Toutes les Machines du Monde
Aviation Museums in Britain, America, Australia, New Zealand
Click on the photo for each museum to visit our photo page for that museum
Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre, Marlborough, New Zealand ★★★★★
This amazing place on the South Island of New Zealand shares the incredible collection of WWI airplanes put together by the famed film director Peter Jackson. As you will see in the photos, not only are the planes themselves worthy of any museum in the world, the manner in which they are displayed goes well beyond the norm. The lifelike mannequins and scenes not only show the planes to excellent advantage, but help create a sense of time and place that really cannot be matched. If you have a list of aviation museums you’d really like to see, this one has to be on it. The museum space is shared with a separate WWII exhibit, the photos of which we will post soon.
National Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola, Florida ★★★★★
A great place to spend a day or two exploring the US Navy’s collection of historic war planes. A huge facility with both indoor and outdoor displays of aircraft and excellent lighting of the exhibits. Lots of interesting displays and plenty of room to roam. This is our favorite of the US aviation museums we've visited and we have been there several times. Our most recent visit was in the fall of 2015 and the pictures on this page are from that visit.
National Air & Space Museum, Udvar-Hazy Center, Washington D.C. ★★★★★
This is the relatively new annex to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum on the Mall in Washington D.C. It was built to house some of the enormous overflow from the collection that could not fit in the original space. It is a wonderful spot to visit, with lots of interesting exhibits including the Enola Gay from WWII and one of the space shuttles. We’ve visited twice, most recently in early 2020, and our photos are from this most recent visit. Entry to the museum is free although there is a charge for parking.
Temora Aviation Museum ★★★★★
Temora, New South Wales, Australia
This is a lovely spot. Temora was the home of No. 10 Elementary Flying School, one of the RAAFs major pilot training centers during WWII. The museum occupies the original aerodrome facility, including one of the original buildings, now used as the Visitor Center. The museum appears to be a first class operation with a paid staff of fifteen and many volunteers. The collection is small, but the planes are beautiful and all are maintained in flying condition. The museum space is large and well decorated, though the lighting could be better for photography. The maintenance shop is visible from a loft perspective so the planes undergoing overhaul can be seen. Monthly flying days are a feature of the program and we made a return visit to experience one, which was a real treat. In alternate years, Temora hosts the annual War Birds Downunder event, sharing the honor with the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre shown above. A really nice museum in a beautiful part of Australia. Not to be missed.
The Imperial War Museum, Duxford, England ★★★★
www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-duxford
There are five Imperial War Museums in England. This site is located on a retired bomber base near Cambridge and, while not actually a Royal Air Force museum, it is the only IWM site that focuses on aircraft. We drove by one day and noted a sign for an air show to be held over the weekend so we arranged to return to see the show and the aircraft displays. The museum visit was well worthwhile and the air show itself was great fun. Admission is free.
The Royal Air Force Museum London, Hendon, England ★★★★
The Royal Air Force has two main museums in England. This one, located in Hendon in northwest London, focuses on the Battle of Britain, though other periods are displayed as well. The other location, at Cosford, specializes on the Cold War period. We visited Cosford earlier this year and will post photos soon. The Hendon museum makes for a wonderful visit, with many planes on display in four roomy hangers. My only negative comment would be that three of the four display areas are quite dark for photographic purposes, particularly the main Battle of Britain display where it seems an attempt is made to darken the entire area to resemble a night time scene during the blitz. Despite this one caveat, the museum is well worth the visit. The WWI display was undergoing renovation at the time of our visit in 2014. Admission is free.
The Royal Air Force Museum Cosford, England ★★★★
This is the second of the two main Royal Air Force museums in England. This one, located in Cosford in the Midlands northwest of Birmingham. Its focus is on the Cold War period, but no RAF museum can ignore the WWII Battle of Britain, which is also represented. The museum is housed in a modern facility and though everything is a bit crowded, good information displays are provided and the history of the cold war is told well. The huge bombers and many missles on display are actually a bit frightening as they recall the time when a nuclear holocaust was likely. Perhaps not as special a place as either Duxford or Hendon, this is still a pretty cool place to visit. Admission is free with a nominal charge for parking.
Air Force Museum of New Zealand ★★★★
Wigram AFB, Christchurch, New Zealand
http://www.airforcemuseum.co.nz/
This is the official museum of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Housed in a very nice purpose built building on the grounds of Wigram Air Force Base in Christchurch on the South Island, the collection is wide ranging and nicely presented. The museum covers air craft from WWI to Viet Nam and even more recent conflicts. Lighting is good and there are many special exhibits and well done story boards on many subjects. Together with the aviation display at MOTAT up in Auckland, this museum does good work in representing the efforts of the men and women who have served in the New Zealand Air Force.
