About Us
The Aeronatical Museum in Belgrade was founded with the desire to preserve material testimonies important for the origin and development of aviation in our region. In terms of the quality and quantity of its collections, in the past decades Aeronatical Museum has been ranked among the leading institutions of its kind in the world.
After the end of the First World War, in the newly created state, there was a growing awareness of the need to preserve aircraft and create an aviation collection. At the first aviation exhibition organized in Belgrade in 1925 the monoplane Blerio XI has been shown. This plane, that was captured at the airport in Mostar in 1918, will also occupy a place of honor at the First International Exhibition held in Belgrade in 1938 in the pavilion of the Yugoslav Air Force at the location of the Old Fairground. However, the planes exhibited at that time were destroyed during the Second World War. Immediately after the end of the war, a group of engineers collected a large number of airplanes at the Belgrade airport with the intention that they would be the first exhibits of the future museum, but by order of the then Air Force Command, most of those airplanes were destroyed. Thanks to a fortunate circumstance, several rare and truly valuable aircraft were still preserved to complete the planned exhibition at Kalemegdan on the occasion of the anniversary of the uprising against the occupiers. Among them are one of today's most valuable museum exhibits, the Fiat G 50 bis and Foke Wolff 190 F-8 fighters.
Despite the initial failures, work on the collection of domestic and foreign aircraft, aircraft engines and other equipment continued, which finally ended on February 15, 1957. led to the goal. On that day, the Department of History and Museum was established at the Air Force Command in Zemun, in a small room. The first tasks, at the same time the most important, were the collection, processing and storage of objects and documentation, as well as the formation of collections. Information was collected on the location of various materials, which could be part of a future collection. The most difficult part was collecting the aircraft, partly due to the difficulty of transporting them, partly due to the impossibility of accommodating them. The year 1960 will bring changes. The Air Force and Air Defense Command decided to move the Museum to the old Belgrade airport. A space of over 500m2 was acquired on the ground floor of the pre-war officer's club building. This significantly improved the working conditions and enabled the creation of the first real aviation collection. Thus, the fighter-bomber F 47 Thunderbolt, Messerschmitt Me 109, Spitfire, and Hurricane fighters arrived at the old airport one after the other, which even today form a significant part of the Museum's permanent exhibition. One of the first domestic aircraft, which was taken over in 1958, was the Fizir FN, produced in 1929. The collection was enriched by the first sailboats, Čavka and Jastreb, then the championship sailboat Košava. Also, collections of aircraft engines, aviation weapons and models, as well as a photo library and library, were gradually formed.
Photo 1: Part of the permanent exhibition of the Aeronautical MuseumConsidering the limited space at the old airport, the Museum needed an adequate building, with a significantly larger exhibition space, depots, workshops and other supporting premises. Civil aviation institutions and companies will be involved in the action of finding this new solution, so that the planned facility will be created with the joint efforts and resources of the military and civil aviation. The location at the new Belgrade airport was accepted because of the largest space and the possibility of expansion, and the Museum itself fits very well into the modern airport environment. In September 1975, the construction of the new building began, but due to problems of a financial and technical nature, the works will last more than a decade. Finally, on May 21, 1989, with the presence of representatives of the founders, the media, as well as thousands of people, a new museum facility, which itself represents a modern and attractive architectural work, was officially opened.
Photo 2: Aeronautical Museum building and outdoor display
In parallel with the construction of the building, active work was also done on arranging the first permanent installation, which will be located on three levels, on 6,000 m2. Plans were made for the appearance of the exhibition, new exhibits were acquired. Exchanges were also carried out with foreign museums and collectors, of which a very successful exchange was obtained for the Soviet Polikarpov Po 2 aircraft with a replica of the French World War I fighter Niepor XI, with the original engine, propeller and other parts. During the 1970s and 1980s, comprehensive work on collecting both aircraft and various historical documents and objects continued, which increased the importance of the existing collections and at the same time enabled the creation of new ones. This is how collections of uniforms and flight equipment, posters, philately, postcards... The museum actively cooperates with domestic and foreign museums, adopting and applying their experiences and solutions.
During the following years, through the permanent exhibition, which was visited by about 6,000 people on the first day alone, as well as through a large number of thematic exhibitions, inside and outside the museum, the Museum gradually established itself and gained a reputation. The permanent exhibition is still a mirror of the Museum. It presents the development of one hundred years of aviation, from the pioneering period to the modern era. The story begins in 1910 with Ivan Sarić's airplane, which was the first to fly over our territory, and continues following the two world wars, where exhibits of great world importance are exhibited, many of which are rare today and only a few examples have survived, as is the case with the famous with a Soviet Yak 3 plane. After the Second World War, the era of jet aviation begins, Lockheed T-33A, Thunderjet F-84 G, as well as the famous Saber F-86D, represent this period. The collection is completed by the MiG 21, the first supersonic fighter used in the Yugoslav Air Force. The domestic aviation industry, which at one time was at an enviable level of development for a small country, is represented, among others, by the Soko Kraguj J-20, the Galeb G2, as well as the 451M and 451MM Stršljen, experimental jet planes of our constructors. In the central position is Orao J-22, the prototype of the domestic fighter-bomber, which took off in 1974.
The development of the national air force is also presented in the framework of thematic exhibitions: "Serbian aviation 1912-1918", "Aviation in the April War of 1941". Part of the exhibit is an exhibition dedicated to the NATO aggression against the FRY in 1999, entitled "Exhibits that fell from the sky". Great attention was paid to the origin and development of the Yugoslav aviation industry and airlines, as important and indispensable segments of our aviation.
On the outside display are military and civilian aircraft, which once flew in our country and were also part of the Yugoslav Air Force.
VIDEOAeronautical museum
