Military Collections in Sweden – Third Chapter

May 18, 2025 CarloRLeave a comment

The rich military tradition of Sweden can be retraced by means of many interesting dedicated collections. Many of them are scattered in the nice southernmost country regions of the Scandinavian peninsula, and make for an interesting detour from the most popular touristic destinations.

As reported in the previous two chapters on the topic (see here and here), the neutrality of Sweden in the major confrontations taking place during the 20th century allowed this northern Country to operate in a unique and original way, especially in terms of military procurement. Besides picking what was actually deemed suitable for their internal needs especially from the West, Sweden managed develop a strong domestic design and manufacturing capability, such to fulfill its own self-defense role in a cost-effective and credible way.

The defense of neutrality was carried out in the air by a strong Air Force, often updated over the years. With the end of communism in Eastern Europe and the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the major threat in the Baltic area came to an end as well, resulting in a major scale-down of this defense force and the disbandment of many military organizations. Correspondingly, memorial museums can be found often close to former airbases. One of them, dedicated to the ‘Scania’ wing F10, in operation since WWII to the early 2000s, is covered in this chapter.

A rather complete collection of aircraft from the entire span of the Cold War can be found in the unusual frame of a private museum, established in the 1960s from the will of the founder to display primarily his own collection of cars. The mix is particularly interesting, witnessing also the close link between Sweden and the vehicle industry of the US, possibly the tightest among all Countries in Europe.

Of course, in the theater of WWII Sweden was politically and geographically in an interesting position as well as later in the Cold War. Its relative proximity to the Third Reich meant it was often overflown by bombers on their way back from missions over mainland Germany. Dogfights and bomber chase missions reached the airspace of Sweden, sometimes ending with either German or Allied aircraft crashing on Swedish territory. An interesting museum covered in this chapter is fully dedicated to the topic.

Photographs in this chapter were taken in the summer of 2024.

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Ängelholms Flight Museum, Ängelholm
Museum of Forced Landings, Morup
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum, Ugglarp

Sights

Ängelholms Flight Museum, Ängelholm

This nice collection of military aviation can be found on the former premises of the air base of Barkåkra (today Helsingborg airport), which has been the home of the 10th Wing ‘Scania’ (aka. F10 or ‘Ängelholm Wing’) between 1945 until the disbandment of the latter in 2002. Established during WWII, the illustrious history of the F10 wing spanned the entire Cold War, reaching into the 21st century. Correspondingly, the Scania Wing was supplied over the years with a rich inventory of aircraft models, ranging from classic fighters of WWII to the more recent SAAB Viggen and Gripen.

The structure of the exhibition, rather compact in size, is composed of two major areas.

In the first, the history of F10 is retraced especially by means of interesting photographs and memorabilia items. Among the pictures, some portray American bomber crews as well as German fighters landed on Swedish territory, which remained neutral during WWII.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

In this area are also a few dioramas and reconstructions of typical military scenes, including a medical room, from the earlier days of operation of the Scania Wing. Everyday items, as well as military training and illustrative material, is presented in display cases.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

The second major area is where most hardware of the collection can be found – aircraft, engines, vehicles, and much gear from the days of operation of the F10 wing. Among the earliest models acquired by F10 back in the WWII years was – rather interestingly – an Italian fighter, the Reggiane Re-2000 Falco, a batch of which was obtained from Italy in a supply shortage scenario, where especially the US had halted material export to non-allied countries. Pressed into service with the Air Force of Sweden (and specifically also with the F10 wing) as an interceptor with the locally attributed code of J20, this generally adequate machine was powered by a Piaggio P.XI 14-cylinders radial engine (which according to Roman numbering then often employed in Italy translates into P.11), a 1.040 hp model license-made in Italy, and originally a French design by Gnome-Rhone. A Re-2000 is not on display, but a Piaggio P.XI is! This engine has been quite popular in those years in Sweden, ending up also as an interim power plant for the Swedish own SAAB B17C single-engine light bomber/diver (not to be confounded with the homonym American Flying Fortress).

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Close by the P.XI is the oldest aircraft on display belonging to the F10, in the form of a FFVS J22. The company FFVS was actually a Swedish state-managed entity, borne in the years of WWII to cope with the wartime supply requirements on one side and the overbooking of the SAAB plants on the other. Introduced during WWII, this rugged fighter was powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1830, the ubiquitous Twin Wasp, license-built in Sweden by Svenska Flygmotor. The Scania Wing received the J22 model only in 1945, the last propeller-driven aircraft in its inventory. The exemplar on display looks under maintenance, and is possibly in airworthy conditions.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Next on display is a SAAB J29 Tunnan, with its distinctive barrel-shaped fuselage enshrouding the single, centrifugal flow jet engine. The F10 wing transitioned to jets in 1946 with the early SAAB J21R and the British-supplied DeHavilland DH100 Vampire (named J28R in Sweden). The Tunnan was provided to the F10 wing in 1953, and there it remained until 1963, while more advanced models were becoming available. The engine of the J29 was a DeHavilland Ghost, manufactured under licence in Sweden by Svenska Flygmotor under the name RM2B – an example is on display.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Close to the tail cone of the Tunnan is also a DeHavilland Goblin engine, originally employed on the Vampire.

The longest-lasting workhorse in F10 service has been the SAAB J35 Draken. An exemplar of the J version, the most updated and last (with the actual modification taking place in the late 1980s), is on display. The distinctive bulge for the IR seeker under the fuselage, appearing from the modern F version on, can be checked out from very close.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Interestingly, the Draken is presented with an exemplar of the Rb-28 missile hanging from an underwing pylon. This is a SAAB-modified version of the US-designed Hughes AIM-4D Falcon, an air-to-air missile conceived as an anti-bomber weapon, but hastily pressed into service against Vietnamese MiGs during the Vietnam war, under the wings of the Phantom, and proving very ineffective in the dogfighting role. For the Soviet bomber interdiction role of the Draken, this missile platform was deemed more effective, and it was retained for service for decades in Sweden.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Other missiles, rockets and guns (including a dismounted Aden 30 mm cannon) pertaining to the warload of the Draken are on display as well, together with an interesting console for missile signal testing.

Ahead of the Draken is a memorial wall, and ahead of it is a Rolls-Royce Avon jet engine, displayed as an instructional cutaway – including both the turbomachinery and the afterburning component. License-built in Sweden by Svenska Flygmotor as RM6C, this was the engine of the Draken.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

The F10 wing received the SAAB J37 Viggen only after the collapse of the USSR in 1993, marking the beginning of the last, post-Cold War chapter in the history of the unit. Quite elusive due to its adoption only by Sweden, albeit rather successful in its intended roles, an exemplar of this machine can be found in this collection. Specifically, this is a photo reconnaissance version named SF37. Lacking a radar, this model typically operated on reconnaissance missions in a flight of two, together with a radar-supplied SH37 variant.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

The Viggen can be neared and checked out entirely with ease, thanks to its positioning on a pedestal. The photo-reconnaissance payload is on display. Under the left wing is a SAAB Rb-04 anti-ship missile. This Swedish own design was conceived for countering invasion starting from the sea. With a radius of 25 km and active radar homing, its warhead was sufficient for knocking out an enemy cruiser with a single hit.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

The collection of the Scania Wing also includes the SAAB SK60 trainer, a successful trainer employed for decades, and inducted into the F10 inventory during the 1990s, when the wing took over the basic training role from the F5 wing. Similarly, an ubiquitous Bell 204 (Hkp 3B according to Swedish naming) can be found on display, as it was employed within the F10 for rescue and logistics/transport duties.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Close to the Viggen are further interesting exhibits. One is on the wartime bases (krigsflygbaser, see this post), with models and original signs from one of them.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Another is about weather forecasting within F10. It includes electronic hardware, an entire room with original consoles, and weather balloons, still today employed to carry atmospheric sounds.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

A display is dedicated to pilot’s protection helmets, survival kits and ejection seats. Not only in Sweden, the latter have been in the focus of a major technological development over the years of the Cold War. Ejecting from a fast jet in the 1950s was reportedly a highly-risky business, since even when the maneuver was technically successful – i.e. such to take the pilot out of the aircraft alive – the ejection-induced acceleration alone was more than enough to cause serious injury, usually to the spine. Over the years, multi-stage ejection was implemented, allowing for a more gradual maneuver, which albeit remaining lightning-fast, does not inflict so harsh a treatment to the pilot’s body as in the past.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

A top exhibit on display is an original cockpit from a SAAB J35 Draken, employed for training purposes. The cockpit is very well preserved, thoroughly described by explanatory panels nearby, and it can be boarded to give you a feeling of the functionality of the onboard systems, as well as of the ergonomics of the cockpit.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Two more training aircraft are included in the exhibition, a SK61 and SK50, both single-propeller machines employed for basic training.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Additionally, the last type in service with the F10 has been the SAAB JAS39 Gripen (from 1999 until disbandment), which is here represented by means of the first serial production machine of the first version (‘A’). This exemplar was actually never pressed in air force service, but it was employed as a test bed for multiple operations, including test firing of missile ordnance in the early 2000s.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Additional dioramas in this compact but rich collection include op-rooms from various ages.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

An interesting exhibit is a relatively well-preserved Rolls-Royce Merlin piston enigine, originally powering a British Avro Lancaster bomber which sank south of Trelleborg in the Baltic Sea, presumably early in 1945 after a bombing run over Germany.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Finally, on the outside it is possible to find a British Bristol Bloodhound Mk II missile. This SAM supplied a squadron of F10 wing, complementing the air defense role in proximity to the airbase.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Getting there and visiting

The name of the museum in the local language is Ängelholms Flygmuseum, which translates into Ängelholm Flight Museum. It is located on the southwestern border of the former airbase of Ängelholm, easily reachable at the address Drakenvägen 5, 26274 Ängelholm. This town is 15 mi north of Helsingborg along the E6 highway.

Large parking ahead of the entrance. Nice shop with books, toys and gadgets by the ticket office. The museum facility is rather compact, yet a visit may easily take 1.5 hours for an interested subject, when carefully checking out all items on display and taking pictures. Descriptions are in double language, Swedish/English, allowing for an informative visit even if you are from abroad.

Professional website with full information here.

Museum of Forced Landings, Morup

The Museum of Forced Landings (in Swedish language the museum is named in a rather different way, ‘Morups Samtidsmuseum’) is a one-of-a-kind collection of remains and traces from air crashes or forced landings taking place during WWII in Sweden. Run by a lively group of dedicated enthusiasts, the display is extremely well-crafted, offering not just an array of many and diverse relics from aircraft wrecks, but for each of them a complete synopsis of the story behind that specific flight – and the crewmen who were on board.

Furthermore, in my case I was accompanied by a very knowledgeable English-speaking gentleman for the entire duration of my visit, making the experience even more engaging.

The exhibition starts with a display of general maps of the crash or forced landing sites. A sharp increase towards the end of the war is evident, due to the increase in the number of bombing raids over the center of the Third Reich. The crashed aircraft are mostly from the US and Britain. When hit over Germany but still airworthy, Allied crews attempted an escape to neutral Sweden, to avoid capture by the Germans.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

Of course, Sweden was a neutral country, hence all grounded crews, irrespective of their nationality, were interned, albeit in more than decent conditions, especially compared to German or Soviet prison camps.

A map of the internment location in Sweden is presented as well. Clearly, also German aircraft crash-landed in Sweden. Crews of opposing nationalities were interned in totally different locations. Rare photographs from these sites are on display.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

Then, one by one, the display cases describe each a notable forced landing, retracing its timeline, and showing some relics from the wreckage, as well as personal items belonging to the crew. Nice detailed scaled models and dioramas of the accident complete the reconstruction.

Among them are a German Messerschmitt Bf110 attack aircraft, with a fragment of the canopy as well as other parts on display, Norwegian training aircraft, a German Junkers Ju-52 transport, with an entire control column put as an exhibit.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

The bombsight, radio and other instrument goggles belong to a German Heinkel He-111 bomber landed on ice.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

One of the plots documented in the deepest detail is that involving Lt Edward E. Phillips, of USAAF 354th fighter group, which flew escort missions over Germany from Baxton, England, with North American P-51 Mustang fighters. On the 15th of April 1944, on return from a mostly failed bombing mission over Germany in bad weather, Lt. Phillips aircraft was chased north by a Bf109. He was hit over southern Sweden, bailed out but the parachute failed to deploy. He was killed instantly, and his aircraft impacted soft terrain and sank so deeply due to its own energy that it almost disappeared into the ground – and there it remained for 40 years. In the 1990s an excavation attempt was carried out by the future crew of the museum, uncovering substantial remains of the aircraft, including many parts, cockpit gauges, machine guns, an entire landing gear leg, and more.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

A link was established by the local crew with the former wife of the man in the US, and the story hit the news. A memorial was inaugurated on the location of the crash.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

Another American aircraft with a story to tell is a Consolidated B-24 Liberator. This time the aircraft managed to crash land under control, and the entire crew of 10 was saved and interned. Sgt Robert C. Birmingham, part of the crew, visited the locations of his adventure in Sweden more than once with his family.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

More accidents described in the display involve British and German aircraft.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

In an adjoining room, an impressive collection of quality scale models reconstruct many of the aircraft in service within the Air Force in Sweden, including details such as different celebration markings and camo coats. Among the artifacts and memorabilia items on display in this part is an autographed photo of WWII German ace Günther Rall.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

In another small hangar is an interesting addition to the collection, mostly centered on aircraft engines. Engines from crash-landed aircraft, significantly damaged but undergoing a display-oriented cleaning and refurbishment, make for an unusual and interesting sight.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

Outside is also a small collection of classic cars in pristine conditions.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

Getting there and visiting

The museum is called ‘Morups Samtidsmuseum’ in Swedish language. It can be found right along the road N.768 about 6 miles north of the coastal town of Falkenberg, 0.25 miles north of the small town of Morup. The exact address is X9MP+84 Morup.

