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The Flieger Flab Museum (English:
Swiss Air Force The Swiss Air Force (; ; ; ) is the air component of the Swiss Armed Forces, established on 31 July 1914, three days after the outbreak of World War I, as a part of the Swiss Army, army and in October 1936 as an independent service. In peaceti ...
Museum) is located in the
Canton of Zurich The canton of Zurich is an administrative unit (Swiss canton, canton) of Switzerland, situated in the northeastern part of the country. With a population of (as of ), it is the most populous canton of Switzerland. Zurich is the ''de facto'' Capi ...
in
Dübendorf Dübendorf is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Uster (district), Uster in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Zürich (canton), Zürich in Switzerland. It is a suburb of Zürich in Switzerland with a population o ...
on the grounds of
Dübendorf Air Base Dübendorf Air Base () was a military airfield of the Swiss Air Force northeast of Dübendorf in Switzerland, located east of Zürich. It includes the Flieger-Flab-Museum. History The search for a suitable site for an airfield started in 190 ...
. In the museum, 40
airplanes An airplane (American English), or aeroplane (Commonwealth English), informally plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, ...
and
helicopters A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...
are displayed, with the collection divided into distinct eras: pioneers and
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, the 1930s,
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and the postwar period, the beginning of the jet age, the development of jet fighters, 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 ...
, and arms reduction.


History


Prehistory

For many years, decommissioned aircraft from the Air Force were scrapped due to lack of space, with only a few individual parts such as engines, instruments, weapons and propellers being kept. Parts of foreign aircraft that landed in Switzerland during the Second World War, especially engines, were also kept at various departments. However, entire aircraft were usually not preserved until 1965. During the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, however, a depot was set up in Schadau Castle in which historical material was collected for a possible but never realized army museum. After the war, some of the material supplied by the directorate of the military airfields was returned to their operations, while other parts went to various armories. The hangar manager in
Dübendorf Dübendorf is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Uster (district), Uster in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Zürich (canton), Zürich in Switzerland. It is a suburb of Zürich in Switzerland with a population o ...
tried to make room, and some of the engines also went to the Technorama association's collection in Oberwinterthur and to the mechanical engineering laboratory of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in
Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
. In 1970, the Department of Military Airfields donated a portion of the material suitable for a civilian museum to the
Transport Museum A transport museum is a museum that holds collections of transport items, which are often limited to land transport (road and rail)—including old cars, motorcycles, trucks, trains, trams/streetcars, buses, trolleybuses and Coach (vehicle), coach ...
in Lucerne, as a contribution to the newly opened aviation hall there. Aircraft were also loaned to Lucerne. For this occasion, the then director of the Federal Office of Military Airfields, Hans Giger, decided to bring together the material that was scattered across many locations and had a World War I hangar at Dübendorf airfield that was used by the grounds service cleared in order to store the existing material. This hangar 13 was the scene of a first internal tour in 1972. The actual collection was built up between 1972 and 1978 by employees of the Office of Military Airfields and its director from 1969 to 1979, Hans Giger. After some difficulties, the engines from the Lyss Armory, as well as others from the Technorama, were returned to Dübendorf. The second of the three World War I hangars, Hangar 14, was now also occupied. During these years there were occasional guided tours.


