Aeronautical Museum
Great care is paid to nurturing heritage and tradition in all countries of the world. Museums, as institutions that preserve heritage, are highly valued and occupy a special place in the life of a nation. One museum is dedicated to each area of the society's existence and activities. Preservation of the aviation tradition of the Serbian and Yugoslav aviation, more than a century long, has been entrusted to the Aeronautical Museum in Belgrade.
The foundations of the House for the Preservation of the Serbian and Yugoslav Aviation Heritage were laid in 1957 with the establishment of a special Department for the History of Aviation at the Aviation Command. This department had the task of collecting, storing, studying and presenting exhibits from all periods of development of Serbian and Yugoslav aviation, from the appearance of the first ideas about flight in our region to modern times. The Department of Aviation History was later renamed the Yugoslav Air Force Museum, and the name was changed several more times. After several changes in the location of the museum, which was first located in the building of the Air Force Command in Zemun and the building of the Officers' Home within the Old Airport "Belgrade" below Bežanijska kos, the decision to build the building of the Aviation Museum was made in late 1968. The project of the architect Ivan Strauss won the competition for the conceptual design of the museum building. The building of the Aviation Museum, built as part of the Belgrade airport in Surcin, was ceremoniously opened on May 21, 1989, for the Day of Aviation. By the decision of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, the museum building was determined as a cultural monument in 2013. Since 2019, the Aviation Museum is part of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Serbia.
The collections of the Aeronautical Museum contain over 200 aircraft of various types and purposes, as well as thousands of valuable objects, photographs and documents that make up the aviation heritage of Serbia and Yugoslavia. The museum fund is presented to the public through various cultural events, while it is also the most important source for studying the past and the development of aviation in this area.