A visit may take about 1 hour, more when stimulating further telling by the very enthusiastic crew of the association running the museum.

Please note that no credit cards are accepted, only cash is – unless you are entitled to employ electronic payment methods allowed for citizens or residents of Sweden.

The website, partially under construction as of spring 2025, can be found here.

Credit for directing me to this hidden gem goes to Martin Steffen, from Sweden.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum, Ugglarp

This unusual exhibition originates from the own collection of Lennart Svedfelt, a prominent Swedish stage and TV entertainer borne in 1924 and known as ‘Svedino’. The man started purchasing cars and planes for the purpose of collecting them, in an era when a similar activity was hardly heard of. In 1961 he opened his collection as a permanent display, the first museum dedicated to cars in Sweden. Over the years, and even following his passing, the museum continued to grow, reaching more than 100 cars and 40 aircraft on display today!

Even though this is not an eminently military museum, despite the cars being beautiful civilian cars, most aircraft on display are military machines, including some remarkable items – therefore, Svedino’s perfectly fits within this chapter!

The cars on display make for a really unique collection, in and out of Sweden. A remarkable feature is especially the number and uniqueness of US-made cars from the inter-war period between WWI and WWII. In a first building, these include models by Chevrolet, Buick, Dodge, Nash, Oldsmobile, and more!

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Also some classic models from European manufacturers, like Opel, are on display. A special rarity is an Adler Trumpf from 1934. Adler, a German company from the 19th century active in the manufacture of petrol engines, operated in the car market for a relatively short time, roughly coincident with the Third Reich period. They made cars in the intermediate price segment, with good success. The company changed business following WWII, making Adler cars interesting collectible items representing car-making from a specific era.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

As expected from a Swedish museum, a full array of classic Volvo is on display! These include small trucks and saloons, and interesting models like the PV36 from the inter-war period. Similar to the PV830 and the iconic PV444 from the immediate post-WWII years, an influence of the contemporary American designs is undeniable in all these models.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Also on display are more modern vehicles employed as state cars. An interesting item is a very old Gräf & Stift, an Austrian luxury sedan from before WWI, salvaged from the bottom of a Swedish lake after spending there more than 40 years, and acquired by the museum.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Two interesting cars on display are personal designs from the early 1950s. In Sweden it was possible at that time to introduce privately-built cars, provided they could sustain a compliance check. An example of a fantasy car, with a rather aggressive design and physically assembled from parts of other cars, is on display. It was never completed nor allowed on the road. Another example, designed and made by the son of the industrialist Wennberg, reportedly roamed around all over the 1950s! This unique exemplar is on display with ‘factory markings’ HW.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

In a second adjoining building, a really valuable collection of even older cars, dating from earlier than 1930, is on display. Also here most items in the collection are from the US, a really rare sight on this side of the ocean! Looking at the elaborated labels of these oldies, made by Ford, Anderson, Seneca, and thinking of the craftsmen who personally assembled them back in the America of the early 1900s is really thought-provoking!

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Among the most unique cars on display is a Pierce-Arrow from 1918, sitting alongside a Haynes from the same year.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Moving on to another adjoining hall, here cars are on display alongside a few classic planes from the first half of the 20th century. A DeHavilland Moth, a Götaverken GV-38 seaplane (a licence-built Rearwin Sportster, a US design), as well as a German Klemm Kl-35 and a Focke-Wulf FW-44 designs, are on the list together with more light airplanes and a few engines.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

The latter include an original Rolls-Royce Goblin and Avon, respectively from a DeHavilland Vampire and a SAAB Draken, both in service with the Air Force of Sweden during the Cold War.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

A focus of the exhibition is on the memory of a pioneer of Swedish aviation industry, Enoch Tulin, who is the author of many ‘firsts’ in the aeronautical history of this Country – the largest aviation workshop to date before WWI (with 900 employees), the first air mail service, the first air rescue mission, and more. A graduated engineer, flight instructor and early aerobatic pilot, Tulin died in an airplane crash in 1919, after gaining unquestioned prominence in many fields of aeronautical industry and operation in his era.

A final adjoining hall concludes the oldest part of the exhibition premises. Here the spotlight is on a few fighters from the Cold War era, namely a SAAB J29 Tunnan, two DeHavilland Vampire, and even a SAAB J35 Draken.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

The latter is really a unique exemplar. As can be guessed by the monstrous red and white spine on the nose cone, typical to experimental aircraft and not a feature of the production machine, the one on display is actually the first prototype!

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Another curious item is a Soviet-made Kamov Ka-26 helicopter. Alongside the helicopter is a vintage advertisement from 1975, written in Swedish, and made by Aviaexport, a Soviet agency for the commercialization of Soviet aeronautical products abroad. Borne as an import-export, Aviaexport acted also as a recipient of foreign certification rules, spreading the growing body of western aeronautical regulation within the Soviet design bureaus, to the aim of keeping the quality standard to a level sufficient for commercialization in foreign countries. Actually, thanks to Aviaexport the Kamov Ka-26 received a type certification in Sweden, which allowed its commercialization and regular employment there. Aviaexport is still existent in today’s Russia.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Interspersed between closely-packed aircraft are more cars, including a beautiful Jaguar Mk V and an East-German Trabant, as well as aircraft engines.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

A massive Wright Cyclone R-3350 is among them – the power plant of the Lockheed Constellation and Douglas DC-7, often considered the pinnacle and swansong of American piston power, this massive 1.2 tons, 18 cylinders engine produced 3.700 hp of shaft power!

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Svedino’s aircraft collection is mostly hosted in a modern hall added more recently beside the original museum’s building. The first item on display is an original Junkers Ju-52! This aircraft is among those license-built in Spain. It operated for some time as far as in California in the 1970s, being later transferred to Ireland, and finally here. The camouflage and markings reenact those of a Third Reich’s Luftwaffe machine force-landed in Sweden during WWII. The cockpit of the Ju-52 has been reproduced separately, to allow checking it without boarding this precious aircraft.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

As expected for a Swedish aircraft collection, the most prominent models which have served in the local Air Force are represented. These include a SAAB J32B Lansen, a Cold War attack aircraft from the 1950s, a SAAB SK60 trainer, and a SAAB J35 Draken – a production machine, not a prototype like in the previous hall.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

These aircraft are presented alongside their engines. The Swedish licence-built version of the Rolls-Royce Avon, named RM6A, powered the Lansen and later the Draken.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

The latest addition to the SAAB heritage on display is the J37 Viggen, here presented in the nice and distinctive camo coat of the Air Force of Sweden. This is presented alongside its mighty engine, the RM8A, a modified version of the Pratt & Whitney JT8D turbofan.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Additionally, a display of an open nose cone allows to see the arrangement of the radar antenna of the Viggen.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

An interesting display case hosts the instrument panels, radar and reconnaissance gear of the Lansen, Draken and Viggen, as well as a collection of flight helmets and pilot’s gear, showing the evolution of this technical material over time.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

But the collection of Svedino’s is not limited to aircraft in service in Sweden. A Lockheed F-104 Starfighter from the Air Force of Denmark is on display, next to a Gloster Meteor early twin jet. The blue exemplar on display is a former factory demonstrator originally employed by Gloster, and later sold to Sweden for target towing (in a batch of seven aircraft).

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

A rarity to be found close by is a Percival P.66 Pembroke, a twin-engined multi-purpose transport from the early 1950s, employed for training and passenger transport within the Air Force. Manufactured in Britain in just 128 exemplars, this type was mostly sold abroad to Western-European Countries and in Africa. Sweden originally got a batch of 16.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Another British type on display is a Hawker Hunter, which was actually employed by Sweden as a stop-gap model in the late 1950s, waiting for the completion of the design and the entrance into service of the J35 Draken.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Another Soviet addition to the collection is a MiG-21. A Cold War veteran, this exemplar is Soviet-built, and served in Hungary until 1982 and later in the Latvian SSR.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

A recent addition to the exhibition is a Douglas Skyraider! Possibly overshadowed by the illustrious career the type enjoyed in the US Armed Forces, a part of the history of this massive attack aircraft is about Sweden. Some 13 exemplars were actually purchased by Sweden for target towing in the mid 1960 from Britain, which had got a larger batch from the US. The exemplar on display is an AD-4W, the early warning version of the Skyraider. It is currently (2024) being refurbished.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Among the biggest additions to the aircraft collection is actually an English Electric Canberra. As typical to this type, employed by the British for the first, high risk overflights of the Countries of the Soviet bloc before the high-performing Skunk Works aircraft became available, the Canberra (including its modified Martin version in the US) was employed for quintessentially Cold War signal intelligence missions opposite the Soviet Union. Two exemplars were employed also in Sweden from the early 1960s until the mid-1970s, and one of them is that on display.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

A curious item also on display is a one-off design which won a competitive call of the Aviation Engineering Association in Stockholm in 1988, and which was later actually built by its designers. Unfortunately, it was eventually never tested due to one of the owners need to quit for health issues when the aircraft was undergoing a certification test for obtaining airworthiness. The name of the prototype is LLS-1.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Scattered among the aircraft are more engines, radars, consoles, simulators, and more aircraft than described, making for an overall very rich and interesting visit.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Getting there and visiting

Svedinos Bil & Flygmuseum – this is the name of the museum in the local language – can be found in a nice countryside 15 miles north of the port town of Halmstad. The exact address is SE-311 69 Ugglarp.

The premises are rather compact, with a large parking ahead of the entrance. Fresh cookies, homemade sandwiches and cakes are available for a light lunch in the exotic lobby, matching in style with this unusual collection.

A visit may take 2 hours for an interested subject. Most items are described with modern panels in double language Swedish/English, making the visit very informative. The website with logistical information is here.

Military Collections in Sweden – First Chapter

January 26, 2025 CarloRLeave a comment

When visiting the countries of northern Europe as a foreigner today, you may be easily captured by the beautiful landscapes and elegant architectures, as well as the great food options and the generally exceptional hospitality. Actually, a visit to Scandinavia will hardly disappoint, either in the summer or in the cold season. Everywhere looks like an ideal place for having a good time off.

However, digging in the military history of Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland, you might be surprised. Actually, since medieval times peaceful mutual relations have been built very slowly over the years in the area, going through centuries of unrest and struggle often culminating in open wars. In the global conflicts brought about starting with Napoleon until the end of the Cold War roughly 190 years later, the Countries around the Baltic sea have been in the center of a theater of operations of their own.

World War II and the Cold War

Looking at WWII and the Cold War era, the roles of Northern-European countries have been significantly different. Denmark, geographically untenable in front of the German enemy, was taken by Hitler’s Third Reich forces almost overnight, with Norway following shortly after. This gave birth to fierce resistance actions, trying to jeopardize the activities of the enemy. Norway was in the focus of much attention by the Western Allies, who tried to land in Narvik, sank battleship Bismarck, bombed the heavy water plant in Vemork, and transited in its arctic seas to feed Stalin’s Soviet Union with much needed supply (see this chapter). Conversely, Finland fought a fierce war against the USSR, ending up as an ally of Germany after the start of Operation Barbarossa, and finally turning against the Wehrmacht on agreement with the USSR, and managing to leave the conflict in 1944 (see this chapter).

Finally, Sweden did not take part to offensive military actions in WWII, managing to keep a neutral role through delicate diplomatic actions. For this neutrality to be credible however, the Country had to be defended, and its border – both on land and along the shoreline – actively guarded. This meant the construction of many forts all along the Baltic coast, to the west, south and east, as well as ground installations along the border with Finland. Similarly, the military tradition of Sweden, that in modern times date at least from the 17th century, when in the Thirty Years War Sweden managed to take a primary role in the balance of powers in Europe, was not discontinued at all. Despite neutrality, traditional manufacturers of fine firearms and shipbuilders were flanked over time by companies making excellent heavy-duty vehicles, armored tanks and aircraft.

In the Cold War period following the end of WWII, Scandinavia got a possibly even more central status, due to its proximity with the USSR and the control it could exercise on the sea accesses of the Soviet Union to the Northern Atlantic. Where Denmark and Norway joined NATO (see this chapter for Norway, this for Denmark), Finland and Sweden kept a neutral role. Once again, Sweden, not entangled in a complicated post-WWII deal with the USSR unlike Finland, could develop the credibility of its neutrality, preparing for defending against the Soviet threat with a build-up of its armed forces, and the development of original and high-tech military solutions, tailored to its territorial and climatic needs, carried out mostly in-house.

Traces in Sweden

The facts of WWII and especially of the Cold War in Sweden have left relevant traces, which are proudly preserved for the public either in world-class exhibitions, sometimes prepared on the very site of former military installations, or in smaller, well-crafted and much detailed collections, often run by groups of exceptionally passionate enthusiasts.

This and the following chapters cover some of them, offering a cut-out of what a visitor interested in military technology and history can find in beautiful Sweden. Photographs were taken in 2024.

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Aeroseum – former Säve Air Force Base – Göteborg
Maritiman – Göteborg

Sights

Aeroseum – former Säve Air Force Base – Göteborg

Besides making for a testimony to the originality and commitment of Sweden military planners, the air force base of Säve, located about 4 miles north of the major town of Göteborg in South-Western Sweden, is truly a one-of-a-kind example of a Cold War installation. Conceived for anti-blast protection in the early years of the nuclear age, the base was designed to carry out all operations, except take-off and landing, underground. This included aircraft storage and servicing, but also refueling, loading, towing, and lighting the engines in corridors carved down to 100 feet underground in the hard Scandinavian rock!