MOTAT, the Museum of Transport & Technology ★★★★
Auckland, New Zealand
This complex of museum spaces in Auckland provides something of interest for everyone. It is also located in a fairground type space with parks and play areas that make it a great place for a day out for the family. We limited our visit to the Aviation Museum, which especially focuses on the contribution made by New Zealanders to the air war effort in WWII. Excellent displays of aircraft and other equipment and memorabilia are combined with audio visual display areas featuring testimonials by veterans of that war. These were very well done and quite moving. An excellent museum.
War Eagles Museum, El Paso Texas ★★★★
www.war-eagles-air-museum.com/
Another fine airplane museum that is well worth a stop if you are passing through El Paso. We first visited here in 2002, but returned again in 2014 so we could get some digital photos to share with you. This is a wonderful privately funded collection of not only airplanes, but period automobiles as well. It’s a bit crowded as the collection continues to grow, but everything is lovingly maintained and many of the planes and cars are in flying/driving condition. Actually located at the airport in nearby Santa Teresa, New Mexico, it is most easily reached from El Paso.
Dakota Territories Air Museum, Minot, North Dakota ★★★★
www.dakotaterritoryairmuseum.com
This museum was a real surprise to me. No offense intended of course, but Minot, North Dakota? Finding this gem was a real treat. It is a very well run and maintained medium sized aviation museum with an extraordinary collection of WWII planes to complement an excellent gathering of civilian aircraft, with each group housed in a separate building. From a replica Wright Flier built for the centennial celebration in 2003, to a collection of as yet unrestored fire engines in the restoration room, through an interesting collection of civilian aircraft, the exhibits extend to a wonderful collection of WWII War Birds. While the undoubted star of the show is the recently restored P-51 Mustang shown above (one of three P-51s in the collection), to me the most impressive aircraft on the premises was something else altogether. While visiting England, I have been fortunate enough to visit each of the two RAF museums, the one Imperial War Museum that is devoted to aircraft, and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight hanger, where planes are maintained to fly in air shows. Photos of each of these museums can be seen on this website. From that experience I can state that being able to view an actual WWII combat experienced Spitfire is rare indeed; yet there is one to see here in North Dakota. Amazing. I highly recommend a visit to this museum.
WAAAM - Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum, Hood River, Oregon ★★★★
What a nice museum this is. Located along the Columbia River in somewhat out of the way Hood River, Oregon, the museum is quite large and packed to the gills with both planes and cars, with a few motorcycles added to the mix as well. The museum was opened in 2006 and has had hangar space added on twice since then. Nonetheless, the only possible criticism of the museum, and I offer it only as an observation, is that the collection seems to be growing faster than the exhibition space and the result is that the museum is rather more crowded than a visitor might prefer. The museum’s website claims that this is one of the largest collections of still flying and driving antique planes and automobiles in the country. It is also a very active operation with a large cadre of volunteers. All or nearly all of the machines are in flying or driving condition and on the Second Saturday of each month the museum hosts Fly In - Drive In days filled with activities for all. The planes are all civilian rather than military, and I have to say that both the planes and cars appear to be very well maintained. Allow plenty of time for your visit and by all means try to time it for one of the events so you can see these beauties in action. I have listed this museum in both the Aviation and Automotive sections of this website.
Erickson Aircraft Collection ★★★★
This is one of the more focused collections you will find in that it is almost exclusively made up of WWII military aircraft. A single 1930s Stearman biplane used as a training aircraft and a single early jet fighter from the post war period are the only exceptions. Pride of place probably goes to the beautiful B-17 Flying Fortress, said to be one of only ten such planes left in the world in flying condition. Other planes of particular note are a B-25 Mitchell bomber and a P-38 twin engined fighter, both of which appear to be in fully restored condition. All or nearly all of the planes are in flying condition and seem to get quite a lot of flying time. The site housing the collection is a large hanger located in Madras, Oregon and it gives every appearance that it is a working environment, with planes moving in and out regularly. Altogether a good experience for the enthusiast with attractive planes, very good information panels and a light smell of fuel and oil in the air.
National Museum of the US Air Force, Dayton Ohio ★★★★
Another must see for aviation buffs, although we find the naval aviation museum at Pensacola to be more interesting. As with the naval museum, there are many informational displays and separate exhibits for a variety of separate theaters of war such as the Pacific and European war zones. Unfortunately, this museum is very dark inside and thus is a difficult place to photograph. We have visited Dayton twice, in 2006 and again in 2021, and photos from both visits are shown here. It is worthy of a third visit and perhaps we will be able to do that in the future.
