BBYB) outside the building File:C-47 in front of the Aeronautical Museum Belgrade.jpg,

C-47 The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota (RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF, and SAAF 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 and remained in ...

Jet aircraft

File:Belgr f84 thunderjet.JPG, Republic F-84 "Thunderjet" File:F-86D-Yu.jpg,

F-86D Sabre The North American F-86D/K/L Sabre (initially known as the YF-95 and widely known informally as the "Sabre Dog",) was an American transonic jet fighter aircraft. Developed for the United States Air Force in the late 1940s, it was an interceptor ...

File:Mig-21 yu.JPG, MiG-21F-13 File:Airplane J-22 orao.JPG,

Soko J-22 Orao The Soko J-22 Orao ( sr-cyr, text=Oрао, translation=eagle) is a Yugoslav twin-engined, subsonic ground-attack and aerial reconnaissance aircraft. It was developed and built in collaboration by SOKO in Yugoslavia and by Avioane Craiova in ...

prototype File:Folland Gnat YU.jpg, Folland (Fo.141) Gnat F Mk.1 File:F-16 tail.jpg, Tail and canopy of F-16CG shot down during the

Operation Allied Force The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) carried out an aerial bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The air strikes lasted from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999. The bombings continued until an a ...

File:Caravelle yu.JPG, JAT Sud-Aviation Se.210 Caravele

Other

References

External links

Museum review by TravelDriveRace

Belgrade Aviation Museum

Музеј ваздухопловства-Београд
Званична интернет презентација Музеја ваздухопловства-Београд (у изради)
Aeronautical Museum-Belgrade
Official internet presentation of Aeronautical Museum - Belgrade (under construction)
Virtual tour through museum
{{List of museums in Belgrade Buildings and structures completed in 1989 Aerospace museums Museums in Belgrade Ministry of Defence (Serbia)

Museums established in 1957 1957 establishments in Serbia Surčin