The project had an anticipation during WWII, when some special aircraft shelters had been obtained on site by drilling the hillside. However, the actual digging of this incredible Cold War underground base was started in 1950, to be inaugurated by the king Gustav VI Adolf in 1955 (even if not totally complete at the time). The base was sized for a crew of 40 men staying underground with 15 aircraft, of the then new type Saab J29 Tunnan (which translates into ‘barrel’).

The plan of the underground facility features multiple accesses from ground level, on the sides of local hills. Entrances are all misaligned, to reduce the potential damage from a hit by a single attacker. The actual access to the descending tunnel driving down is through a colossal concrete sliding door, 2.3 ft thick and weighing 70 tonnes, with a front area such to allow a fully mounted aircraft to transit with sufficient clearance from the walls and ceiling!

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Interestingly, the concrete door is preceded outside by a curtain, which together with traffic lights, switch cabinets and cables can still be seen today. This was installed for further protection to prevent the effects of fallout and contamination, in case of a nuclear attack on the base premises. The heavy curtain could be effective in stopping debris and lower-energy contaminated particles from even touching the doors. Soaked in water for cleansing, it could be then potentially re-employed multiple times, in case of a nuclear war scenario with waves of nuclear strikes.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

This feature of the base, already pretty unusual, is the first to welcome – and strike! – the visitor. Then the tour takes you inside, for a full exploration of the underground facility beyond the massive concrete doors.

The feeling when accessing the tunnel is really of something huge. A description of the history of the base is offered as a first item through pictures, schemes and original crests. Then the roomy environment of the access tunnel, descending in a bend to the bottom part of the base, is stuffed with a rich collection of aircraft and helicopters in service with the Swedish Air Force, their engines and technical accessories.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The base of Säve was fully completed by 1963, including the fuel supply system which had posed some safety issues in its original design (fuel went down in case of accidental spilling, thus remaining trapped in the deep-end of the base). However, the F9 squadron of the Air Force, home-based in Säve, was disbanded just a few years later, in 1969. This meant that the underground airbase saw active service with the J29 and later the J34, the latter being the Swedish designation of the British Hawker Hunter. After 1969, Säve was home base to the 2nd Helicopter Squadron, and the underground part, hardly of use for rotorcraft, was then employed as a safe storage for non-active aircraft, notably the illustrious Saab J35 Draken, of which 70 (!) were long-term stored inside, with wings dismounted. The base finally ended its military service in 1998. The underground bunker was re-opened later as the Aeroseum museum, where most of the former airbase was turned into a civilian airport, still working today.

Among the aircraft on display in this first descending tunnel are a Saab J29 Tunnan, alongside its De Havilland Ghost jet engine (license-built under the designation RM2 by Svenska Flygmotor, later Volvo Aero, in Sweden). In service between 1948 and 1976 with the Swedish Air Force, the somewhat elusive J29, little known in the West, was a massively produced swept-wing fighter and fighter-bomber, with 661 exemplars manufactured! Austria, another non-NATO country lying on the border with the Soviet bloc, was the only foreign customer for this machine, which in the 1950s formed the backbone of Sweden’s defense force. A modern fighter in many respects, in the same class of the North American F-86 Sabre and of the MiG-15, the J29 was not easy to master for novel pilots, and unfortunately caused many accidental losses, at a time when Sweden was the fourth air force in the world in strength. It was actively employed in the Congo, where Sweden took part within the United Nations contingent in the 1960s.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

On display are also the towing truck and generator employed for engine spool up. In a scramble, the aircraft could be towed up by this Volvo truck, directed on an open air apron, from where it could complete its taxi run alone and finally take-off.

Next in line is a Saab J35 Draken (meaning ‘dragon’), an iconic and successful supersonic fighter/interceptor from Sweden, first flown in 1955 and entering service in 1960, manufactured in 615 exemplars and not less than 10 variants. Besides the Swedish Air Force it was adopted by the foreign Air Forces of Denmark, Finland, and again Austria, the last to withdraw it from service in 2005! This Mach 2 capable machine, with a double-delta wing planform, was propelled by a slightly modified Rolls-Royce Avon engine (manufactured by Svenska Flygmotor as RM6). An original design from the Swedish school, among the features making it so versatile were provision for a two-seats airframe, as well as a general plant simplicity and undercarriage sturdiness, which together with a stopping parachute allowed its deployment from the wartime landing strips.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The latter were obtained in Sweden from the quick conversion of short sections of straight roads in the highway system, creating a network of so-called krigsflygbaser (‘war air bases’), in a defense plan called Bas 60 and later Bas 90. A solution to be found also in the Federal Republic of Germany in the Cold War years, this could greatly enhance the chance of survival of the air force following enemy strike on major air bases, through force dispersal. Yet not all aircraft can safely operate from similar airstrips. Swedish aircraft take this ability into account from the design phase, yielding dependable aircraft, capable of operations in far-from-ideal conditions.

Despite featuring a double, fixed-geometry and comparatively small air intake, the aircraft is single-engined. Underneath the fuselage, this aircraft features a ram air turbine (RAT), for powering the aircraft systems through kinetic energy in the airflow, in case of an engine shut-off in flight.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

To the back of this exemplar of the Draken model is a Saab J37 Viggen (which is the name of a local species of duck). Another great example of an original design from Sweden, the J37 is an attack aircraft built in a canard configuration, and like its predecessor capable of short take-off and landing from road runways. Made in mode than 300 exemplars and employed uniquely by Sweden, it was in service between 1971 and 2007. Quite difficult to see out of Sweden, at the time of its introduction it was arguably the most advanced aircraft design to date, in terms of aerodynamic study, avionic suite and attack potential.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Developed in a number of variants for several roles, the exemplar on display features a number of payloads, to be attached to the underwing pylons or under the fuselage, also thanks to the good clearance from ground offered by the tall undercarriage (not to be found on the Draken). Differently from its Saab predecessors, the J37 was powered by a Volvo RM8, based on the American Pratt & Whitney JT8D turbojet, instead of a British engine.

Close to the Viggen, on display is a Saab car employed for friction test on the runway. This was rather widespread in airport facilities in Sweden. Vehicles with similar function can still be found everywhere in the world, especially in countries where runways are subject to icing.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Next in the line is the Saab JAS 39 Gripen, the most current evolution of the Saab dynasty of attack aircraft. Currently manufactured in more than 300 exemplars and exported to several countries, this machine is another original design from Sweden which is also a post-Cold War commercial success. A canard design like the Viggen, this model was introduced in the late 1980s, and it has been updated over the years as an air superiority platform, with a good mix of performance and efficacy, dependability and economical efficiency. Based on the Volvo RM12, derived from the American General Electric F404, it is currently in service. The aircraft on display is the oldest surviving.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Before reaching to the bottom, in one of the recesses along the corridor, photos from the construction phase of the bunker base, its inauguration and the years of operation can be checked out.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Also mentioned in the exhibition is the peculiar chapter of the Swedish nuclear program. The latter was envisioned in the early nuclear age following WWII, and it took shape especially in the 1950s and early 1960s. Besides facilities for the making of what was needed for fueling and managing a nuclear deterrent, on the aviation side Saab was tasked with dedicated projects for a delivery aircraft for nuclear ordnance, to flank the Saab J32 Lansen intended as an interim platform in that role. Project A 36, for an aircraft featuring a Viggen-like fuselage but no canard, and with an unusual overhead layout of the engine similar to the North American F-107, was in the pipeline when the government started to face increasing contrast from the public opinion concerning the entire national nuclear program, which was eventually cancelled in 1968.

Looking at the structure of the tunnel, left mostly untouched from the days of operation, the original wiring and piping for various systems – electrical, ventilation, etc. – can still be seen. The tunnel is also interspersed with frames, where light fire-proof doors could be lowered in case of an accidental fire. They could seal segments of the tunnel, which could then be flooded with fire-suppressing foam.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Approaching the bottom of the descending tunnel, it is possible to find a group of helicopters, in service in Sweden mostly for rescue operations, like an ubiquitous US-made Piasecki H-21 (the ‘Flying banana’), a Sud Aviation Allouette 2, an Agusta-Bell 402 and a Bell 206, the latter employed in polar missions from icebreaker Ymen. An Eurocopter Super Puma and a MBB Bo 105 come from the Swedish military, the latter reportedly having been prepared in a special anti-tank version, but never pressed into service.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Once on the bottom level, you can explore the halls, which are all interconnected, forming a network with a plant similar to a double ‘H’. On the crossing of two halls, you can spot the big round turntables, employed to turn the aircraft when towing them from storage to the base of the ramps going up. There are actually two of these ramps, one is that employed for access by visitors, the other is currently only visible from the bottom level, and off limits (employed for museum service). Its access can be found to the opposite side of the bottom level upon entering.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

You can find several aircraft and exhibits on this level, including some pay-per-use professional flight simulators. An interesting exhibition tells about the organization of the STRIL, an acronym for stridsledning och luftbevakning, forming the backbone of the air defense system of Sweden from the early years of the Cold War on. Among the most unique facilities managed by the system are the krigsflygbaser mentioned above. Some original pictures and scale models tell about the detailed scheme of such bases, which could be activated when conditions required.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

It is possible to board examples of both the Draken and Viggen models. The latter is presented with the engine dismounted from the airframe, and with many examples of war load either hanging from the wing pylons, or lying underneath. The number of options is really big, witnessing the versatility of the Viggen as an airborne platform.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The cockpit of the Viggen has evolved over time. The one you can see is fully analog. Close by is also the RM8 jet engine of the Viggen, with the afterburner pipe installed – a pretty long assembly! Also a trailer for storing and transporting jet engines is on display.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

One of the Saab Draken exemplars is displayed alongside its engine as well. Interestingly, the afterburner pipe has been separated from the engine core in this case, allowing to check their respective size.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Another interesting item on display in this area, alongside a Bell 47 helicopter with its distinctive bubble canopy, is a Saab J32 Lansen. Primarily built as a fighter and entering service in the 1950s, the career of the Lansen stretched to the 1990s, and saw it employed in several roles, including as a trainer. Interestingly, the study for a dedicated engine – the STAL Dovern – was started alongside with that for the airframe, as typical to other military programs especially in the US. The engine, which reached the flight testing phase, is displayed alongside the aircraft. It represents one of the few projects of the Swedish company STAL for aviation. The company has been for long a primary manufacturer of turbines for electric power plants, started in the early 20th century on the remarkable Ljungström design (the homonym brothers actually founded STAL). In the end, the Lansen employed the British Rolls-Royce Avon.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

A well-stuffed display is that of on-board radar equipment employed on the SAAB aircraft in service with the Swedish Air Force.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Among the many design and procurement programs of the Swedish military, special attention was given to missiles. The Robot 08 A, an anti-ship cruise missile employed on destroyers and from coastal batteries in Sweden, was the result of a collaborative program with the French. After a boost phase employing rockets, the efficient small jet engine employed for thrust in cruise (a Turbomeca Marbore) allowed the missile to travel at transonic speed, delivering a warhead up to 100 nautical miles away from the launch site. Navigation was through radio control, and homing on target was radar-assisted.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

A real work-horse both in the US and abroad (see this post), a Cessna 337 Skymaster in service with the Coast Guard of Sweden can be found in apparently pristine conditions.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

A wing of the museum is dedicated to the collection of the Aviation Veteran Society of Göteborg. Among their many interesting projects is the restoration of classic models, often times unique exemplars from an age prior to the introduction of jets. Each of the aircraft on display in their collection, which is always evolving, has a story to tell. For example, one of them, a British De Havilland Gipsy Moth, was employed by his owner (the Swede Gösta Fraenkel) in the 1930s for an experimental treatment of whooping cough, an infectious disease typically developing in children. The pilot took infected people on board the open-cockpit biplane, allowing cold, dry and clean air to ram into their respiratory channels and lungs for some minutes while flying at a sufficient altitude. Apparently, this treatment accelerated recovery in a percentage of cases. Another aircraft in this area is a SAAB 91A Safir. The ‘A’ version is the original and oldest of this light basic trainer and multipurpose aircraft, dating back to the 1940s, and a good commercial success for Sweden.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Another rich collection is based on an impressive archive of Cold War files documenting many Soviet activities in the territory of the German Democratic Republic. This exhibition (a topic often touched on this website, see for instance here and here) is especially interesting for its completeness and for the level of detail – most files show photographs and numerical data.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

A nice array of models, often portraying in dioramas scenes from the real aviation history of Sweden or the region of the Baltic sea, is aligned along a wall. Among them, you can see the first ever defection of a MiG to the West on the Danish island of Bornholm (see this post), as well as the grounding of a Douglas DC-3 in Swedish markings by a MiG-15 which had taken off from Estonia (at that time within the borders of the Soviet Union). That DC-3 has been savaged from the bottom of the Baltic Sea years later, and it is now on display at the museum of the Swedish Air Force in Linköping.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Even if you don’t need it, you should take a detour to the toilet, to access an original corridor and have a look to two full-scale reconstructions of STRIL command centers.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Back outside, you can climb uphill to check out a few additional military vehicles on display, including an exemplar of the highly-succesful line of bi-modular track vehicles called Bandvagn, made by the Swedish company Hägglunds in tons of variants and for different roles. Basically unstoppable on any terrain (and actually working in shallow waters as well), this highly versatile machine is here displayed in a Swedish Army camo paint. Also on display is a rather rare moving lounge, a vehicle for easing boarding operation on larger aircraft. Made by Chrysler in the US (and reportedly employed at Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C., back then), this exemplar was in use at Göteborg Landsvetter airport, before the terminal was re-designed for a better management of passenger traffic.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

From the hilltop, you may get a vantage view of the airfield, now the general aviation airport of Säve.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Getting there and visiting

The exact address of Aeroseum is Nya Bergets Väg 50, 41746 Göteborg, Sweden. The location is easily reachable along Hisingsleden, taking north from Göteborg, and connecting some of the premises of the huge Volvo factory quartered north of town. From the crossing with Flygflottilijens Väg (where a bus stop is), it is a .4 miles stretch to the museum’s gate. Huge parking on site. Visiting for technically-minded people with an interest for aviation can easily take 3 hours (4 in my case), checking out all the nice exhibits. There is a self-service restaurant at the bottom of the bunker, as well as a nice shop. Entertaining activities for the kids are on the menu as well.