Opening of a public museum

After repeatedly failing to find support from his superiors, Giger bypassed the official channels and turned directly to the head of the Federal Military Department, Federal Councillor
Rudolf Gnägi Rudolf Gnägi (3 August 1917 – 20 April 1985) was a Swiss politician who was President of the Swiss Confederation in 1971 and 1976 and a member of the Swiss Federal Council from 1966 to 1979. Career He was elected to the Federal Council of S ...
. Gnägi spontaneously agreed on the condition that he would work voluntarily to run the museum and that the proceeds would be paid into the federal treasury. The exhibition was open to the public for a summer from 9 June 1978. One year after the first opening, the old, leaky hangars were made suitable for use as museums and accessible again. Another hangar (number 11) was added, as was the large radome that had served on the Wangen side near the airfield. Edgar Oehler and Hans Giger, who was about to retire, persuaded the owner of the Altenrhein aircraft and vehicle works, Claudio Caroni, to agree to give the museum a prototype of the Swiss home-built P-16 jet aircraft. Because the second example did not make it to the Swiss Museum of Transport as planned, the aircraft handed over in Dübendorf on 8 August 1980 remains the only surviving aircraft of the type.  Even after his retirement, Hans Giger continued to work on replicas of historic aircraft on a private basis; he recruited other retired employees of the military airfield department in Interlaken and Buochs to work on such replicas. Depending on the source, replicas were produced in between 45,500  and 60,000 hours of work, up until the time when parts of the workshops were closed in 1998, when the average age of the employees building the DH-1 replica had reached 84 years. As early as 2001, there were fears that the DH-3 aircraft project would not be completed, although later there was still hope that it would be completed. In 1978, for the first time, the public were able to contribute to the collection, which grew steadily over the next few years. Finally, in 1979, the Friends of the Museum of the Swiss air force (VFMF) was formed, initiated by Hans Giger, the Director of the Federal Office for military airfields. In order to be able to continue operations independently of the federal government, Giger suggested the establishment of a private sponsoring association, which was founded in 1979 as the Association of ''Friends of the Swiss Air Force Museum'' (VFMF). During the VFMF presidency of former Federal Councillor Rudolf Friedrich from 1985 to 1988, the association built a new exhibition hall with the help of donations. This extension, a concrete shell structure by the engineer Heinz Isler, was inaugurated in 1988 by the then Federal Councillor Arnold Koller. The items on loan from the Lucerne Museum of Transport and other stored aircraft now found space in the museum. A year earlier, the federal government had assumed financial responsibility for the operation of the museum. Ten years later (1997), the VFMF and the ''Association of Friends of the Flab'' (VF-Flab) merged to form the ''Association of Friends of the Swiss Air Force'' VFL. In 2002, a second hall was opened on the site of the small old First World War hangars. During the presidency of former Federal Councillor Rudolf Heinrich Friedrich between 1985 and 1988, the club built a new exhibition hall with the help of donations. This extension, a concrete-shell structure designed by engineer Heinz Isler, was inaugurated in 1988 by former Federal Councillor Arnold Koller. A year earlier, the federal government took over the financial responsibility for the operation of the museum. Ten years later, in 1997, the VFMF and the Association of Friends of flab (VF-flab) merged with the Friends of the Swiss Air Force AFL. In 2002, a new hall was opened.


