Beijing Aviation Museum

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Beijing Aviation Museum

The Beijing Aviation Museum Affiliated to China Aviation Association, located inside the campus of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, is the first aviation museum in China. It used to be an airplane show room for teaching practice and reference for aircraft structure design.

In March 1985, the show room was turned into an aviation museum. On October 25, 1986, it was opened to the public. The task of the museum is to support the teaching and popularize the scientific and technical knowledge of aviation.

The museum, divided into the indoor and outdoor exhibition areas, occupies a space of 9,700 square meters. The indoor exhibition area consists of two halls, the east and the west, with a total area of 600 square meters, while the outdoor exhibition area occupies a space of 8,500 square meters.

On display in the East Hall are mainly various kinds of aircraft models and photos and the models of jet engines, a Thunderbolt No. 2 air-to-air guided missile and a model of Chinese experimental communication satellite launched in 1984.

Also on display are the photos showing the brief history of the development of the Chinese aviation industry and the actual models of different types of planes manufactured in China. In addition, available in the East Hall is a projection room for playing the videotapes related to scientific and technical knowledge of aviation.

On display in the West Hall are super-light aircrafts, such as one model each of the Bee No. 2, Bee No. 3 and Umbrella Wing No. 5, a model of L-60 light aircraft for multiple uses made in Czech and a Model 6 high-altitude target drone.

For saving space, all these aircrafts are displayed at a higher position or hung in the air for easy watching. Also on display are different models of piston aviation engines, such as the American Model Liter R-1830 and Model Lacomine, different models of jet planes, such as the British Lynn, a kind of centrifugal jet plane, and the Chinese Turbo Jet 6, a kind of axial-flow jet plane. For the audience to have a better understanding of the interior structure, these engines are displayed in cross section. Among the piston engines on display there is a cylinder rotation engine that is rarely seen now.

Also on display in the West Hall is the aerodynamic part, including the smoke wind tunnel and other equipment to demonstrate the flying principles and the flow of the streamline as well as other exhibits such as the plane meters and high-altitude compensation costume.

On display in the outdoor exhibition area are several planes, representing the various aircrafts developed at the different periods of the world aviation history, including the military planes used in World War II, such as the American P-51 Model Wild Horse, P-47 Model Lightning, the P-61 Model Black Widow, an earliest fighter equipped with radar for night use in practical war, Model C-47 (i.e. DC-3) transport plane with the service life of 20 to 30 years and Model AT-6 advanced trainer aircraft. The planes manufactured by the Soviet Union on display are the Model IL-14 transport plane propelled by piston engine propellers, Model BO-2 light plane for multiple uses, Model TU-2 piston bomber that distinguished itself in the liberation of Yijiangshan Island, Model IL-10 pursuit plane, Model LA-9 and LA-11piston engine pursuit planes, Model YAK-11 intermediate trainer aircraft, Model YAK-17 advanced trainer aircraft and Model YAK-18 elementary trainer aircraft.

Also on display in the outdoor exhibition area are the jet pursuit planes manufactured and used in China, such as Model Jian-7 (MIG-21) and Jian-6 (MIG-19) supersonic pursuit planes, and Model MIG-17, MIG-15, and MIG-15 BIS high-subsonic jet pursuit planes. The earlier Model MIG-9 and Jian-7 jet pursuit planes can still do whole-plane transmission demonstration as well as the demonstration of lowering and raising the landing gear and the wing flaps of the reducing plates. Also on display is a Model 147H unmanned reconnaissance plane. The planes on display demonstrate the evolution process of the plane structures and models.

All planes are available from simple wood structure plane covered with cloth at the earlier stage of aviation development to the modern all-metal plane covered with aluminum alloy. Some of the plane structures were well known in the history but are very rarely seen at present, such as the British Model Mosquito twin-engine light bomber with all the body made of wood and the American Model P-61 twin-engine night bomber used in World War II.

Also on display in the outdoor exhibition area are the Model AILE-45 light transport plane made in Czech, the ground-to-air guided missile made in China and the Beijing No. 1 twin-engine light transport plane earliest designed in China.

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