The Polish Aviation Museum in Cracow – opening of the new building!

[v2]

The Rotating Museum

The Rakowice-Czyżyny airport was established in 1912 in Kraków, a part of the Austrian partition at the time. It was Poland’s second largest airport during the interwar period, but following World War II the rapid development of the surrounding areas meant it gradually lost in importance, finally reaching decommission during the 1960s. Today, after nearly a century, it is undergoing a major revival.

A small museum was created soon after the airport’s closure. A project to reclaim parts of the old airport for open-air exhibitions and air shows was launched in 1989. In 2003, after a long break, aircraft landed here again as part of the Polish Aviation Museum’s 40th anniversary. This became an inspiration to organise the Małopolska Air Show the following year, which has been drawing crowds of aerobatics fans ever since.



This year sees a centenary of aviation in Kraków and Małopolska, and the museum is currently finalising the “Creating an Aircraft Cultural Park” project, initiated a few years ago. September will see the opening of the museum’s new building, constructed from glass, steel and concrete, shaped like a rotating propeller when viewed from above. The building includes an exhibition room with an area of over 1000 m.sq. and a large lecture hall equipped with interactive information booths, aircraft seats and a flight simulator. The museum is also gaining a multi-purpose hall, a cinema, and an internet cafe. The modern interiors will host permanent and temporary exhibitions, popular and specialist educational programmes, film screenings, and cultural and corporate events. 21 aircraft will go on display in the building, including Blériot XI (one of the first French aeroplanes, constructed in 1909), RWD 13 (one of the last two preserved specimens of this Polish interwar plane), and TS-8 Bies (regarded as the first modern aircraft constructed in Poland after World War II).

The official opening of the new building is planned for 18 September, and it will be opened to the public from the following day. There are plenty of attractions awaiting the visitors: temporary exhibitions, film and multimedia screenings, and aircraft demonstrations.

Muzeum of Polish Aviation by Pysall Ruge Architekten

[vikingBerserker]

Very cool! Thanks for posting V2!

[imalko]

Thanks for sharing mate. Looks very interesting. A place worth visiting I would say.

[marshall]

Thanks for sharing mate. Looks very interesting. A place worth visiting I would say.

I agree, it's an interesting place. You can see there the only PZL P.11 survivor or Curtiss Hawk II which belong to Ernst Udet to just name two really rare ones, but there is many more planes. Unfortunately many of them are in poor condition.

[Airframes]

Looks good Dominik. One I need to visit when I eventually get to Poland !

[Gnomey]

Looking good, look forward to some shots from it.