On a grassy expanse near Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport, a fleet of vintage planes stands on view, most bearing the logo of Hungary’s now-obsolete Malév national airline. But instead of serving as a graveyard for Soviet-built aircraft long out of service, this remarkable plot is home to Aeropark Budapest, an outdoor museum that showcases decades of aviation history from Hungary’s communist era, when air travel was not widely available to ordinary citizens. The museum welcomes visitors at a new location where they reopened earlier this year. From November, opening hours are limited to weekends and special occasions. In summer, Aeropark operates daily.
From the museum’s oldest piece, a well-preserved Lisunov-type passenger plane from the 1950s to Malév’s biggest Russian-made Tupolev, the graceful relics on display span five generations of corporate airline design. The winged attractions even include a small-sized plane that Aeropark purchased from a McDonald’s parking lot, a willing birthday party host now also part of the Malév fleet, logo and all. All its stablemates otherwise soared through Hungarian airspace.
Walking between the heritage craft, visitors can ascend Malév's historic mobile airstair to climb aboard one of the company’s cargo planes. Once used for transferring poultry products to North Africa, now the IL-18 type turboprop behemoth houses Aeropark’s indoor exhibition of stewardess uniforms and other Malév relics, including on-board catering utensils, travel bags and model planes enhanced with the airline’s Soviet and Western designs. Inside the cockpit, you can observe the masses of mechanical flight instruments, including a vintage yoke and the Morse telegraph, used by the radio operator crew member during the journey.
This is not the only relic that museum visitors can explore inside and out. The former Malév TU-134 has a glazed nose cone, where anyone can crawl in through the plane’s cockpit. Used by the Hungarian airline from 1969 through 1987, the aircraft featured this foremost compartment as the seat of the on-board navigator. Usually three Aeropark craft are open to visitors but upon request museum staff can unlock other planes considered safe to board.
While Aeropark strives to look after this heritage fleet, bathing the planes in attractive illumination after dark, not all pieces are in immaculate condition. Also part of the collection, a dilapidated helicopter can only be viewed from outside while it's under renovation. Museum management arranges its budget to keep all of the exhibited items in tip-top condition but maintaining an aircraft is a costly business. Visitors may come across a team of aviation aficionados, volunteer Aeropark workers who help keep the museum fleet spruce.
Besides the winged artifacts, additional amenities include a Cessna 172 flight simulator, free to try out at weekends. A gift shop includes on-board Malév catering utensils, a jigsaw featuring the historic Magyar airline and a collection of model aircraft from international carriers such as Emirates and Lufthansa. Aeropark also has a fleet of antiquated vehicles that once crossed the tarmac, including ground support equipment and an Ikarus articulated bus. These rolling relics go on show in high season and on special occasions.
While the Aeropark fleet has been kept within the limits of space and budget, the museum is newly complete with a monumental display set up just outside. An 11-meter-high Vertical Stabilizer of a Boeing 767 welcomes visitors at the entrance, perched atop an oversized concrete base.
If you want to learn more about this unique exhibition, English-language guided tours are available for groups with advance booking, while Aeropark staff are happy to provide individual visitors with information and answer questions in English. Bilingual English- and Hungarian-language information boards are set up around the museum, displaying the history of each aircraft, alongside its parameters.
Admission is 1,900 forints, 900 forints for seniors and students.
Getting there: take metro line 3 to its Kőbánya-Kispest terminus and change to bus line 200E to Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport. Once the bus reaches terminal 2 of the airport, stay aboard and get off at the first stop of the return journey, Repülőmúzeum. Aeropark is a five-minute walk – follow the paved path and signboards. Museum visitors arriving by car can park free of charge at the Aeropark lot.
Opening hours: from the last weekend of March through the last weekend of October, the museum is open Monday to Sunday 9am-6pm (June-August, Friday to Sunday, the museum runs until 8pm); after the last weekend of October and before the last weekend of March, the museum is open on Saturdays and Sundays 10am-4pm.
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