Exhibits


Aircraft

* ADS-95 Ranger * Alouette II * Alouette III *
BAe Hawk The BAE Systems Hawk is a British single-engine, subsonic, jet-powered advanced trainer aircraft. Its aluminum alloy fuselage is of conventional string-frame construction. It was first known as the Hawker Siddeley Hawk, and subsequently produc ...
* Bücker Bü 131 * Bücker Bü 181 *
Blériot XI The Blériot XI is a French aircraft from the Aviation in the pioneer era, pioneer era of aviation. The first example was used by Louis Blériot to make the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft, on 25 July 1909. ...
* Dassault Mirage IIIS * Dassault Mirage IIIRS * De Havilland Vampire DH.100 * De Havilland Vampire DH.115 Trainer * de Havilland Venom DH-112 * de Havilland Venom DH-112 reconnaissance version * N-20.2 Arbalète * N-20.10 Aiguillon * EKW C-36 C-3603 * FFA P-16 *
Fieseler Fi 156 Storch The Fieseler Fi 156 ''Storch'' (, "stork") is a liaison aircraft designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Fieseler. Its nickname of '' Storch'' was derived from the lengthy legs of its main landing gear, which gave the aircraft ...
* Hanriot HD.1 *
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 ...
F.Mk.58 and T.Mk.68 * Hiller UH-12B *
Messerschmitt Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a monoplane fighter aircraft that was designed and initially produced by the Nazi Germany, German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt#History, Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW). Together with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the ...
* Messerschmitt Bf 108-B Taifun * Morane-Saulnier D-3800 * North American P-51D Mustang *
Nieuport 28 The Nieuport 28 C.1, a French biplane fighter aircraft flown during World War I, was built by Nieuport and designed by Gustave Delage. Owing its lineage to the successful line of sesquiplane fighters that included the Nieuport 17, the Nieupor ...
*
Northrop F-5 The Northrop F-5 is a family of supersonic light fighter aircraft initially designed as a privately funded project in the late 1950s by Northrop Corporation. There are two main models: the original F-5A and F-5B Freedom Fighter variants, and th ...
E erected in front of museum in Patrouille Suisse paint *
Northrop F-5 The Northrop F-5 is a family of supersonic light fighter aircraft initially designed as a privately funded project in the late 1950s by Northrop Corporation. There are two main models: the original F-5A and F-5B Freedom Fighter variants, and th ...
E in standard gray paint on loan from the Air Force *
Northrop F-5 The Northrop F-5 is a family of supersonic light fighter aircraft initially designed as a privately funded project in the late 1950s by Northrop Corporation. There are two main models: the original F-5A and F-5B Freedom Fighter variants, and th ...
F in standard gray paint on loan from the Air Force * Pilatus P-2 *
Pilatus P-3 The Pilatus P-3 was a military Trainer (aircraft), training aircraft built by Pilatus Aircraft of Switzerland. Design and development The Pilatus P-3 was designed for primary and advanced training (including night flying, aerobatics and instru ...
* Pilatus PC-7 Turbo trainer *
Pilatus PC-9 The Pilatus PC-9 is a single-engine, low-wing tandem-seat turboprop training aircraft designed and manufactured by Pilatus Aircraft of Switzerland. Developed as a more powerful evolution of the preceding Pilatus PC-7, the PC-9 features an enlar ...
* Rockwell Grand Commander 680FL


Simulators

*
Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the t ...
-222 cockpit section * Dassault Mirage IIIDS * Dassault Mirage IIIS *
Pilatus P-3 The Pilatus P-3 was a military Trainer (aircraft), training aircraft built by Pilatus Aircraft of Switzerland. Design and development The Pilatus P-3 was designed for primary and advanced training (including night flying, aerobatics and instru ...
* F/A-18C *
Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a long-range wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2023. After the introduction of the Boeing 707, 707 in October 1958, Pan Am ...
-338 cockpit section (May 2017)


Other exhibits

* Bristol BL-64 Bloodhound * Fire control radar Mark VII * FLORIDA Airspace monitoring and management system * Flt Gt63 /69' Super Fledermaus * LGR-1 Radar *
Oerlikon 35 mm twin cannon The Oerlikon GDF or Oerlikon 35 mm twin cannon is a towed anti-aircraft gun made by Oerlikon Contraves (renamed as ''Rheinmetall Air Defence AG'' following the merger with Rheinmetall in 2009). The system was originally designated 2 ZLA/3 ...
*
Oerlikon 20 mm cannon The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons based on an original German Becker Type M2 20 mm cannon design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models empl ...
*
RSA Missile The RSA is one of the earliest surface-to-air missiles systems, developed by the Swiss companies Oerlikon-Bührle and Contraves starting in 1947. The missile went through a rapid development process with several upgraded versions, and was the firs ...
* RSE Kriens (Missile) * Saurer M6 radio truck * SRF Airspace monitoring and management system * Target allocation radar TPS-1E


See also

*
List of museums in Switzerland This is a list of museums in Switzerland, sorted by canton and city / municipality. Included are Swiss natural history museums, science museums, transport museums, railway museums, military museums, art museums and ethnographic museums, among ...


References


External links

*
Tailnumbers of all aircraft of the Swiss Air Force
(German only) {{Authority control Aerospace museums in Switzerland Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Zurich Swiss Air Force Military and war museums in Switzerland