Together with the Air Force Museum in Linköping, this is possibly one of the top air museums in Sweden, well worth a dedicated trip also for the special construction where it is located. Website with full information (also in English) here.

Maritiman – Göteborg

Located in downtown Göteborg, this museum has on display a handful of vessels, originally employed in Sweden in either civilian or military roles. The most sizable of them, the destroyer Småland (J19), is also an illustrious witness of the Cold War, and a lone survivor of the Royal Swedish Navy of that era. She was built by Eriksbergs shipbuilding company in Göteborg, a now defunct primary player in the Swedish naval history, and it saw service between 1956 and 1979 together with the only sister ship Halland, which gave name to the class.

The neutrality of Sweden for the Navy meant that the fleet of the kingdom was developed with self-defense in mind. At the end of WWII, two cruisers were laid down, Tre Kronor and Göta Lejon, which were the largest vessels ever to see service in Sweden. In the 1950s the shipbuilding effort saw the completion of the new destroyers Halland and Småland, which went operating alongside many more destroyer units over the 1950s and 1960s. All these four ships however were the pinnacle of shipbuilding in Sweden in terms tonnage. By the end of the 1950s the last four destroyers of the Östergötland class (lighter than Halland class) had been put into service, and manufacture of either cruisers or destroyers ceased altogether. By the end of the 1960s, the two cruisers were stricken off, and over the 1970s and 1980s many of the destroyers followed. In the high-tech late era of the Cold War, Sweden opted for a larger number of lighter surface ships, in particular corvettes and torpedo boats. The former are represented today by the highly effective Visby class, which constitutes the backbone of the Royal Swedish Navy today.

Of the historical cruiser and destroyer fleet of the Swedish Navy, the Småland is the only surviving unit. In the Maritiman museum, it is possible to board and thoroughly explore this vessel. Among the distinctive construction features, the castle structure runs all along the ship, allowing the crew to operate while keeping inside, so as to avoid exposition to fallout radiation in a nuclear war scenario. Provision for cleaning the outer decks was made with a pressurized water system, running around the castle. Furthermore, material was steel and iron, instead of aluminum, sometimes employed in shipbuilding for saving weight, but more prone to fire damage than heavier steel. The crew was of 250-290 men. The ship went through three modernization programs, and included three fire direction facilities in the castle.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The heavier gun armament of the destroyer is composed of two turrets (one at bow, one at stern) with two 120 mm guns each, and a bow turret with two 57 mm cannon. Additionally, six 40 mm single-barrel anti-aircraft cannons on revolving turrets are placed along the sides of the ship. All guns were made by Bofors in Sweden.

A single 120 mm gun turret was manned by seven men, and could fire 42 rounds per minute, with a range of roughly 12 nautical miles. It could be employed for targeting other ships, aircraft or land installations.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

On the side of the 120 mm turrets you can see flare rockets with super intense illuminating power, which were employed for fire direction at night. Fire direction systems evolved over the years, but the task was mainly performed in the castle structure.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The 57 mm gun turret was designed for anti-aircraft operations, with a range of up to 4,000 m, which was roughly 25-30% more than the standard 40 mm anti-aircraft guns. Fire direction was from the castle deck or locally by the designated gunner.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

For anti-submarine war operations, Småland has revolving torpedo tubes on the deck, for the Torped 61 torpedo series, a highly-successful design from Sweden, employed also by foreign customers (see this post).

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Additionally, to the bow are two racks of launchers for four anti-submarine rockets each. An example of the body of a Bofors 375 mm anti-submarine rocket is on display beside the rocket launchers. It took 40 seconds to reload one launcher. Fire direction and timing was performed from inside the sonar room, or from a control station beneath the launchers.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The ship could carry out mine laying operations. To the stern of the ship some sea mines are on display on the rail employed for launching them outboard.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The Småland could manage helicopter landings on its deck, and it had the ability to launch anti-shipping cruise missiles. This rather innovative solution for the time was based on the Robot 08 platform (see also the Aeroseum exhibition here in this chapter). Two of them could be carried on the launching pad, where further missiles were stored under deck, and a special incline was employed to take them to the outer deck level for launch. Launch was managed with a dedicated fire control computer.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The Småland could operate as a flotilla capital ship, thus navigation and communication systems were particularly modern and capable on this ship, for the time. Digital computers, with pre-defined communications which could be issued at quick pace, are part of the scenery on the top decks of the castle structure.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The crew compartments, even those for higher-ranking staff, and many technical rooms are as cramped as usual on military ships, not so far from their WWII predecessors.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

On top of the castle, the command deck can be found, and from here you can get also a nice view of the town of Göteborg.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Among the most interesting parts, is the engine and power supply area. The Småland was pushed by two independent boiler/turbine systems, which gave power to two propellers. Top speed was 37 knots, and at that speed the ship employed 420 liters of fuel per minute!

The engines required 16 men for operations initially, working close to the hot ducts and parts of the engine at extreme noise level. At a later stage, control rooms were installed in the engine compartments, allowing to reduce the workload and increase comfort to a reasonable level. Filtering and shielding was installed on the air intake system, to reduce the effect of nuclear fallout ingestion by the combustion system.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

This area can be toured extensively, unveiling many narrow passages and showing the complex structure of the energy plant, producing power for motion and for all the other onboard systems.

Another highlight of the Maritiman is the Draken class submarine Nordkaparen (Nor, in the registry). The six ships of this class were manufactured in the early 1960s, Nordkaparen (laid down by Kockums at Malmö) entering service in 1962, to be stricken off in 1988. The Royal Swedish Navy has always invested much in its submarine fleet, especially along the entire span of the Cold War, with more than 20 units manufactured post-WWII and before 1989. New models have been introduced after the end of the Soviet Union and the Cold War, and currently four modern units are in service.

The Draken class, propelled by Diesel-electric propulsion, was introduced as an improvement of the older Hajen class, with a single slow rotating propeller instead of two, and a modified stern part and control surfaces. With an operative depth of 150 m and manned by 36 men, it was capable of a top speed of 22 knots submerged.

At the Maritiman it is possible to board the Nordkaparen from the stern hatch, and have a complete tour of its well preserved interiors, coming out from the hatch to the bow.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The rear compartment with the electric motors and a sleeping area for the crew is relatively roomy. Conversely, the center section of the submarine allows only a narrow passage between the Diesel engines, with round tight doors which require some body flexibility to go through!

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The navigation deck and the cockpit are again somewhat roomier than their WWII counterparts, similar to the forward compartment, with a reasonable area for the crew.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

A unique feature of this design is the revolving rack for storing the torpedoes. Torpedo tubes are four, and all placed to the bow of the ship. The revolving rack, resembling that of a giant revolver, hosts eight torpedoes. It is itself loaded from the back, and it can pivot around its axis pushed by a motor, putting a torpedo in the revolver at the level of the firing tube to be reloaded, thus allowing a faster recharging of any firing tube.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Another military boat from the Cold War years on display is the patrol boat Hugin (P151). A fleet of many, lighter vessels was preferred by military planners in Sweden to one of heavier and more expensive ships with greater firepower, especially towards the last decades of the Cold War. Hugin was the first of her class, and it was manufactured in Norway (Bergen Mekaniske Verksted). Sixteen units of this class were in service in the 1980s with the Royal Swedish Navy.

The boat features a steel hull, and is pushed by two 20-cylinders MB518D Diesel engines made by MTU, delivering a power of 3,500 hp each, and giving this boat a top speed of 39 knots. The crew of twenty men could operate for more days in a row on board the ship. This versatile fast boat was armed with inertial-guided and IR-homed anti-shipping missiles (type Robot 12 Mk 2, made in Sweden), depth charges and ASW-600 Elma grenades (made by SAAB in Sweden) for anti-submarine warfare, and sea mines for mine laying missions.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Additionally, the boat has a single Bofors 57 mm cannon for anti-aircraft gunnery. One of the versions of the Arte fire control system made by Philips was installed on the ship, allowing to engage more targets simultaneously.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The Maritiman has on display a number of other boats, covering a range of uses and a big part of the storyline of shipbuilding in Sweden. Among them are fire-fighting vessels, tugboats, as well passenger commuters.

Getting there and visiting

A top attraction of Göteborg, the Maritiman museum can be reached with a nice walk from the historical city center, simply reaching the water bank from it. The museum will be very entertaining for children, but it has even more to tell to technically minded people. Many detailed descriptions in multiple languages all along the visiting path allow to get much from your visit. Furthermore, the majority of the compartments are open or visible on the Småland ship, all on the Nordkaparen, allowing to fully explore these vessels or look into the many technical rooms. A thorough visit may take about 2-3 hours or more, depending on your level of interest.

The exact address is Packhusplatsen 12, 411 13 Göteborg. Parking options nearby (public at a fee). Website with full access information (also in English) here.

Aircraft Collections in Norway

November 18, 2022November 21, 2022 CarloRLeave a comment

The ‘Norwegian chapter’ in the book of aviation history is a peculiar and interesting one. Similarly to virtually every Country in the western world, in the early age of aviation small manufacturing companies appeared also in Norway. Despite meeting with little success in the long run, they contributed in creating momentum around those ‘novel flying machines’. Norway, with a sinuous coastline stretching for some thousands miles from the latitude of England up north to where the European continent ends, and with a land largely covered in snow for many months per year, has been an ideal place for the development of a local air network since the early days of aviation. This created an alternative link between smaller communities and industry centers. As a matter of fact, similarly to Greece, Norway is among the top employers of smaller aircraft for commercial routes in Europe still today.

To the same early era belong the now almost mythological arctic expeditions, carried out also by air – by plane or airship – and almost invariably departing from Norway. The well-known Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was an advocate of air explorations, and his primary contributions to geographical explorations have constituted in some cases milestones in aviation history.

Despite a significant down-scaling of its Armed Forces in the post-Cold War scenario causing a strong reduction of the military presence in the Country, Norway has been in the focus of massive military operations since the 1930s.

In particular, both its geographical position and natural resources met the appetite of the Third Reich, which successfully invaded Norway in a blitzkrieg campaign in late spring 1940. Through an action based strongly on airlift capacity, German cargo planes relocated personnel and material very effectively to Norway. The crown and government were forced into exile in Britain, and with it also the military chain of command. Actually, the air force academy was moved to Toronto area, Ontario, where the military facilities of Norway got the name of ‘Little Norway’. New Norwegian pilots were relentlessly trained there, preparing them to repel the enemy from their Scandinavian motherland.

The Third Reich managed to keep a grip on southern Norway until its collapse and the end of WWII in Europe. Having witnessed the failure of neutrality as a foreign policy, in the rapidly deteriorating post-WWII scenario and the beginning of the Cold War between the Soviet-led eastern bloc and the free democracies of the western world, Norway joined NATO as a founding member.

Since then and for more than four decades, Norway was on one of the ‘hot’ fronts of the war, with a border-crossing point with the USSR, and a privileged position to patrol the skies over the shipping routes leading from the highly-militarized Kola peninsula into the Atlantic Ocean (see this post). Keeping a constant watch on the air, surface and submarine movements of the USSR was a task brilliantly covered by the Norwegian Air Force and Navy for the entire duration of the Cold War.

Today, western world issues like climate-related hysteria and hardly shareable, deeply ideological so-called ‘carbon neutrality’ policies promise to definitively clip the wings to sport, private and commercial aviation especially in this Country, through an unprecedented technological leap back. Similarly, the (today, so evidently) short-sighted post-Cold War dismantlement of military power in Europe has impacted military forces also in Norway.

However, the memory of the glorious years when this proud Scandinavian Nation has been on the forefront of aviation technology and in the focus of military action are duly relived in two wonderful aviation collections, celebrating what can be achieved through technical skill, courage and good national ideals.

One of these collections is the Norwegian Aviation Museum, located east of the airport of Bodø, a coastal town on the Norwegian Sea, not far north of the Polar Circle. The other is the Norwegian Armed Forces Aircraft Collection, located just west of Oslo-Gardermoen Airport, in the south of the Country and close to the capital city. Both museums host world-class collections, really worth a detour for aviation-minded people from whatever continent, and for the general public as well, as can be possibly perceived from the pictures in this post.

Photographs in this post were taken during a visit to both destinations in August 2022.

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Norwegian Aviation Museum – Bodø
Norwegian Armed Forces Aircraft Collection – Oslo-Gardermoen

Sights

Norwegian Aviation Museum – Bodø

The Norwegian Aviation Museum in Bodø is located on the northeastern corner of the airport, dominating this coastal town north of the Polar Circle. The airport was founded back in the 1920s, strongly potentiated by the Germans in WWII, and extensively used over the Cold War decades for mixed military and civil use. Today, it is mainly a commercial airport, with some residual military activity. However, the Air Station at Bodø shows evident traces of a military past – aircraft shelters, bunkers and large antenna arrays point the hilly panorama south of the runway.

