Krakow Aviation Museum

Wow, what a lovely looking Ju-52!!!!
The original owners will be sorry someday!

Krakow is a great place…City & Museum.
The older Yak jets are very interesting. Very simple workmanship.

Lucky you! Thanks for sharing some needle sharp pix. Somehow they look more atmospheric when the subjects are neglected.

Just got back from Krakow today. Visited the museum on Monday and it was fantastic. I would definitely recommend it. My daughter and I were shown around by a very helpful and pleasant volunteer called Barthek who asked if I would like to sit in the Spitfire cockpit which I did. I was surprised at the space in it as I thought it would be more cramped. There is also a small cafe there. It is a shame these places are not visited by more people althought there were a few people looking around when we left and what looked like a class of school children. It was our first visit to Poland and we found the Polish people to be warm and friendly. If you want to have a good cheap holiday with aviation thrown in, you could do worse.

Krakow

We visited this museum last year – and that was all due to someone on this forum made a thread about recovering a Mustang at Goulds Farm, Raine, Esssex by the group shown below – My mother was married to the pilot Alex Pietrzak who’s aircraft they recovered and the society were appealing for relatives to contact them – which I did – all credits to this forum and it’s great members.
Many of the small pieces recovered we presented to the museum along with his medals and his log books. They were very impressed as to the standard of restoring these pieces and also regarding the information the Society had discovered about Alex.
The museum is tremendous and the Polish people fantastic, of course we were provided with a private viewing by the directors. There is a great hotel very close by but can not remember the name and was only about £60 to stay the night for a room of 3 – just over the road. Visit the market place as well – I can assure you it is well worth the visit.
The museum in Warsaw is also superb – we were in Poland for a week and loved the place.
I have since joined this society and although I know very little about aviation history they asked me to build the website for them and having never done it before – gave it a go.
Thanks to all of you for starting to make this happen. Enjoy Poland, we did and for sure will visit again soon.
Kelvin
http://www.aircrewremembrancesociety.com/

Thanks to all for your replies and useful tips.
Alan

All being well, I shall be there on monday morning! 😀

Yes, Warsaw.

Mark

We are going there in a few months, on a short trip from Holland. Isn’t there also another museum with a replica B24 inside (in Krakow?) in Poland?

BW Roger

The B24 replica is the the museum of the warsaw uprising (in Warsaw!)… not krakow.

A good collection of first world war airframes which I heard were part of goering’s private collection.

That’s a new one. :p They were from the Berlin Museum, and shipped out just before it was bombed to destruction. (The fuselage loaded train arrived; the one with the wings went awol. If you know where that train is…)

Not Goering’s other than everything that flew in the Third Reich was ‘his’ and not private. The Berlin museum’s been discussed here a few times. One of the great ‘lost’ museums, I’d still pay to see a Dornier DoX.

Regards,

I was there last year and well worth a visit. I seem to remember it was about £1.50 to get in. A good collection of first world war airframes which I heard were part of goering’s private collection. Also plenty of engines as well as every variation of mig you can think of. We got a taxi from the centre of town which cost about £10.

One other bit of info – it’s about ten minutes by tram from Krakow, near the main station. The tram stop is over a little iron footbridge next to the station, as I remember. Tickets available from kiosks, etc. That wing is a good clue (an outer panel from an Li-2?). Have a look at Google Earth for orientation. The museum on the old Krakow airport is just east of the city centre towards Nova Huta. The remains of the airfield are interesting too, with some ruinous concrete hangars of Cold War vintage round the perimeter, and much of the runway still in existence.

Inside one was the remains of the Me-209V1 along with parts of fuselages, wings etc from other aircraft awaiting restoration.

In another hangar they were rebuilding Ernst Udets Curtis Hawk.

The WWI hangar is very interesting – lots of airframes from the Berlin museum that were shipped east during the war.

The Hawk and 209 are also ex-Berlin.

We are going there in a few months, on a short trip from Holland. Isn’t there also another museum with a replica B24 inside (in Krakow?) in Poland?

BW Roger

Definitely worth visiting, I was there a few weeks ago. However rather difficult to find as the local people don’t seem to know that it’s there! Even though I speak some Polish, I walked straight past it from the nearest tram stop! I discovered later that the clue is a wing placed vertically in the woods – the museum entrance is along the nearby road, behind a new housing estate. There are no signs whatsoever!
I will be putting my pictures on the planesandchoppers web site when I have time – it’s a real treasure trove!

When I was there a few years back, our host took us round the back and opened up a few ‘garages’.

Inside one was the remains of the Me-209V1 along with parts of fuselages, wings etc from other aircraft awaiting restoration.

In another hangar they were rebuilding Ernst Udets Curtis Hawk.

The WWI hangar is very interesting – lots of airframes from the Berlin museum that were shipped east during the war.

There is a rare Grigorovich flying boat – the only one in the world, according to our host.

When I asked one of our group what he thought about the Grigorovich, he replied “Nah, not very interesting. Once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all”!:D

It made me chuckle anyway…..

Ken

Definitely worth visiting, I was there a few weeks ago. However rather difficult to find as the local people don’t seem to know that it’s there! Even though I speak some Polish, I walked straight past it from the nearest tram stop! I discovered later that the clue is a wing placed vertically in the woods – the museum entrance is along the nearby road, behind a new housing estate. There are no signs whatsoever!
I will be putting my pictures on the planesandchoppers web site when I have time – it’s a real treasure trove!

Thanks Mark12 and Antoni from what I see well worth a visit.

If you go to this site (It is in English) and select Aviation-walkarounds you will find – walkarounds of some of the exhibits. Much better than the Museum site. I want to make a model of the PWS-26 but still cannot find any photops of the interior.

http://www.polish-aircraftprofile.strefa.pl/

Try here:-

http://forum.planetalk.net/viewtopic.php?t=6345&highlight=krakow

Highly recommended, and could be done in a day from the UK.

Mark