Polish Air Force Museum in Karakow, Early Aircraft

[sharkmouth]

These images (amongst the thousands I have) were taken at the Polish Air Force Museum in Krakow in the Fall of 2002. It was a private tour (it helps to speak Polish) but I could use assistance in identifying the aircraft and if they are replicas. I spent most of my time on the WWII - Modern exhibits and picked the staff's brains for those.


Aviatik C.III (is it a replica?)























































Regards,

[JohnT]

Fabulous place. Just a pity the outside exhibits are rotting away

Very cheap to get in so well worth a visit.

IIRC all the early types are originals that were saved.

Lovely Camel there too

[Flankerman]

When I visited with a group years ago, the then director showed us around.

He told us that the WWI exhibits were ex-Berlin Museum airframes.

Apparently as Berlin started to get bombed in WWII, the airframes were put on railway flatcars and shipped east into Poland for safety - the problem was that the fuselages were on one train - and the wings on another.

The fuselages made it into Poland, but the wings were 'lost' - hence why many of the Krakow exhibits are wingless.

As a humourous aside, we were told that the Grigorovich flying boat was "The only one of its kind in the world".

As we got back on our coach, someone asked what we thought of it....... to which one wag replied - "it was OK, but once you've seen one, you've seen them all".........

Ken

[sharkmouth]

When I visited with a group years ago, the then director showed us around.

He told us that the WWI exhibits were ex-Berlin Museum airframes.

Thank you Ken! Always great to know the provenance of the exhibits.

Regards,

[Jabba]

Fabulous place. Just a pity the outside exhibits are rotting away

Very cheap to get in so well worth a visit.

IIRC all the early types are originals that were saved.

Lovely Camel there too

Went there last year and totally agree with you.