The museum covers many aspects of the history of aeronautics in Norway. Both civil and military aviation are well represented, the respective collections being hosted in two adjoining large halls, merging into the central atrium – featuring a Northrop F-5 in the colors of the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF). This type has been the backbone of the RNoAF in the latter decades of the Cold War years.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

Civil aviation hall

The proposed path in the civil aviation hall follows a chronological order, and starts with a display of memorabilia from the early aviation years and from the age of the adventurous polar explorations. The items on display include flags, historical pictures, personal belongings taken by explorers on polar exploration trips and many interesting explanatory panels.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Civil aviation gallery

Aircraft on display include rare early seaplanes, employed to establish transport services. These are put side by side with more modern aircraft of the company Widerøe, which today is responsible for most of the short-range high-frequency services linking the scattered settlements in the northern part of Norway – up to North Cape.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Civil aviation gallery

Nice advertisement posters are displayed to retrace the history of some classic airlines, including the all-private Braathens, once a major airline from Norway, and telling about the foundation of SAS – which incorporated also Braathens at the turn of the century – which stands for ‘Scandinavian Airlines System’. It is still today a big carrier linking Northern Europe and the world. These companies were among the world first massively flying polar routes, thanks to on-board instrumentation specifically made to tackle the navigation issues showing up when flying close to the poles.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Civil aviation gallery

A turning point in the history of Braathens has been the introduction of jets, in the form of the Fokker F.28, for which this airline has been a launch customer. An exemplar of the F.28 is partly preserved in the museum, allowing to check out the fully analog cockpit.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Civil aviation gallery

Helicopters, including one with a special pod hosting an entire berth for SAR operations, are also well represented. The Police is clearly using the latest models of rotary wing technology.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Civil aviation gallery

A rare aircraft on display is a British-made Britten-Norman Islander, once operating in the colors of the local company Norving. Very evocative pictures show the unusual scenarios often faced by airlines operating in near-polar regions!

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Civil aviation gallery

Another peculiar mission covered by aircraft in Norway has been that of territory imaging and survey, including for archaeology in the search for ancient viking remains, typically hard to see from ground level. A Cessna 337 Skymaster push-pull originally tasked with this mission is on display. This type is pretty hard to see in Europe, but has enjoyed even a significant military career in the US (see this post).

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Civil aviation gallery

A big bird on display is a beautiful original Junkers Ju-52 three-props seaplane. This is one of four originally in the fleet of the Norwegian flag carrier ‘Det Norske Luftfartselskap’, established in the 1930s, and operating with a mixed fleet of British, German and American models.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Civil aviation gallery

The cockpit of the Junkers has been put in a display case to be admired more easily.

Among the many other items on display in the civil aviation hall, you can find an original wind tunnel model of the Concorde, aircraft remains from an accident, and some unusual or one-off aircraft models.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Civil aviation gallery

Military aviation hall

The hall dedicated to military aviation starts again following the timeline of aviation history. The early-age manufacturers appearing in Norway when aircraft were still a totally new technological novelty are represented with dioramas of technical shops, scale models and historical pictures. Some aircraft dating to the pre-WWII years are also on display.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

However, a major subject covered in the display is that of WWII. Norway was conquered by the invading German forces in a short and aggressive campaign in Spring 1940. Well planned from a strategic viewpoint, this operation included the capture of the airport of Oslo – the old field of Oslo-Fornebu – on the 9th of April, which was then used as a major base for landing transport aircraft, unloading military staff and material in the most populated area of the Country.

The landslide Third Reich invasion forced the government and the military chain of command to withdraw to Britain. An agreement was then settled to establish a military flight academy near Toronto, Ontario, to supply the Norwegian armed forces with new pilots, to carry out offensive operations from Britain.

The collection features many interesting items from WWII period. From a balcony you are offered a view of the collection, and a vantage view on the relic of a Luftwaffe Junkers Ju-88, transported to the museum after recovery.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

The air operations in the invasion of Spring 1940 are documented with interesting scale models and dioramas, as well as much technical material retrieved from the days of German occupation. This includes cameras for photo reconnaissance, Third Reich military maps of the region, flags, aircraft engines, and many historical pictures.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

From the same era, the cockpit of a Soviet Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik, documents of the air actions against the Third Reich occupants, and others concerning the history of ‘Little Norway’ – the Norwegian military training facilities in Canada – are also on display.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

Aircraft displayed in this area include restored or partly reconstructed examples of a De Havilland Mosquito, a Supermarine Spitfire, as well as a Focke-Wulf FW190 and a Messerschmitt BF-109 on the German side.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

All these birds together make for a really unusual and evocative sight today! Especially the German fighters are really rare to find, and their condition and presentation is really eye-catching.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

Further aircraft from the time include a North American Harvard trainer, and a big Consolidated PBY Catalina seaplane used for patrol. The latter looks really massive hosted indoor, compared to smaller fighter aircraft!

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

Anti-aircraft guns and a pretty unusual radio emitter/transmission station, employed as beacons for helping instrumental navigation in the war years, are also part of this interesting display.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

Next to the WWII area is the Cold War section of the display. Following the bad WWII experience with a policy of international neutrality, resulting in an invasion by a powerful enemy force, following the escalating divergence between the western Allies and the USSR, Norway opted for joining NATO as a founding member.

The alliance with the US and Britain, similar to other NATO Countries, meant a substantial supply of American and (at least in the beginning) British military supply. A North American F-86 Sabre and a Republic F-84 Thunderjet are two beautiful representatives from the early Cold War era. Similarly, a De Havilland Vampire is hanging from the ceiling.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

A slightly more modern item is a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. Not much employed in the US, it covered the interceptor role along the border with the Eastern Bloc in Norway, Federal Germany and Italy for many years.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

Historical pictures tell – among many interesting subjects – about other aircraft, like the Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star, as well as the F-104 and the F-5 involved in interception and escort flights, shadowing Tupolev Tu-95, Antonov An-12 and other USSR machines flying over international waters or scraping the border of Scandinavian airspaces – quintessential Cold War memories!

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

Possibly a reason for Bodø having grown to further fame in the aviation community of Western Countries is the presence here of a real Lockheed U-2 spy plane. This aircraft can be found in Europe only at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Britain, and here. Actually, a curious fact about Bodø is that it was a designated destination or an alternate (emergency) airfield for the perilous overflights of the USSR, carried out with the Lockheed U-2, and later with the Mach 3+ Lockheed SR-71. Actually, the latter landed here in one occasion, whereas the ill-fated mission of Francis Gary Powers, downed by Soviet SAMs while en-route north of Kazakhstan from Peshawar, Pakistan, had Bodø as a destination (see this post for pictures of the relic in Moscow).

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

The U-2 is displayed so that it is possible to both appreciate its slim shape and large wing span, and also get near to its cockpit. However, its installation and lighting inside the hall – and the fact that it is black… – make it a rather difficult target for photographs. Next to the aircraft, historical pictures and schemes tell about the mission of Francis Gary Powers. Interesting tables for the interpretation of photo intelligence are also on display.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

Still in the Cold War part of the museum, a very unusual and interesting section is centered on the facilities and technical gear for the detection and monitoring of airspace intrusion, for early warning and for alerting the air defenses of the National airspace.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

This secretive and little publicized branch of the military kept its ears and eyes constantly pointed on the moves of the colossal Soviet neighbor, recording every single movement – look for the super-interesting registry of USSR aircraft movements! – and constantly updating the situation, in order to be ready to counter a sudden ‘turn for the worst’, in case of an actual attack.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

Interestingly, much of the electronics here is US made, as can be seen looking at the product tags.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

The arsenal that could be employed to counter an air attack included the Nike-Ajax and later Nike-Hercules surface to air missiles, deployed along the border with the Eastern Bloc also in Denmark, Germany and Italy (see here and here).

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

Just to complete this incredible Cold War exhibition, an interesting and pretty unique air-dropped WE-177 nuclear bomb case is on display!

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

More modern addition to the aircraft collection include a General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon and some helicopters.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

A latter interesting part of the military exhibition showcases an array of aircraft-mounted cannons from various ages, showing their precision and their effect on the same target. You can appreciate the effects of the technical evolution of these weapons.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

Examples of air-launched missiles and sonobuoys, and a fine array of flight suits showing the evolution of their design, conclude this exceptional museum.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

As a plus, the old control tower of the military air station has been turned into a panorama point, where you can watch air operation on the actual airport, and also listen to air traffic frequencies!

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

The gate guardians include a Bell helicopter and an old glorious Hawker Hurricane from WWII.

Norwegian Aviation Museum Bodø – Norsk Luftfartsmuseum – Military aviation gallery – WWII and Cold War

Visiting

The museum is located at Bodø airport, and can be spotted pretty easily when entering the town. Bodø can be included – or considered as a starting point – in many tours of Northern Norway. The museum offers a large and convenient parking. It can be toured in not less than 2 hours for aviation-minded people. The website is here.

Norwegian Armed Forces Aircraft Collection – Oslo-Gardermoen

Coherently with its name, this wonderful collection is focused on military aviation in Norway. Most aircraft having served in the RNoAF at some point in history are represented, as well as some from WWII – not only from the Allied side, but most notably some rare exemplars from the Third Reich.

A great feature of this museum is also the architecture of the display. Put in a U-shaped building to the southwest of Oslo-Gardermoen airport, the aircraft are in most cases sufficiently far from one another to allow moving around freely, getting an unobstructed view from different angles. Furthermore, the natural lighting from the top windows is ideal for pictures (similar to the solution adopted in the Estonian Aviation Museum, see here).

Late 20th century

The display starts with the Northrop F-5, which is represented by three exemplars, interspersed with a single example of a General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon – currently in use with the RNoAF, to be replaced by the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. The Freedom Fighter has been the backbone of the RNoAF for the latter years of the Cold War, being flanked and substituted by the Fighting Falcon, and now by the Lightning II.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

The aircraft on display are two F-5 Freedom Fighter, i.e. the light fighter version – one in a distinctive tiger painting – and one RF-5 Tigereye, which has been developed from the original design into a capable photo reconnaissance aircraft.

Walking beneath the F-5 reveals many details, for instance the landing gear mechanism, the missile pylons and anchoring system, and JATO bottles for reducing the take-off distance.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

A J85 jet engine – there were two for each F-5 – is on display, with the afterburner pipe mounted past the turbine exhaust. A choice of missiles and pods can be seen close to the ‘tiger painted’ exemplar. The latter can be boarded. The fully analog cockpit shows much standard instrumentation for flight control, navigation and engine management, but also an armament panel with weapons selection and activation switches. Also interesting are the parachute deployment lever, for the arresting parachute, or the underwing load jettison system.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

The RF-4 reconnaissance aircraft features a nose camera, with a prominent lens which can be easily checked out. Similarly, the hatch of the port 20-mm cannon has been left open, showing the cannon body, barrel and the very neat ammo supply system.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

Next to these aircraft are a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter in a two-seats trainer configuration, and the front section of another exemplar with the original cockpit, which can be boarded. The J79 engine of the Starfighter, apparently originally from Canada judging from the Orenda labels on some components, has been taken out of the fuselage and can be appreciated in all its length (with the afterburner pipe to the back).

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

The cockpit of the Starfighter is cramped, with little legroom and a very limited front visibility. It is fully analog, similar to the F-5.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

In a corner of the hall, an original simulator – apparently for an F-16 – has found a new collocation, possibly from a military aviation academy.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

Early Cold War

The next part of the display offers the sight of a full array of fascinating, well-preserved aircraft from the early Cold War period. The first is a North American F-86 Sabre, with an attractive golden front intake decoration. Walking around and looking closely, many particular features can be spotted, including the leading edge slats. A ‘used’ Martin Baker ejection seat shows the little damage resulting from actual employment in case of emergency.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

Next is an improved version of the Sabre (F-86K), which features a very different intake, such to accommodate in the bulbous nose a powerful radar antenna. The latter could work in conjunction with a computer, and offered a substantial help in increasing the offensive capability of this fighter, which could also be operated in all weather conditions.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

A nice gem of the collection is an original portable cabinet for testing the General Electric J47 engine. This cabinet looks like a suitcase, but it could be positioned standing on its legs, linked with connectors to the on-board systems, and could show the working condition of the engine in a mounted configuration. The monitoring instrumentation is fully analog. It would make for a great item for collectors of Cold War technical gear!

