Dutch National Military Museum To Open This Week

So what has happened to the aircraft that they don’t have room for, but were on display at the old site?

They are almost all (if not all) in indoor storage on-site.

Granted, there are a lot less airplanes displayed than at the old museum, and as an enthusiast I am less than happy about that. On the plus side a lot more of the larger airframes will be under cover (some in storage), and the location is a lot more appropriate than the old one (it being the oldest military airfield in the country).

So what has happened to the aircraft that they don’t have room for, but were on display at the old site?

I thought I remembered seeing a P-3 during an Open Depot Day back in 2011, but could be mistaken. If so, thanks for the correction.

Bob

It looks like I got the idea there would be a P-3 from an architect’s concept photo. My apologies.

http://www.cgarchitect.com/2012/05/nationaal-militair-museum-soesterberg-nl

Much better than the pokey old building they used to have

Stirring up trouble :dev2:
As far as they are concerned the National Military Museum is a step backwards.
Apparently there is less room now to display aircraft, and the storage area has now also become rather limited.

I’d say part of this is the old discussion of collection versus experience. Aircraft enthousiasts are happy to see a shed crammed full with aircraft, but these are just a handful of the visitors. Other visitors tend to want to see educational entertainment, which takes up money and space, leaving less room for hardcore collection but make the museum a lot more interesting to the general public. At NMM I am hoping to see a good mix of the two. Then there’s also the issue of combining several museum collections under one roof, which has less floor space than the combined collections used to have. This means choices have to be made what to display and what to keep in storage.

Granted, there are a lot less airplanes displayed than at the old museum, and as an enthousiast I am less than happy about that. On the plus side a lot more of the larger airframes will be under cover (some in storage), and the location is a lot more appropriate than the old one (it being the oldest military airfield in the country).

Is there going to be a library or archive at the museum for research purposes?

I think there will be an archive onsite; when I attended a volunteers day last year they were looking for folks to work as museumdocent.

Stirring up trouble :dev2:

There is no P-3 Orion at Soesterberg (yet).

And indeed, those hanging aircraft have caused some controversy among Dutch enthusiasts.

As far as they are concerned the National Military Museum is a step backwards.
Apparently there is less room now to display aircraft, and the storage area has now also become rather limited.

I thought I remembered seeing a P-3 during an Open Depot Day back in 2011, but could be mistaken. If so, thanks for the correction.

I agree, there are probably fewer aircraft on display than in the old museum. We will all probably miss favorites; I didn’t see the F-86 or F-86K in the flybys. But the display halls at the old Militaire Luchtvaartmuseum were dark and very crowded. The aircraft on display in the new building (even though hanging) will be much more visible and accessible than the old halls (I hope).

The preview video looks good; I’m looking forward to seeing the real thing in a couple weeks.

Hope to see you there!

Bob

Stirring up trouble :dev2:

There is no P-3 Orion at Soesterberg (yet).

And indeed, those hanging aircraft have caused some controversy among Dutch enthusiasts.

As far as they are concerned the National Military Museum is a step backwards.
Apparently there is less room now to display aircraft, and the storage area has now also become rather limited.

Is there going to be a library or archive at the museum for research purposes?

Interesting how there is not a mention of hanging aircraft yet…

Trouble-maker!

For those interested in Maritime Patrol Aviation, the NMM collection includes a Do-24, PBY-5A, P2V, P-3, S-2 and an Atlantique. I don’t know whether all of these made into the displays.

Interesting how there is not a mention of hanging aircraft yet…

Looks very impressive and pleasing to see the mix of equipment from the various fighting services.

We in Britain, in our military museums, tend to separate almost completely the equipment of the three principal fighting services. RAFM Cosford’s ‘Cold War Building’ has gone partway towards a mix but the exhibits aren’t really set up in context they are just there as, well, museum exhibits.

For some time I’ve thought that the IWM has the opportunity at Duxford to mix the land forces and air forces into time zones – a hangar full of WW1 field guns/artillery, aeroplanes, tanks, replica trenches, etc. WW2 would need, perhaps, the superhangar with a greater choice of exhibits and wider geographical representation to contend with.

Ah well I dream on…..

Roger Smith (would-be museum designer!)

Looks great on the video tour.

Is this where the recovered wreckage of F-104G D-8337 from the Otterburn Ranges will be ending up? I understood it was recovered a couple of years ago with the intention to go on display somewhere in the Netherlands?

Regards

Simon

Excellent design and layout. Daylight all round and large aircraft sheltered. Perhaps how it should have been done
at Duxford in the Land Warfare museum site? I wonder how it was funded?
mmitch.

What an amazing museum – I hope some of our Museum people are beating a path to your doors to see how it should be done. Simple but extremely elegant and I think the overhanging roof for the large aircraft on outside display is a masterstroke. If only some of our HLF funded defence museum buildings had been this good. The new visitor centre at Stonehenge has the same feel.