Musée de l'aéronautique navale, Naval Aviation Museum in Rochefort, France.

The Musée de l'aéronautique navale occupies the 3,500 m² Dodin hangar on the site of the former naval air base at Rochefort. Its 35 aircraft, including the Aquilon, the first French Navy jet, and a unique Jaguar M, are displayed alongside 1,500 models and cutaway engines. Outside, a twin-engine propeller aircraft is mounted nose-up on a blue-grey metal frame above a pale stone plinth.

The museum was created in 1988 under the name musée des traditions de l'aéronautique navale at Rochefort. On 1 November 1990 the Association nationale des amis du musée de l'aéronautique navale (ANAMAN) was set up. In 2009 the site, bought by the department, covered more than eleven hectares with a control tower and two hangars, Dodin and St-Trojan, holding the collections over 5,000 m2. A direct access was laid out in 2016.

The museum's name recalls its 1988 origin as the musée des traditions de l'aéronautique navale, before the ANAMAN association was set up on 1 November 1990. Among the aircraft, look for the Jaguar M, a single example, and the Lockheed P2V-7 Neptune, powered by both propellers and jet engines. A collection of 1,500 models at 1/72 scale covers French naval aviation, the Second World War and general aviation.

Visitors should expect guided tours offered on certain days that provide a structured overview of the collection. Opening hours expand during school holidays and summer months, so planning ahead is worthwhile.

The collection includes rare aircraft spanning from early aviation models to planes used in recent conflicts. This range demonstrates how aviation technology transformed dramatically across generations.