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

Then follows an Republic F-84 Thunderjet early jet fighter, with its neat lines, wing tip tanks, and an under-fuselage spoiler in a deflected position.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

Nearby, the rather different – despite the similar code – Republic RF-84F Thunderflash photo reconnaissance aircraft prominently displays its big-diameter optics in the nose.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

The really elegant design of a Lockheed T-33 can be appreciated next. The air intakes are really works of art, and the bare metal color just adds to the vintage line of this early design.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

Similarly graceful is the iconic De Havilland Vampire, the only British addition to this US-dominated aircraft display from the Cold War era. With its distinctive twin-boom tail, the typical De Havilland vertical fins dating back to the pre-WWII propeller-driven examples, the shrouded jet engine totally disappearing in the body of the aircraft, with small, fenced intakes on the leading edges of the wing, this aircraft looks like a really good balance between engineering-driven design choices and pure elegance.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

WWII aircraft

A central section of the exhibition is centered on WWII-era aircraft, starting with two Supermarine Spitfire, one hanging from the ceiling, and one sitting on its wheels, in a greenish color and RNoAF emblems.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

What follows is a pretty unique US-made aircraft, a Northrop N-3PB seaplane, ordered as a sea patrolling aircraft by Norway, but not reaching Scandinavia in time before the German invasion. It was then employed as a sea patrol from Iceland by the Norwegian forces in exile. Possibly looking not so conspicuous in pictures, it is a rather massive bird. It shows an interesting floatplane design, where floats are anchored to the wings through aerodynamically profiled struts, so as to reduce drag as much as possible.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

Walking around it, you can notice the relatively light weaponry hanging from the fuselage bottom, the down-firing back cannon for defense, and the detachable wheels to pull the aircraft ashore.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

Then a very rare bird follows – a German Heinkel He-111 bomber from WWII! Restored in a mint-looking condition, this aircraft makes for a unique sight in the panorama of aviation collections.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

This iconic aircraft from the Third Reich, much known to aviation-minded people especially in connection with the early landslide campaigns of the Third Reich in Europe and for the Battle of Britain, can be examined from very close and beneath, unveiling some interesting peculiar features. For example, the bomb bay features vertical square-section separated ‘blisters’, a totally different solution with respect to larger US bombers from the age.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

The underbelly shooting pod allowed the cannon operator to ‘rest’ in a laid down position. The front cannon is clearly asymmetrically placed with respect to the aircraft centerline, following a side curvature of the nose cone such to increase pilot’s visibility.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

Close by is another incredibly well-preserved addition from the Third Reich’s Luftwaffe, a Junkers Ju-52 transport in fashionable military colors.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

The Ju-52 and He-111 were the main characters involved in the blitzkrieg attack to Oslo-Fornebu, the now bygone airport of central Oslo, which was the stage of a massive air-launched German attack in April 1940, a substantial contribution and a prelude to the complete invasion of Norway. Both aircraft are surrounded by a set of accessories from the time, including searchlights, fuel tanks, spare parts, anti-aircraft guns and even service trolleys with skis to be used on snowy aprons! The ensemble is really quite a sight.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

From roughly the same age is also a perfectly preserved Douglas C-47 Skytrain – a true war veteran! Preserved in the colors of the RNoAF, it was originally incorporated in the USAAF and employed in action in Europe since mid-1944. It flew during the Berlin Airlift, operating in and out West Berlin transporting goods during Stalin’s blockade of the town in 1948-49 (see this chapter). It later joined the RNoAF and was employed for radar tuning and for transport until the mid-1970s.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

The color scheme of the RNoAF looks great on this C-47, and the presentation among some airport service vehicles from the time adds to the display.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

Further recent aircraft

Approaching the extremity of the U-shaped building, you can find a De Havilland Twin Otter with skis, some classic helicopters, some aircraft undergoing restoration – including substantial remains of a Junkers Ju-88 bomber from the Third Reich! – and a massive Lockheed C-130 Hercules.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

The latter is possibly the aircraft in the collection having been retired most recently. It has been deprived of its vertical fin, which simply couldn’t fit inside the building, but the rest is almost complete. The engine pods are opened, so that you can see inside. An array of JATO bottles to enhance take-off performance has been anchored to the side of the fuselage.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

The aircraft is on display with the back and side doors opened, so that boarding its preserved interior and cockpit is indeed possible.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

Inside the cockpit, chance is you meet a living legend, the flight engineer of the RNoAF Mons Nygård, who will explain you the features and operations of his aircraft! The man joined the Armed Forces in the late 1950s until the 1990s, with a military career spanning a big part of the Cold War. He flew extensively the Hercules, as well as other aircraft including the Lockheed P-3 Orion, logging a staggering more-than-17’000 hours in flight!

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

We could interview him about his career, which unfolded several nice anecdotes and memories from the Cold War years, and a real passion for his super-reliable aircraft and for his job. It’s no wonder the Hercules, being designed in the 1950s, is still in service with many Armed Forces of the world.

Anti-aircraft defense system

Finally, the exhibition includes Nike-Ajax and Nike-Hercules anti-aircraft missiles (SAM). Installed in batteries against an attack from the USSR also in Norway (see for instance this preserved battery in Italy, this in Denmark, or this ghost one in former Federal Germany), these nuclear-capable massive missiles were in service typically between the 1950s and the early 1980s, becoming by then obsolete.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

Of great interest for technically-minded people are some of the inside components of these missiles, including components of the guidance system and some electronics, which can be seen in display cases, as well as technical vehicles for launch control, radar operation etc.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

Other lighter anti-aircraft weapons from the Cold War era are displayed nearby, thus covering also this interesting subject in good detail.

Balcony

The visit may be concluded with a walk along the inside balcony, from which a good view of all the aircraft just mentioned is obtained.

On the same balcony, you can find also many trainers once used for teaching young pilots the basics of flight. Some are classic models belonging to the era of Little Norway and WWII, when training for freshly recruited pilots was carried out in Ontario, Canada.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

The gate guardians for this beautiful collection are an F-5 and an F-104, the latter in the greenish colorway seen also in the collection in Bodø.

The Norwegian Armed Forces Collection – Flysamlingen Forsvaret Museer – Military aviation collection, Oslo-Gardermoen

Visiting

This fantastic collection can be found in the southwestern corner of the premises of Oslo-Gardermoen airport, the main airport serving the Norwegian capital city.

The museum is administrated by the Armed Forces.

Visiting for the aircraft enthusiast may be very rewarding and may take more than 2 hours, since the exceptional state of preservation of the artifacts and the many details you can explore through a walk around very close to the aircraft invite to spend time inside. You have also chance to speak with former military crew, which adds much to the experience. Very good photo opportunities for an indoor collection.

Large free parking ahead of the entrance, with picnic facilities. Nice model shop by the ticket office.

The museum is normally open on weekends, but further visits may be scheduled out of these opening slot. Please check the info on their website here.

Traces of the Cold War in Southwest Germany

May 12, 2018June 3, 2023 CarloRLeave a comment

Between the end of WWII and the collapse of the USSR in the early Nineties, Germany was caught in the middle of the confrontation between the West and the Soviet bloc. An unnatural and heavily guarded new border was established between the two adversaries, which crossed the extensive territory of todays Germany. Thanks to the presence of American, British and French military forces over the western territory of the Country, and of the Red Army to the east, with the start of the Cold War the German ‘inner border’ became a modern line of the front for this new type of confrontation (see this post).

All armies stationed there benefited from substantial resources poured by the respective governments in the setup of permanent military detachments and infrastructures. The aim for the nations involved was that of having on the spot a credible force, capable of effectively fighting an enemy army – as well as hitting the populations of neighbor Countries – in case a new war was started in Europe. In the end, an open war was never fought, yet for decades it was deemed possible, and in some crisis moments even likely (see this post).

This chapter presents pictures from five Cold-War-themed sites in southwest Germany. Photographs were taken in April 2018, and in the summer of 2020 and 2021.

Navigate this post – click on links to scroll

Nike Missile Battery, Wurmberg
Pershing Warhead Storage Bunker, Waldstetten
Internationales Luftfahrt-Museum, Villingen-Schwenningen
Military History Museum, Stammheim am Main
Former US Airbase, Giebelstadt

Sights

With the end of the game for the communist empire and following German reunification, Russian forces withdrew from all bases in Germany – as well as from many other Countries in Europe – and so did the foreign NATO allies, with a very few exceptions. Most former military bases and military infrastructures fell in a state of disrepair, and by the years the majority were either completely wiped out or converted into something else. Nonetheless, especially in the less crowded territories of the former communist East Germany, visible traces remain from the period, in the form of – sometimes immense – abandoned airports and military bases (see this post and links therein).

Comparatively less traces of the once substantial presence of NATO forces are to be found in todays western ‘Länder’ – i.e. administrative regions – which used to be part of West Germany. Yet something of interest for Cold War ‘archaeologists’ can be found also here.

A long chain of anti-aircraft missile batteries was implemented based on the Nike missile system designed in the US, and implemented by the US Army as well as other NATO armies in West Germany. The defensive line was established in the 1950s and updated over the years, running almost parallel to the border with the communist DDR, but located pretty far from it and well within the territory of West Germany. It stretched from the North Sea to the Bodensee, on the border with Switzerland. There are some very extensive references on the web providing a complete description of the Nike defensive barrier both in the US and abroad, a very rich one here (the link should point directly to the German section).

In this chapter you can find some pictures from an exploration of an abandoned Nike Hercules site next to the town of Wurmberg, just out of Pforzheim, between Stuttgart and the French border. It used to be run directly by the US Army.

Intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBM) were part of the tactical plans of both the US and the Soviets in Europe. The Pershing platform, based on the homonym theater-level nuclear missile, was deployed in Germany, and placed in the inventory of both the US Army and the West German Luftwaffe. The missile was updated in several instances in the decades of the Cold War, until it was banned by the INF treaty in 1988, agreed upon by the administrations of Gorbachev and Reagan.

Among the strongpoints of the Pershing missile deployment in Europe, a huge warhead deposit was built close to the town of Waldstetten, next to Schwäbisch Gmund in southern Germany. In this chapter you will find photographs from an exploration of this mysterious site.

Furthermore, a nice collection of aircraft from both sides of the Iron Curtain can be found in the southwestern corner of the Country, next to the town of Villingen-Schwenningen – one of the few air museums in this part of Germany. Similarly, the large collections of the military museum in Stammheim, next to the town of Schweinfurt in northwestern Bavaria, and once close to the ‘Inner Border’ with the GDR, has on display substantial specimens from the Cold War era.

Finally, a special feature presented in this chapter is a group of pictures from the former airbase in Giebelstadt, south of Würzburg, Bavaria. Today a privately owned general aviation airport, this former military airbase gained a special historical significance when it was selected for the departure of secret overflights of the communist territory beyond the Iron Curtain, performed with the Lockheed U-2 in the late Fifties, by decision of president Eisenhower.

Nike Missile Battery – Wurmberg

The site in Wurmberg, east of Pforzheim, was actually Battery ‘Delta’ – i.e. the fourth – of the four missile forces managed by the the 3rd Battalion of the 71st Air Defense Artillery (ADA) regiment.

Typical Nike missile batteries were composed of two geographically separated areas. The largest was the ‘Launch area’, with missile storage facilities – sometimes reinforced underground bunkers, sometimes more usual ‘soft’ hangars – and launch pads. The other was the ‘Integrated Fire Control area’ or ‘IFC’, where all antennas and electronic equipment for target detection and missile guidance were placed. Due to the limited speed of motion of the missile guidance antennas, the distance between the launch site and the IFC had to be greater than a threshold, while the elevation of the IFC had to be somewhat above the the launch pads. These technological constraints led the choice of the sites suitable for the installation of the Nike batteries.

The site was deactivated in the Eighties, and both areas were sanitized in more instances, basically demolishing any buildings. The ‘final stage’ of the operation is likely to be underway at the time of my visit, as you can see from the pictures, where piles of gravel and moved land can be spotted all around the launch site.

Surprisingly, a feature that has come to our days virtually without any alteration is the external fence of the launch site, which runs all around the launch area and is still particularly impenetrable. Also the rounds of barbed wire on top are still there.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

The exploration of the launch area is pretty straightforward. It is rectangular, basically flat and aligned along an east-western direction. Close to the eastern end, you meet a flat area with a concrete pavement – now partly demolished – and a curved road nearby. This is where the missiles and warheads were assembled. Nike missiles could mount nuclear warheads, but apparently this was a rarely adopted option.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

The next notable item to the west is a water basin, still in a very good shape. There used to be a water system all around the base. Remains of demolished buildings can be spotted around here too.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

A mystery electric cable comes out of the ground on a spot. It is noteworthy that the launch area and IFC were connected by an underground cable, but I don’t think this is the one you see in the pics.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

This battery had three launch sectors, bearing the little imaginative names of ‘Alpha’, ‘Bravo’ and ‘Charlie’. You can find them in a sequence, walking towards the west end of the site.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

The pads of the Alpha sector, while now greatly damaged by the demolition work, are still in place with their metal covers.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

There were three launch pads on each sector. The area of each sector appears unnecessarily large, but actually the missile storage hangar used to stay beyond the launch pads, occupying about half the area of each sector. Today these soft constructions have disappeared.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

To the west of each sector there is a small bunker, intended for the protection of the troops working around the launch pads, in case of an attack to the battery. These bunkers are not very damaged, so they constitute a very interesting part of the site today.

The protection bunkers have two exits on the two opposite sides – so the Alpha bunker connects the Alpha and Bravo sectors, the Bravo bunker the Bravo and Charlie sectors, while the Charlie bunker connects the Charlie sector to the logistic storage area to the west end of the launch site.

The Alpha bunker is well conserved – except for some spoiling by some idiot writer. There is no camouflage paint coat outside, just some plain green paint, and the walls inside are painted in a bright crimson color. The bunker has two opposite entrances, and two corresponding corridors leading to two massive tight doors, which give access to a central protected room, insulated from the outside.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

Writings in English are still there in the central room of bunker Alpha.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

The launch sectors Bravo and Charlie are more damaged than Alpha.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

The Bravo bunker is camouflaged, and differently from Alpha the walls inside are painted in water green. It is possible to notice how the central room was separated from the rest of the structure for blast insulation, similar to other missile sites (see this post). There is a wide slot at the level of the doors.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

Further writings in English and some original linoleum pavement are still perfectly visible.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

The Charlie bunker is different from the other two. The facade is wider, it is coated in a camo paint, and bears the name ‘Charlie’ above the eastern door. Inside it is very dark, possibly as a result of a fire. In the insulated room it is possible to see an original air conditioning system.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

The three launch sectors are connected to the south by a wide road, from where you can appreciate the extension and state of conservation of the original fence.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

The IFC area is located just north of the small town of Wurmberg, on top of a hill. Unfortunately, the former military site has been wiped out and a nothing less than a waste disposal facility has taken its place! Anyway, from this vantage point you can clearly see the launch area, roughly two miles to the west.

