Museum of aviation, Aviation museum in Krumovo, Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian Aviation Museum in Plovdiv houses a large collection of aircraft, helicopters, gliders, and related equipment displayed both indoors and outside. The exhibits span different generations of flight technology, showing how aircraft design and function evolved over time.

The museum opened on 21 September 1991 under Colonel Yorgо Keranov, after four earlier attempts since 1919 failed. It became a branch of the National Museum of Military History, then an independent museum under the Ministry of Defence by a letter of 29 March 1994. Its collection grew from aircraft preserved despite the 1919 Neuilly treaty's scrapping order.

The collection reflects how aviation shaped Bulgaria's development and technical knowledge across different periods. Visitors can observe the traces of this influence throughout the exhibits and understand what flight meant for the nation.

The site has both covered indoor areas and open outdoor spaces where aircraft are displayed, so planning your visit based on weather makes sense. The outdoor sections let you walk around large aircraft and see details from different angles and distances.

The collection includes the descent module of Soyuz 33, the spacecraft that carried Bulgaria's first cosmonaut, Georgi Ivanov, in 1979. It sits among models of aircraft and helicopters flown by the Bulgarian air force, a detail many visitors walk past.