Croydon Aviation Heritage Centre, Mandeville, New Zealand ★★★
http://www.croydonaviation.co.nz
This small but beautiful museum has been around for a long time. It is known for its primarily DeHaviland collection and all the planes are said to be in flying condition. The hanger is rather crowded for optimum viewing and on a sunny day such as the one when we visited the light coming in the open hangar doors can be overly bright, making photography difficult. Still well worth the visit. The countryside around Mandeville is lovely as well.
Battle of Britain Memorial, Capel-le-Ferne, England ★★★
www.battleofbritainmemorial.org/the-memorial/
Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, Lincolnshire, England ★★★
The Battle of Britain is an important historical milestone to all of Britain and there is no shortage of remembrances in varying forms throughout the country; these are just two of them. The Memorial Flight is an organization that maintains aircraft of the type used in the Battle in flying condition and displays them at airshows around the country. The memorial on the Dover cliffs at Capel-le-Ferne is the National Memorial to those who gave their lives in the Battle of Britain. We have shared a few photos from each of them here.
Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum ★★★
Best known as the permanent, or at least current, home of Howard Hughes renowned Spruce Goose, the largest wooden airplane ever built, this is a large and clearly well funded museum and waterpark complex. It is also a rather pricey place to visit with adult admission of $22 at the time of our visit in 2023. In all honesty, we travel in the western US quite a lot and I’ve passed on visiting Evergreen several times over the years due to its cost and what I believed would be a less than stellar experience. Eventually I decided that I needed to include the museum on this website so here is my report. As you will see from the photos the most interesting thing about Evergreen is indeed the chance to see the immense size of the Spruce Goose. Even in the large purpose built exhibition space it is nearly impossible to really appreciate the plane's size other than seeing how it dwarfs all the other planes on display. In addition to the Goose, there are some interesting civilian and military planes also in the collection and there are many well presented information panels to be seen. There is also a separate Space display in another building, but I felt that this was quite rudimentary and was notably cluttered and seeming to lack good maintenance and organization. Much of the space in this section was given over to jet aircraft, so despite the presence of some interesting information panels, in my opinion it is more of an extension of the aviation museum rather than an actual Space display. All told the Evergreen Museum does not rate very highly in my opinion, being more of an ‘attraction’ than a serious museum.
Western Development Museum, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada ★★★
There are four branches of the Museum of Western Development in Saskatchewan. The one located in the prairie town of Moose Jaw is the one designated as the Transportation Museum. It houses a large and eclectic display of old cars, trucks, planes, trains and agricultural equipment that factored into the history of the development of the province. As you will see from the photos, the variety of machines is extensive, and while the vehicles displayed are not all in prime condition, for a rural publicly funded museum there is much of interest to be found. The printed information on the vehicles is extensive and very nicely done. Moose Jaw is a charming place and if you find yourself in Saskatchewan you will want to visit it. When you do, allot a couple of hours to the WDM; you’ll have a good time.
Wright Brothers National Memorial, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina ★★★
Site of the first heavier than air flight in 1903. A small but attractive visitor’s center that was built for the centenary in 2003 includes a reconstruction of the Wright Flier, films and artifacts, and the preserved site of the flights is just outside. This is an effective but very low key memorial to the historic first flight and the Outer Banks are a great place to visit.
Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada ★★
This is a museum to be visited primarily for the memorial aspect of remembering a time and place where thousands of young men and women were trained to be sent off to war. As in the US, early in WWII flight training facilities and programs had to be established to quickly teach young pilots and maintenance people for the war effort. Britain and the Commonwealth countries of Canada, Australia and New Zealand agreed to establish these centers in central Canada and some 230 such locations were active during the war. 175,000 students went through the programs, 17,000 of whom were women. Hangar No 1 here at the Brandon, Manitoba airfield, which was built early in the war and was used as a training center, opened as the museum for the CATP program in 1981. About half of the planes on display are in flying condition.
Tillamook Air Museum, Tillamook, Oregon ★★
You can see this museum from the highway, which is how we found it. Housed in an enormous WWII blimp hanger, it’s a unique spot. Funky and small but still interesting and well organized, with a varying collection of aircraft on display. The collection is no longer as interesting as it was in times past because TAM used to be the home of the Erickson Collection, which in 2016 was relocated to its own home in Madras Oregon. The enormous hangar building is a big part of the reason to visit TAM, which we did again in 2021 when we took these photos. Stop by here on your way to the cheese factory next time you’re on the Oregon coast.