Nike Missile Battery Delta Battery 3/71 ADA Pforzheim Wumberg Germany Abandoned Military Base

Getting there and moving around

Getting to the launch area is very easy. Leave the highway N.8 close to Pforzheim (the exit is 45b Pforzheim-Süd) and take for Pforzheim on Wurmberger Strasse. Take the very first road to the right and park your car there. You will see a gate open since ages and an almost unmaintained road taking straight north and climbing gently uphill. This road will take you to the official gate of the launch area in 0.4 miles. Getting in is probably prohibited, but the area is pretty remote and secluded, and I didn’t see a person around during all my stay.

The site is geographically compact, so touring may take about 2 to 2.5 hours taking all pictures, if you have planned your movements in advance. A tripod is strictly necessary for taking decent pictures inside the very dark bunkers.

The IFC area can be reached going to Wurmberg, leaving the same exit but taking the direction opposite to Pforzheim. You will soon reach central Wurmberg. Cimb along Gollmerstrasse, then along Oschelbronnerstrasse. Where the village ends and the road stops climbing you will see a field to your left and a waste disposal facility to your right – this used to be the area occupied by the IFC area. Looking west you can see the launch area and the taller buildings of Pforzheim further in the distance.

Pershing Warhead Storage Bunkers – Waldstetten

The site in Waldstetten is basically an array of warhead storage bunkers, built between 1954 and 1958 by the US Army. In 1972 these bunkers became a part of a Quick Reaction Alert site, managed by the 1st Battalion of the 41st Field Artillery Regiment, tasked with supplying the nearby storage site of the Pershing missile in Mutlangen, just north of Schwäbisch Gmund. The site saw major action in 1982, when 36 Pershing II missiles were installed in Mutlangen as an answer to the deployment by the USSR of an updated version of the excellent SS-20 Saber IRBM system.

During the Eighties the 1st Bn 41st FA was reformed more than once, until it became 2nd Bn 9th FA in 1986, only to be disbanded in 1991, following the dismantlement of the Pershing system as a consequence of the INF Treaty between the US and USSR.

It should be mentioned that whether the nuclear warheads of the Pershing missile ever made their way to this storage site is a matter of discussion. As a matter of fact, the missiles were in the nearby Mutlangen site, and their installation triggered well documented protests by the usual pacifist folks, who encountered difficulties in understanding the moves of the Reagan administration, which helped with successfully putting an end to the Cold War and to many communist dictatorships in Europe. What the bunkers in the Waldstetten site were used for is not totally evident, and it should be recalled they were built in the Fifties, before the deployment of the Pershing system.

Of the 28 bunkers originally built, 25 exist today while three have been demolished in a landslide. The site is located in the trees along two broad circular roads, once service roads. Today it is in the heart of a natural preserve, and the roads are used by MTBs and hikers, whereas the Mutlangen site has been converted into a solar power plant.

The local administration has prepared a placard with a map and a short history of the place (in German only), which I spotted only by the first bunker you meet climbing uphill along the road approaching the site from north. You can see the placard in the pics below, with the corresponding map. The position indicated with ‘Standort’ on the map is where the placard is. I suggest starting you exploration from there.

Quick Reaction Alert QRA Nuclear Atomic Weapons Pershing Warhead Storage Waldstetten Schwabisch Gmund US 41st Field Artillery Germany Abandoned Bunker

About half of the bunkers can be accessed. Except a few, they are basically indistinguishable.

Quick Reaction Alert QRA Nuclear Atomic Weapons Pershing Warhead Storage Waldstetten Schwabisch Gmund US 41st Field Artillery Germany Abandoned Bunker

Inside they are empty and very basic in shape, with just one large storage room. Other bunkers are inaccessible, and some have been converted into bat shelters.

Quick Reaction Alert QRA Nuclear Atomic Weapons Pershing Warhead Storage Waldstetten Schwabisch Gmund US 41st Field Artillery Germany Abandoned Bunker

A notable bunker is 870 (see the map in the pic), which bears on the front facade graffiti from US troops, probably veterans visiting the place in recent times after it was closed up. Today it is a bat shelter.

Quick Reaction Alert QRA Nuclear Atomic Weapons Pershing Warhead Storage Waldstetten Schwabisch Gmund US 41st Field Artillery Germany Abandoned Bunker

In 869 you can find some naive paintings, including one portraying a truck probably dating from the years of operation.

Quick Reaction Alert QRA Nuclear Atomic Weapons Pershing Warhead Storage Waldstetten Schwabisch Gmund US 41st Field Artillery Germany Abandoned Bunker

A mystery bunker is 856, which is very different from all others. It has two small entrances, apparently for humans only, and a group of small chambers ahead of the larger storage area. This has no wide entrances, suggesting it was not used for warheads nor anything similar, and a blind room to the back. Unfortunately, this bunker is also covered in indecent graffiti.

Quick Reaction Alert QRA Nuclear Atomic Weapons Pershing Warhead Storage Waldstetten Schwabisch Gmund US 41st Field Artillery Germany Abandoned Bunker

Another interesting sight, especially visible to the west of the bunker area, is the original fence of the storage site, with a number of aligned concrete posts and traces of barbed wire. The line of the fence is shown also on the map.

Quick Reaction Alert QRA Nuclear Atomic Weapons Pershing Warhead Storage Waldstetten Schwabisch Gmund US 41st Field Artillery Germany Abandoned Bunker

Getting there and moving around

The storage bunkers are located on top of a hill, and some climbing is required to reach the bunker area. The place is not fenced, and there are multiple access points from all directions. I personally parked at the end of Dreifaltigkeitsstrasse in Waldstetten and accessed the site from the west. After touring it, I came back passing by the placard mentioned above. The road is steeper on that side of the hill, but starting from the placard may ease your exploration.

Please note that the on most part of the site the cell phone coverage was very weak, with no access to internet data. I strongly suggest downloading your maps before being on site.

The place is secluded and the bunkers are much overlooked by the locals, who keep on the main track and just cross the area – you will probably move around undisturbed if you walk in and around the bunkers.

Due to some amount of mild hiking required, a complete tour of all bunkers may take about 3 hours, including time for pictures.

Internationales Luftfahrt-Museum – Villingen-Schwenningen

This small air museum is composed of three parts.

The first is a single hangar, stacked with smaller aircraft and a helicopter, plus memorabilia and parts of aircraft of diverse proveniences and ages, including German machines from WWII, and later from both sides of the Iron Curtain.

Internationales Luftfahrt-Museum Air Museum Baden-Wurttemberg Germany

The main part is a grassy apron with an open air collection. Here you can see aircraft of American make in the colors of the West German Luftwaffe, including an F-86 Sabre and F-104 Starfighter.

Internationales Luftfahrt-Museum Air Museum Baden-Wurttemberg Germany

British aircraft are represented by an English Electric Canberra and a DeHavilland Vampire of the Swiss Air Force.

Internationales Luftfahrt-Museum Air Museum Baden-Wurttemberg Germany

Other models from western Countries include an Italian Fiat G-91 reconnaissance aircraft and a German Dornier Alpha Jet trainer.

Internationales Luftfahrt-Museum Air Museum Baden-Wurttemberg Germany

Models from the Soviet world include an Antonov An-2 biplane, which can also be boarded, and a Yakovlev Yak-18, bearing a post-Soviet Russian flag and registration markings.

Internationales Luftfahrt-Museum Air Museum Baden-Wurttemberg Germany

Probably the star of the show, a well restored Polish-built MiG-15 is presented in the markings of the Red Army.

Internationales Luftfahrt-Museum Air Museum Baden-Wurttemberg Germany

The third part of the museum is a series of restoration hangars, where a number of aircraft are being restored, whereas some replicas are being assembled, possibly partly from original parts. These include a Messerschmitt Me-262 Schwalbe, and a Dornier Do-335 Pfiel, of which only one original exemplar exists in Washingtong, DC – definitely a rare sight.

Internationales Luftfahrt-Museum Air Museum Baden-Wurttemberg Germany

Getting there and moving around

The museum, located on the side of a local touristic airport, is easily reachable in Spittelbronner Weg 78, 78056 Villingen-Schwenningen, just on the eastern border of the beautiful Schwarzwald region. Website with full information here.

Military History Museum, Stammheim am Main

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The museum in Stammheim, northwestern Bavaria, stands out as one of the largest and best preserved military collections in Germany, especially concerning the two World Wars and the Cold War. The museum is composed of a set of large adjoining hangars, and an open-air part. The hangars are rich in dioramas, built around real weapons (both heavy and light), tanks, as well as rigs, uniforms and dresses from the corresponding ages.

The first hangar is centered on WWII. Here a large central diorama represents a scene from the advance of US forces on German territory. A group of civilians reacts welcoming the American forces with white flags, whereas some armed civilian guards and some German soldiers keep a more cautious attitude.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

Among the original US vehicles is a light tank, starring in the movie ‘The Monuments Men’ besides actor George Clooney. A German Goliath self-propelled drone-tank is on display in this scene.

Two house facades imitating traditional German architecture complete this central diorama.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

In the same hall, more dioramas show for instance a German anti-aircraft battery, with a four-barrel gun and a searchlight. Range-finding rigs are also on display.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

To the far end of the same hall, a Soviet T-34 and a Sherman can be found, besides self-propelled cannons and more vehicles set in smaller scenes.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

In a lateral passage, scenes from the African theater of WWII are displayed. These include vehicles and weapons with a distinctive desert camo coat. Another diorama displays a school in Germany from the same period, with young men involved in light anti-aircraft defense.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

Scenes from pre-WWII and from WWI are presented in yet another, smaller hall. Field artillery pieces from WWI are clearly discernible from more modern ones. A field kitchenette from the time is also on display.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

Classical display cases feature many interesting items, including military uniforms from WWI and WWII, military decorations, air navigation charts and flight instruments.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

The Cold War is covered in the last two hangars. Here field guns, mortars and armored vehicles mainly from the Federal Republic and from the German Democratic Republic – some of them still working – are put on display, side by side.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

The exhibition in this part is complimented by numerous flags and smaller pieces of military material, including communication gear, water mines, transport vehicles, a military Trabant.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

Part of the show is an ex-DDR early MiG-21. This can be climbed (not boarded), providing a nice view of the ensemble.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

The museum is close to Schweinfurt, geographically next to the border with the former GDR. A reconstruction of the Inner Border impenetrable fence (see this post), with original signs and plaques, is duly on display.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

The outside part of the museum displays a few heavy armored vehicles from WWI, WWII and the Cold War. They include a rusty, US-made M26 Pershing tank from WWII, a Federal Germany Gepard anti-aircraft self-propelled battery from the Cold War, and more.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

Visible from a distance are a set of US-made surface-to-air missiles, distinctive silhouettes from the Cold War age. These include a Nike Hercules surface to air missile. Surface-to-surface platforms include a venerable and pretty rare Matador early cruise missile. This grandparent of modern cruise missiles features a distinctive swept-back wing, and a booster underneath the fuselage to the back.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

The nose cone of a Pershing (possibly) is on display, together with a rare Lance missile, a surface-to-surface missile from the 1960s-70s, in the inventory of the Federal Republic in those years. The plaque on the launcher witnesses the Canadian origin of the single-missile wheeled rack, built by Orenda.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

Behind the missiles, aircraft on display are a Soviet designed Antonov An-2 biplane, and a US designed Republic F-84 Thunderstreak, in the colors of the Luftwaffe of Federal Germany.

Military Museum Stammheim Schweinfurt Bayern Germany

All in all, this wonderful collection has much to offer for everybody with an interest in the military history of Germany since WWI to the Cold War era. The museum sets up reunions of enthusiasts, and special days with tank movements and live displays.

Getting there and moving around

The Stammheim am Main museum is located 7 miles south of Schweinfurt, a major center in the area, and about 12 miles northeast of beautiful Würzburg. It can be conveniently reached when traveling between the two, right on the bank of the Main river. The exact location is along the intercity road SW1, on the crossing with Maintalstrasse in the village of Kolitzheim. Parking right ahead of the entrance. Small restaurant on site. Since the museum is stuffed with tons of interesting items, even though compact in size, visiting may easily take more than 2 hours for an interested subject.

Former US Airbase, Giebelstadt

The now sleepy general aviation airfield in Giebelstadt has been a rather active military airbase for many decades. A Luftwaffe fighter base in WWII, it was among the first airbases to host the new Messerschmitt Me-262 jet fighter. In 1945 it fell in the hands of American forces, who intermittently used it for various temporary deployments and flight operations over the immediate post-WWII years. The early Cold War era and the 1950s were a new period of intensive use. The runway was lengthened, and more modern facilities for stationing troops and aircraft were built anew, in place of older and damaged German ones from the Nazi era. Powerful, cutting-edge radar installations were put in place, due to the proximity with the East German border. With the transition to fast jets, the proximity of the airfield to the border was actually too much, so that interceptors could not scramble in time from Giebelstadt, in case of an enemy attack from beyond the Iron Curtain. However, this would be an advantage for reconnaissance missions, launched during the Eisenhower administration, starting in 1956.

Giebelstadt was one of the few bases for the balloons of Project Genetrix. That was a first, partly successful attempt to gather intelligence through unmanned overflights of the USSR. In the same years, Giebelstadt was intended as the main operative base for the CIA Lockheed U-2s, to be used for a more risky – since manned – but much more effective way to collect photo and signal intelligence.

