Yugoslav Aeronautical Museum, Belgrade, Serbia

[imalko]

Museum was founded in 1957 and permanent exibition in current building was opened to public on 21st of May 1989.

In exibition area of over 6000 square meters visitors can observe 41 type of original airplanes, helicopters and gliders, large number of engines, rockets, radars, flight simulators and about 50 models of balloons, gliders and airplanes.

Yugoslav aeronautical industry is presented with airplanes such as: SARIC-1 from 1910, Fizir FN, Ikarus S-49C, experimental airplane Type 451 with pilot in lying position, then first yugoslav jets type 451M and T-451MM Hornett II, and also airplanes such as SOKO-522, UTVA-66, Kraguj, Galeb and first prototype of twin engined fighter-bomber J-22 Orao (Eagle).

Interesting are also famous airplanes from period of World War 2: Messerschmitt Bf 109G, Hurricane Mk IV, Spitfire Mk Vc, Jak-3, IL-2 Sturmovik, P-47 Thunderbolt, Polikarpov Po-2, Fieseler Fi 156 Storch etc.

Museums collection also includes another 80 different aircrafts, gliders and helicopters, among them famous airplanes such as: Fiat G-50bis, Petlyakov Pe-2, Jak-9, Focke-Wulf Fw 190F etc. But these are stored and are not on public display at this time.

On first gallery visitors can see exibitions "Serbian aviatics 1912-1918" and "Air power in April War 1941".

On second gallery of the Museum visitors can see exibition "Yugoslav aeronautical industry" with great number of original items, parts, documents, drawings, photographs and models, which cover development of our aeronautical industry in period since its begginigs in 1923 up to 1993.

Outside of the museum building are displayed aircrafts Caravelle SE-210, Junkers Ju 52, Douglas DC-3, Short Silend Mk 1, DHC-2 Biver, Jastreb J-21 and helicopter Mi-4.

Museum also has library with over 10.000 volumes of aeronautical literature, center for historical, technical and photo documentation and workshops for conservation and restauration of airplanes and engines.

That was my translation of official museum brochure and now pictures:

[Wildcat]

Excellent pics! Looks like a great collection, I particularly like the Spit MkVc.

[imalko]

Then just for you Wildcat - some more photos of Spitfire Mk Vc with tropical filter:

[Geedee]

Thats a great set of pics !....thanks for posting.

Looks like there are also some airframes outside...is that a 'Hokum' I see in the last batch of spit pics ?

[imalko]

Actually it is not Kamov Ka-50/52 'Hokum' but another Kamov design - Ka-25 anti-submarine helicopter - which served in Yugoslav AF and was phased out of service at the end of the nineties. There are two of these outside of the museum.

By the way museum is located at the Belgrade international airport. It is easy to find. Anyone who eventually had been at this airport could have easily noticed interesting oval shaped building near by.

Here are some pictures from outside:

[Gnomey]

Nice pics!

[Micdrow]

Great pictures there, many thanks!!!

[imalko]

Tanks guys, I appreciate it.

Actually there is a lot more to see in this museum. More jet aircrafts, I mean. Some of them are - Thunderjet, Lokheed Shooting Star, F-86 Sabre, MiG-21MF, some jets of Yugoslav design... and some more examples of the US origin (wrecks of F-16 and F-117 which were shoot down in 1999), which are quite unique for this museum.

But enthusiastic about WW2 airplanes as I am, I mostly took pictures of WW2 warbirds.

If some of you are interested, I can post few pictures of the jets I did took. In the meantime, here is one example. Can anyone guess which plane this is?

[Sweb]

Folland Gnat.

[Milos Sijacki]

Hey, nice pictures there. I also posted some photos when I was there. You can see them in the Aircraft Pictures part of the forum. Thanks for a short history of the museum.

Which is Your favourite plane there?

Cheers

[imalko]

Which is my favorite plane in this museum? Well...

Since my favorite airplane of all times is Messserschmitt Bf 109, you can imagine how exiting is for me to be able to see one example in our museum up close... If only there was another one airworthy here in Serbia....

Other then that I like a lot IL-2 and P-47. They are such impressive aircrafts and you can only appreciate their immense size when you stand next to them up close. Then there is Spitfire... (I told you that I am overenthusiastic about WW2 warbirds).

When jets are concerned, MiG-21 is my bird and out of jets of our own design my favorite is Galeb, which is such beautifull and elegant aircraft, and I would say pride of our air force tradition. Not to mention G-4 Super Galeb...

[imalko]

I almost forgot. Sweb gave the correct answer - it is Folland Gnat. I guess the question wasn't that hard after all.

[Milos Sijacki]

You picked up nice ones, and really good ones there. My favs would have to be Bf-109 and Yak-3 -This one because my grandfather-not really a grandfather, but was a very important member of my family and I loved him like a grandfather, who flew in it in WW2 alongside Russians.

Cheers

[imalko]

Hi Milos!

Can you write something more about your grandfather and his experience from the war?

In the meantime, here's another picture of Yak-3, just for you:

[Milos Sijacki]

Well, not much I'm afraid, he died before I could ask Him how he even got into the Soviet Union, for he was in jail when Germans invaded. He was there because he was pro-Socialist. I have two photos of him, one in his Partisan uniform on the Ukrainian front, and the second one a photo of him in his uniform.

So, I know nothing about his war years, except that he achieved a pretty good score and few decorations. All I know is that he was a part of US-Yugoslav pilot trade off in 1954. He was stationed during thath time at the Nellis ( don't know if it spelled like that, sorry) air-force base, where he achieved a remarkable score, and they put his name on their top pilot list there.

So much for now, I'll try to find out a bit more.

Cheers