Aviodrome

About

The Nationaal Luchtvaart-Themapark Aviodrome (also known simply as Aviodrome) is a large aerospace museum in the Netherlands that has been located on Lelystad Airport since 2003. Previously the museum was located at Schiphol Airport.

In 1955 several organisations, such as the airline KLM and aircraft manufacturer Fokker, initiated a foundation called "Stichting voor het Nationaal Luchtvaartmuseum" with the single goal of creating a national aviation museum.

The first installment of this aviation museum opened its doors in 1960 at Schiphol airport under the name Aeroplanorama and had only seven aircraft on display. It closed its doors in 1967 and a new museum called Aviodome was opened in 1971 at Schiphol. The main building was a large aluminium geodesic dome designed by Buckminster Fuller, the largest in the world at the time, which housed most of the aircraft on display. Hence the 'dome' in the name Aviodome.

Over time, the location became too small for the growing aircraft collection and in 2003 the museum was moved to a new location on Lelystad Airport. The building at Schiphol was demolished and the name was changed to Aviodrome. On the current location, it has five buildings: the main building where most of the aircraft on display are located and where there's a restaurant and a cinema, a replica of the old Schiphol terminal building from 1928 and a hangar for aircraft storage with limited access for visitors, an officer's mess that functions as a restaurant during school vacations, which is also attached to the fifth building which is a hangar housing an exposition on the history of the Jet engine and fighter. Added to the aviation theme were several artifacts from several Dutch space programs, such as the backup flight-article of ANS ( Astronomical Netherlands Satellite ), a mockup of IRAS and the high-speed windtunnel model of the Huygens probe. In doing so the aviation museum became an aerospace museum.

Due to bankruptcy, the museum closed on 25 December 2011, but it reopened on 28 April 2012 after a takeover by the Libéma Group.

Note that not all aircraft listed are currently on display or even present at the museum. The museum also frequently houses or is visited by aircraft that are not owned by the museum.

- Beechcraft D-18, used in the James Bond movie Octopussy

- Cessna 172 (still active for aerial photography)

- De Havilland Canada Beaver (cockpit only)

- 2x De Havilland DH.104 Dove (one complete and one cockpit)

- 2x Douglas DC-2 (one flying, the other in bad state and incomplete)

- 4 x Fokker S-11 instructors (used in airshows)

- 2x Fokker F-27 Friendship (one still airworthy)

- Fokker F-27-050 (F-50 prototype based on F-27)

- Lilienthal Gleitflugzeug (German for glider) replica

- Noorduyn C-64 Norseman (in restoration)

- North American B.25 Mitchell (incomplete)

- 3x Schleicher Ka-4 Rhönlerche (only one in good condition)

- Sud Aviation SE.210 Caravelle (cockpit only)

- Astronomical Netherlands Satellite (backup flight-article)