The seven spectacular aviation museums every plane buff must visit

Duxford Imperial War Museum is home to Britain’s best-preserved Second World War airfield - Kumar Sriskandan/Alamy Stock Photo

Indulging your inner aviation obsessive by plane spotting from your living room window – or, better still, booking a seat aboard one of the few splendidly antiquated aircraft still flying – is all well and good, but nothing compares to getting up close and personal with a true legend of the skies, lovingly cared for and surrounded by its peers.

Some aviation museums are, of course, better realised than others – but the ones which do it best offer an unparalleled opportunity to immerse yourself in the glorious history of air travel, from the earliest iterations and wartime greats, to the pioneers of passenger jets. There are seven truly magnificent institutions which demand a visit from anyone claiming to call themselves a plane buff, however. These are they.

Imperial War Museum and American Air Museum

Duxford, UK

The Imperial War Museum’s Hangar 1 houses a Concorde, an Avro Vulcan and a Handley Page Victor, among some other impressive models - aviafoto / Alamy Stock Photo

The East of England is full of British aviation history, and the flat lands at the edge of the Cambridgeshire Fens at Duxford are no exception. Duxford Aerodrome was operated by the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War and played a role in the Battle of Britain during the Second World War. USAF fighter units based there supported the daylight bombing of Germany.

The site, handed over to the museum in 1976, is home to Britain’s best-preserved Second World War airfield – historic aircraft can routinely be seen taking off – and the most complete collection of military aircraft. Of the 200 or so planes on display, must-sees include the B-17 Flying Fortress, Consolidated B-24M Liberator, B-52D Stratofortress and SR-71 Blackbird in the American Air Museum, “a memorial to the 30,000 members of the US Army Air Forces who died while flying from Britain”. Hangar 1 houses a Concorde, Avro Vulcan, Handley Page Victor and Short Sunderland. Hanger 4 has two Hurricanes, a Spitfire and a crash-landed Messerschmitt.

National Museum of the US Air Force

Dayton, Ohio, USA

The US Government takes its military hardware seriously, and in the Land of Big it should come as no surprise that the national USAF showcase – located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio – is the world’s largest military aviation museum. More than 350 aerospace vehicles and missiles are on display across 20 indoor acres 10 and outdoor park areas – many of them rare and several that are one-offs – along with thousands of historical items.

Star exhibits include the restored B17F Memphis Belle, The Swoose (the oldest surviving B-17 Flying Fortress), B29 Superfortress Bockscar (which dropped the Nagasaki atomic bomb), the first Air Force One (used from Kennedy to Clinton), and a rare Soviet MiG-25 (on display until March 2026). Air Force art, aviator jackets and service flags fill out the story and – for lovers of projectiles – there are a couple of Minuteman missiles, as well as satellites and rockets. The Wright Brothers perfected the Wright Flyer III at Huffman Prairie in Dayton. It’s known as the “Birthplace of Aviation” and six separate sites are found here under the banner of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.

Military History Museum of the Armed Forces

Berlin-Gatow airfield, Germany

A Heinkel HE 111 in Hangar 3 at the Military History Museum in Gatow - imageBROKER.com/Alamy Stock Photo

Berlin is a feast for fans of flugzeugs, with the old Tempelhof airfield open to the public and the German Museum of Technology hosting the exhibition “From Ballooning to the Berlin Airlift”. The museum occupies a former Luftwaffe and Royal Air Force airfield, RAF Gatow. The focus is on military history, particularly the history of the post-war Luftwaffe, with 155 aircraft on display amid a mind-boggling 200,000 items, including 5,000 uniforms and 30,000 books.

Highlights range from Second World War-era fighters and bombers to a comprehensive collection of Cold War jets from both East and West Germany. Hangar 3 goes back to the beginnings with late 19th century air and ground support equipment and a replica Fokker Dr.I., triplane fighter. Hangar 7 explores the postwar Luftwaffe since, and even covers German air traffic control. There’s also a Douglas C-47B transport aircraft (formerly of the Royal Australian Airforce), a replica of a Farman III biplane and a pressure suit worn by East German fighter pilot and cosmonaut Sigmund Jähn. Unmanned craft are represented and the RAF era is covered through an English Electric Lightning F.2A and three Hawker jets.

National Air and Space Museum of France

Paris, France

The National Air and Space Museum of France was founded in 1919, making it one of the world’s oldest collections - Edwin Remsberg/Alamy Stock Photo

Located at the historic Paris–Le Bourget Airport, France’s pre-eminent aviation museum was founded back in 1919, making it one of the world’s oldest collections. Among the 150-plus aircraft, vintage highlights include a 19th century airship basket and an early Pescara helicopter. On the tarmac are a Boeing 747 and Airbus A380, while a Douglas C47-Dakota lords it over the WWII Hall.

There are aviation-related artworks and posters, and detailed exhibits on the history of flight and space exploration. A dedicated Concorde Hall contains a Concorde F-BTSD Sierra Delta and Concorde F-WTSS Prototype. A planetarium and interactive displays make it a great family option and the museum’s proximity to Charles de Gaulle Airport makes it easy to get to.

Afonsos Air Base

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Brazil, with its vast, roadless interior, was the dominant pioneer in South America’s aviation story - A.PAES / Alamy Stock Photo

Brazil, with its vast, roadless interior, was the dominant pioneer in South America’s aviation story, and today belongs to the small, exclusive club of nations that manufacture large aircraft; several Embraer planes are on display as well as less well-known aircraft such as the Aerotec T-23 Uirapuru military trainer and a very early Santos Dumont 14-bis biplane.

Aviation Heritage Museum

Bull Creek, Perth, Australia

An Avro Lancaster bomber on display at the Aviation Heritage Museum in Perth - David Steele/Alamy Stock Photo

Australia loves its planes and has lots of good regional aviation museums. Choosing the best is tricky, and Queensland Air Museum (which is very strong on Aussie aviation) and Temora Aviation Museum (specialising in ex-military planes) in New South Wales are popular with local aviation fans as well as travelling plane-spotters.

Perth’s Aviation Heritage Museum is, though, arguably the most diverse collection and most fun single museum, housing military and civilian aircraft, aircraft replicas and aircraft engines. There’s a big Avro Lancaster, a de Havilland DH100 Vampire T.35A, a Consolidated PBY 5A Catalina, a Mk20 Canberra – built under licence at Fishermen’s Bend, Victoria – and an NSW-built DH.82A RAAF Tiger Moth that entered service in 1940 and was later used as a crop-sprayer.

Pima Air and Space Museum

Tucson, Arizona, USA

The Pima collection boasts nearly 400 aircraft spread out over 80 acres of dusty edgelands near Tucson - Rosanne Tackaberry/Alamy Stock Photo

One of the largest non-government funded aviation and space museums in the world, the Pima collection boasts nearly 400 aircraft spread out over 80 acres of dry, dusty edgelands near Tucson. Star exhibits include an Aero Spacelines 377G Super Guppy (which looks like a massive white manatee), a Wright Flyer biplane built by the Wright Brothers and flown four times in 1903, a Martin Mars flying boat, plus several Soviet-era MiGs and Japanese Nakajimas.

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