ABOUT THE MUSEUM

Background:

• 1903 - the first motor plane flight in the human history is performed.  Interest of the Estonian people in aviation matters has been born.
• 1908 – the first aeroclubs and airflight courses are organised in Estonia.
• 1912 – S. Utotshkin performs the first motor plane demo flight in Estonia.
• 1918 – the birth year of the Estonian Air Force.

On the eve of the 2^nd World War the Estonian Air Force  has  65 aircrafts.

After the invasion to Estonia

• the Soviet Military Forces commandeer all Estonian aircrafts, take them to the Soviet Union or demolish them
• any kind of Estonian aviation unit is  abolished and/or liquidated
• in addition to the other 1565 Soviet military objects established on the Estonian territory, the second largest Eastern European military airport is built on the former Tartu Raadi Airfield.
• on this military airfield, at only 2 km distance from Tartu city centre, group take-offs of strategic nuclear bombers, including the notorious Soviet Tu-22M „Backfire“ bombers, take place.
• Tartu, the second largest city of Estonia and an oldest university town in Europe, is declared a closed city to foreigners for the next
  50 years!

Museum:

A symbolic fact - in December 1999  it is Tartu where the Aviation Museum is founded and on June 14, 2002 its first exposition is opened.

The mission of founding the museum is not so much concentrating on the history than providing an aviation-based knowledge to young people interested in this field.

Exposition:

On the three floors of the museum main building's 450m² exposition area, one can see about 400 high-quality models of the aircrafts essential from the point of view of the aviation history.

On the outdoor exposition field there are helicopters Mi-2 (from Polish Air Force) and Mi-8 (from Estonian Border Guard Aviation Group), a propeller-driven "Wilga"-35 (from the Estonian Defence League), a training aircraft TS-11 "Iskra" , an attack-fighter Su-22M4, a fighter
MiG-21 (all three from Polish Air Force), fighters JA Viggen 37, Saab J35J Draken and an attack-fighter Saab J32E Lansen (all three  from Swedish Air Forces Museum) , a fighter Mirage IIIRS (from Swiss Air Force), a fighter MiG-23 MLD, an attack aircraft Su-24, a training aircraft L-39 (all three  from Ukrainian Air Force), a fighter F-104 Starfighter (from Italian Air Force), an attack-fighter Jak-2PP, a passanger aircraft Tu-134A (from AS Tallinn Airport) and An-2P (bought from Latvia).

A new main building with 450m² exposition area, a lecture room and other necessary rooms was opened in May 2007