Polish Aviation Museum

The Aviation Museum in Krakow offers several interesting permanent exhibitions that cover various aspects of aviation history and technology.

• Wings of the Great War: In this Small Hangar of the Polish Aviation Museum you can admire a unique collection of aircraft and artifacts from period of World War I. Exhibits include: the Grigorovich M-15 flying boat, the Halberstadt CL.II fighter plane belonging to General Ernst von Hoeppner and the engine gondola of the downed Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI bomber. All these objects are placed in specially prepared settings, reflecting their historical contexts.

• Wings and People of the 20th Century: The permanent exhibition in the Main Hangar focuses on the history of aviation from the 1920s. until the 1950s. The exhibition features a wide range of aircraft, including fighter, bomber and transport aircraft. The exhibition is complemented by multimedia stations presenting the history of Polish aviation, aviation activities during World War II and the achievements of Polish designers working in exile after the war. 

• History Magazines: The exhibition presents aircraft such as Friedrich Etrich Taube, Levavasseur Antoinette and Messerschmitt Me 209. Scenery exhibition, maintained in the atmosphere of an abandoned railway station, additionally emphasizes the uniqueness and historical importance of the presented aviation monuments.

• Metamuseum: The first part presents the beginnings of the museum in the 1960s and 1970s, where historical prototypes such as the BŻ-4 Żuk helicopter and the LWD Zuch 1 plane. The second part is an exhibition of airplane models, modeling engines and real aircraft machines, placed in a setting resembling a modeling workshop. Here you can see, among others: aircraft models PZL S-4 Kania 3, Jak-12 and structures important for Polish aviation such as PZL.23 Karaś, PZL.38 Wilk and RWD-6.

• Engine room: One ​​of the largest collections of aircraft engines in the world. The exhibition covers the period from 1908 to modern engines used in aviation. The presented designs include British, French, American, Soviet, German and Polish engines, including the famous pre-war PZL Pegaz XX, used, among others, in the Karaś and Łoś bombers.

• Air Archeology: The exhibition focuses on the history of aviation in the context of accidents, disasters and combat losses. The main exhibit is the cleaned wreck and restored parts of the Douglas A-20G Boston bomber, belonging to the Soviet naval aviation. 

• MIG Alley: Outdoor exhibition that presents Cold War jet combat aircraft. There are both machines produced in the USSR and Polish versions built under a Soviet license, which have been operated by the Polish military aviation since the 1950s. The outdoor exhibition also includes training, passenger and transport aircraft, including iconic machines such as the TS-11 Iskra, An-26 and Tu-134A.

• Agricultural aviation: Exhibition dedicated to aircraft used in agriculture. You can see a variety of machines here, such as PZL-106 Kruk, PZL An-2R, PZL M-15 Belphegor and PZL-101 Gawron aircraft. A special attraction is the police PZL Kania and the Mi-8S helicopter, which served as the transport of Pope John Paul II around Poland. 

• Arch Hangar: Presented are representative aircraft from the Cold War period, used by both NATO and the Treaty Warsaw. A metal hangar from that period, transported especially for the Museum in 2004-2005. The exhibition includes such icons as the McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II, a symbol of the Vietnam War, and the first Polish supersonic plane, the MiG-19PM. Another unusual attraction is a 1964 Buick Riviera car.

The Polish Aviation Museum is currently organizing several temporary exhibitions, including:

• „Stanisław Caliński – pilot of the 315th Fighter Squadron”: Exhibition dedicated to the memory of Stanisław Caliński, who died in a combat flight over France on May 20, 1944. The exhibition will be on view until December 31, 2024.

• „Women in Polish aviation”: Exhibition presenting the biographies of outstanding women pilots such as Stefania Wojtulanis-Karpińska, Wanda Modlibowska and Bronisława Kamińska-Dudek. It can be visited until March 8, 2025 in the Main Hangar.