Austrian museum of aviation

The Austrian Aviation Museum stands in the south-eastern corner of Graz-Thalerhof Airport in the province of Styria. It opened in 1979 under a private association that collects aircraft from every era, with a special focus on Austrian aviation history. The site includes an outdoor display area, a large hangar, a ticket container and a small shop. The collection began in 1981 with a Musger Mg 19A glider built by Erwin Musger. Today it holds helicopters, autogyros, jet fighters, piston-engined planes and many gliders alongside engines, uniforms, ejection seats, a flight simulator, models, a field bus and aircraft tractors. Some items are kept in restoration and not all can be shown because the hangar space is limited. Among the highlights are the Bell 47 helicopter used by the Austrian armed forces and jets such as the Aermacchi MB-326M Impala, several MiG variants, a Dassault Mirage III S and Swedish Saab Viggen and Draken trainers. Visitors walk past aircraft lined up inside the hangar and on the open ground outside. Engines like the Snecma Atar 09C and Daimler-Benz DB 605 sit beside cockpits and ejection seats. A flight simulator lets people try basic controls, while a museum field bus and a vintage tug show how aircraft were moved on the ground. The surroundings include the working airport apron, giving a sense of active aviation just metres away from the exhibits.