Museo de Aeronáutica y Astronáutica, Aviation and astronautics museum in Cuatro Vientos, Spain.
The Museo de Aeronáutica y Astronáutica is an aviation museum located at a former military airfield near Madrid with multiple large hangars and outdoor display areas. More than 200 aircraft from different periods are scattered across the grounds, ranging from early motorized planes to modern fighter jets.
Colonel Társilo Ugarte Fernández was tasked with planning an aeronautical museum in 1939, but the institution was only created by decree 1437 of 16 June 1966. In 1975 Cuatro Vientos, Spain's first military airfield, was chosen as its site; construction began in late 1979 and the museum opened on 24 May 1981 under Lieutenant-General Emiliano Alfaro Arregui. Two hangars were added in 1993 and further hangars from 2000 onward.
Hangar 1 holds a Sala de Laureados honouring decorated military aviators, alongside flags and standards of air units. The Jesús del Gran Poder, a Breguet 19, crossed the South Atlantic in 1929. Hangar 7 displays over 100 models at 1:10 scale.
The grounds cover 66,938 m² across seven hangars and eight outdoor platforms, so allow several hours and wear walking shoes. Parking, a cloakroom, information point, baby-changing room, adapted toilets, wheelchair loan, shop and café are on site. Hangar 1, reopened in 2019, covers the great long-distance flights of the late 1920s and early 1930s.
The Vilanova Acedo, a Spanish-built version of the Blériot XI, dates from 1911 and is the oldest aircraft kept in Spain. It hangs in Hangar 1 among early Spanish aviation pieces, the Rif War and the great long-distance flights of the late 1920s.
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