The actual deployment started in 1956, with some delay due to the need to prepare the airfield for operation of the one-of-a-kind Lockheed U-2. The latter flew in the meanwhile from Wiesbaden, where the headquarter of US military in Germany was at that time. This was not much liked by the US intelligence community, since the latter city was more crowded than the small country village of Giebelstadt, and this exposed highly secretive U-2 operations to a higher risk of espionage.

Missions carried out by the U-2 were of basically two types. The first was relatively risky ELINT missions along the border with the USSR, where defenses were stimulated without entering the enemy airspace, to obtain precious information on the reaction capability and the enemy anti-aircraft barrier, including the position of radar sites, etc. The second mission type was high-risk ELINT/PHOTINT missions, or ‘overflights’, where Soviet airspace was actually penetrated. In the latter case, the U-2 made use of its superior altitude and range performance to carry out long missions above the defenses of the USSR. As known, the development of high-performing SAMs, reaching up to the cruising altitude of the U-2 meant it was not invulnerable any more after 1960. This put an end to overflights. However, a total of 24 mostly successful overflight missions were carried out between 1956 and 1960, each of them specifically studied and approved with the direct involvement of president Eisenhower.

Besides missions along the border, or over satellite countries of the Eastern Bloc (still considered a high risk, but not as high as a direct overflight of the USSR), a single overflight of the USSR was actually flown from Giebelstadt. This was mission No. 2040, flown on October 13th, 1957, with Hervey S. Stockman at the controls. A report from this mission can be found on a CIA document here.

Following the end of the U-2-based intelligence missions, Giebelstadt was ceded to the US Army in the years of Kennedy. The Army used it as a huge base for helicopter operations well into the third millennium – the base was deactivated and returned to Federal Germany only in 2006.

Today, the now private airport can be barely neared without triggering security service. However, even a quick look along the fence will reveal clear traces of the US military tenancy. From hangars to fences, to softer constructions north of the airfield, everything is much US military standard.

Giebelstadt Airbase US U-2 CIA USAF Würzburg Bayern Germany

The runway – huge for todays single-prop and glider activities! – can be seen clearly from the south and from the eastern end.

Giebelstadt Airbase US U-2 CIA USAF Würzburg Bayern Germany

Antenna arrays and a now oversize control tower are other witnesses of the past military activity.

Giebelstadt Airbase US U-2 CIA USAF Würzburg Bayern Germany

Getting there and moving around

Giebelstadt airport can be conveniently reached along road N.19, about 8 miles south of Würzburg. Unfortunately, despite the road passing right besides the airport, there are very few options for stopping close to the fence with a car on this fast road, and similarly on the road going along the southern fence of the airport, taking east to Mönchsmühle nearby. However, the eastern runway head can be approached from the latter. Just turn north towards the base in the vicinity of the general aviation hangars in the southeastern corner of the airport. The road is a dead end, and you will likely trigger some inspection by people inside the fence, so not much to worry about if you stay outside.

Another part which can be toured is the former administrative part/barracks to the northeast. This can be entered driving along the northern side of the airport. This area has been taken over by private companies, and you might trigger some inspection by the respective security agencies. They are rather friendly though, so again, not much to worry about if you take picture staying in your car.

Planes of Fame Air Museum in California and Arizona

February 11, 2017December 24, 2018 CarloRLeave a comment

The collection of Planes of Fame is probably among the world’s finest of the kind. The group keeps many extremely rare aircraft in full flying conditions, both jet and prop powered warbirds. They also perform flying activities on an almost-regular basis, including a huge airshow taking place in Chino, CA in mid-spring every year.

What is possibly less known is that the collection is hosted in two branches.

The ‘frontline’ branch is in Chino, between San Bernardino and Pomona, Los Angeles area. Here most of their aircraft and all jet planes are preserved in dedicated hangars on Chino Airport, crowded with commercial and private general aviation activities.

The ‘rear’ collection is in a beautiful location in Arizona called Valle, a few miles from the south rim of the Grand Canyon, halfway between Williams on the Route 66 and Grand Canyon Village. Here especially older aircraft are hosted in a hangar on the local Valle Airport. Thanks to the very thin and dry air, this is an ideal place for storing aircraft even on the outside. Here you can find many recently acquired aircraft used for spares or awaiting restoration.

Flying aircraft from the two branches are often swapped between the two locations, so it may happen to see the same aircraft in either of the two places in different times of the year.

In this small post you can see a series of pics from both brenches of this museum.

Chino Branch, California

This branch is probably where the most famous among the spectacular and rare aircraft of the collection can be found. The majority of those in the hangars, if not all, are in airworthy condition. These include unique early Northrop ‘Flying Wing’, at least two Boeing Stearman, and many exemplars of P-40 and P-51.

Planes of Fame Air Museum Flying Collection Chino

Some aircraft from WWII really seem to be ready to spool up and go at any time!

Planes of Fame Air Museum Flying Collection Chino

Next comes a hangar with mainly jet aircraft from the early Cold War. These are among the few such aircraft on earth still flying. There are an F-86 as well as British and Soviet fighters.

Planes of Fame Air Museum Flying Collection Chino

Another hangar hosts a collection of German and Japanese aircraft from WWII, including a stunning FW190 and a Salamander under Nazi colors, and some extremely rare fighters and light bombers from Japan, including the famous ‘Val’ dive bomber. I’m not sure everything is original here, maybe some of the aircraft are replicas or half-replicas, meaning that there is something original in the aircraft but restoration work included substantial reconstruction of missing or heavily damaged parts.

Planes of Fame Air Museum Flying Collection Chino

One of the hangars is custom-made for a P-38, which was out on an airshow when I visited, a P-51 taking its place. Also noteworthy are a group of US divers and torpedo-bombers from WWII, and some other carrier-based aircraft.

Planes of Fame Air Museum Flying Collection Chino

A great restoration shop is always busy rebuilding parts and assembling aircraft.

Planes of Fame Air Museum Flying Collection Chino

There are more hangars in this branch, but many of them are really cluttered, so room inside is at a premium and many aircraft awaiting restoration are stored outside. At the time of my visit these included F-86, F-100, F-104, an Antonov An-2, not easy to see in this part of the world, and what I think is a mock-up replica of a super-rare Italian seaplane built for the Schneider Trophy competition in the Twenties or early Thirties.

Planes of Fame Air Museum Flying Collection Chino

Getting there

The place is between San Bernardino and Pomona, and it can be easily reached from LA. The hangars are on the northern side of the airport. Large parking nearby. Here is their website with hours of operation. Visiting may take from 45 minutes to a couple of hours, depending on your level of interest. As an aircraft enthusiast I especially like to see flying collections and where people restore aircraft. This place is a world-category ‘must-see’ under this respect, similar to few other places in the US and Canada, and to Duxford in Britain.

Please note that there is also another great air museum on the northwestern corner of the same airport, called Yanks Air Museum, which is a different entity. Here is their website.

Valle Branch, Arizona

When driving to the Grand Canyon visitor’s center from the south you will pass by this museum, and it won’t go unnoticed thanks to a handful of big aircraft, including a Constellation, placed in front of it.

Planes of Fame Air Museum Flying Collection Valle

This branch is smaller with respect to the main location in Chino, and it is composed by a hangar, with a dozen of aircraft in pristine conditions, almost all of them in airworthy condition.

Planes of Fame Air Museum Flying Collection Valle

Some of the aircraft are preserved in restored but ‘cut’ condition, showing the restored inner structure. There are also some parts and memorabilia, including the drop (or egg…) shaped fuselage of a P-38, with full panel.

Planes of Fame Air Museum Flying Collection Valle

You can see in the pictures that the Japanese ‘Val’ bomber is the same I photographed in Chino in the previous section another year… this is a proof aircraft from this collection can actually fly!

Many aircraft awaiting restoration are waiting their turn on the outside, i.e. on a corner of the apron of Valle Airport, which is an active mainly leisure airport a few miles south the commercial airport of Grand Canyon Village.

Planes of Fame Air Museum Flying Collection Valle

Besides the aircraft in need of some restoration work – including a former aircraft of the Blue Angels Team – at the time of my visit there were also some aircraft parts, engines and what appeared to be a full KC-97 tanker which had a close encounter with a crazy scrapman…

Planes of Fame Air Museum Flying Collection Valle

Light and air quality in this area are unrivalled, and if you are interested in taking photographs, this is a place to be!

Getting there

The museum is a unmissable sight along route 64 driving from Williams to the Grand Canyon rim. Website with full information here. This may be a nice 45 minutes addition to your full day in the National Park.

Flying over Moosehead Lake & Lobster Lake, Maine

October 9, 2016December 24, 2018 CarloRLeave a comment

Probably not so famous for bush-flying activity as other locations on the West Coast, especially British Columbia and Alaska, the easternmost state of the US – Maine – has still much to offer in this sense. Besides the beautiful coast going from Portland to the famous Acadia National Park and the border with New Brunswick, the central and northern part of the state are totally wild areas, with few roads and many lakes, forests, wildlife and breathtaking panoramas you can appreciate from the air.

Similarly to the Rockies in the West, the Appalachians constitute an ideal backbone of all states in the North-East of the US. Of course, being far elder than their western counterparts, the Appalachians seem less massive and their peaks are not so high, yet the almost isolated domes of the last mountains of this range in Maine make for very unusual sights.

The wild features of this land, as in other parts of the US and Canada, make it a perfect place for bush flying and related photo opportunities. Determined to explore this part of the country from the air, in a party of three we found a nice company to fly with, with a base in the nice town of Greenville, ME.

The following photographs were taken during our stay there in 2011.

Getting there

We booked with Currier’s Flying Service – website curriersflyingservice.com. The planes of this company are all beautiful floatplanes, and in summer they can be spotted resting on water in a protected cove – named ‘West Cove’ – on the western border of the town of Greenville, the largest town on the shores of Moosehead Lake.

The small nice wooden terminal of the company is clearly indicated and can be found besides the main road (West Street), just before passing a railway bridge leaving from downtown Greenville heading for N.15 and Quebec City.

Sights

We had booked in advance via phone, and we were greeted by Sue, the wife of the owner, Mr. Roger Currier, who is also the pilot. We profited of a short time waiting for Mr. Currier to have a look at his incredible mechanics shop and hangar, which looked like it had come out of a National Geographic’s documentary or a book on open range explorations!

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Shop

Besides an array of radial engines, including one with a fully assembled two-bladed propeller, we could see a hangared Cessna 195 on floats – Mr. Currier owns two of these, we flew on the other white and blue painted one -, a canoe, a historic small truck, and tons of engine parts, propellers, deer antlers, tools and cabinets. Going to the nearby pier, we could see the other aircraft belonging to the company, the Cessna 195 we were to fly on – I had expressly asked for this, due to the extreme rarity of this model on a world scale -, a modern Cessna 180 Skywagon, and a larger and nice De Havilland Beaver, a more common site in the Northwest, as Kenmore Air operates some on a regular timetable even from downtown Seattle.

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Pier

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Beaver

After meeting with Mr. Currier we boarded the 195, with me in the front right seat – I am a pilot, so I’m often offered the first officer’s seat on similar occasions, just in case! This aircraft has only one yoke, which can be shifted to the left or to the right, leaving the not-in-command seat with much room. This and the fact that 195 has a high wing with no struts, similarly to the Centurion and Cardinal models, make this airplane a perfect choice for observation and photography missions. Those in the front seats enjoy a great lateral visibility, but the huge radial engine limits the view to the front, at least on water – things improve a bit in flight.

Furthermore, the two seats in the back are arranged in a saloon configuration, with much legroom and very good, unobstructed visibility to the sides – optimal for photography.

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

We taxied on water to the north for a while and took off to the south, making a left U-turn over Greenville and setting course again to the north. Another seaplane hangar, larger than that of Courier, can be spotted close to the center of Greenville. It used to be the home base of another flying service company, named Folsom, once famous for operating one of the few Douglas DC-3 on floats ever manufactured. Also the hangar of Jack’s Air Services can be spotted nearby.

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Pier

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine

Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Following the eastern shoreline of Moosehead Lake stationing at a 1600 ft above sea level, hence at a convenient zoom-lens distance to the ground, I could take pictures of the many coves and bays, including Sandy Bay, Lily Bay and Spencer Bay. From the photographs, it is clear that soon after leaving Greenville you really get into the wild. Looking east you can see in the distance mount Katahdin, the easternmost peak of the Appalachians.

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Spencer Bay Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Approaching Spencer Bay you get a beautiful close view of the Spencer Mountains and Spencer Pond.

Spencer Pond Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Spencer Pond Mountains Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Spencer Pond Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Further north we reached Lobster Lake, again a wild area.

Lobster Lake Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine

Turning west and then south we moved along the western shore of Moosehead Lake. I faced the sun in this part of the flight, and the plexiglass canopy didn’t help with the light, so the pictures are a bit blue-filtered. The most prominent feature of this second part of the flight was Mount Kineo, with the distinctive knife-cut shape, and Kineo Cove nearby.

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Mount Kineo

Getting closer to Greenville we could spot some beautiful homes with direct access to the water, some with a floatplane moored nearby.

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Mount Kineo

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Touching down on water is not softer than landing on a runway – this was my first time – but the aircraft stops quite more rapidly than on a runway.

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Beaver

After landing Mr. Currier set off for another trip with two couples from Florida on the Beaver, taking off to the north.

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Beaver

Before leaving Greenville we had a stop by the Folsom hangar and by the local general aviation airport, where we found Folsom’s famous DC-3. The plane has been converted to the usual wheeled configuration. Furthermore, it looks damaged, resting in a marked right-banked attitude.

Folsom Hangar

Greenville Douglas DC3 Folsom

The flight took about an hour, a very enjoyable experience I would surely recommend if you are visiting this part of the country!

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Chino Branch, California

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