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National
Aeronautics and Space Museum Santiago Chile
Museo Nacional Aeronautico Y del Espacio
Pcerda 5000
Cerrillos
Santiago - Chile
http://www.museoaeronautico.gob.cl
Open: Tuesday - Sunday 10:00 - 17:00 h
The
Museum is quite easy to reach, being situated at the former Airport of
Cerillos. Many busses leaving from the central station pass the museum in
the Avenida Pedro Aguirre Cerda. When I went there I asked the bus driver
about the museum and he stopped in front of it to let me jump off the bus
even though there was no busstation. You can’t miss it as there are aircraft
standing on the lawns in front of the building.
I
had visited the
museum more than 30 years ago when it was still located in the city. That
time there were only two aircraft on display, the Miles Hawk inside and the
Cessna 195 outside the building.
Today the museum is located at the former los Cerillos airport on a generous
piece of Land, so there is still enough space for further development. The
impressive Museum building houses the biggest part of the collection, but
there are some aircraft on outside displays as well.
Avro 504K Replica (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder)
RAE SE-5A Replica (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Fokker Dr. I Replica (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Fairchild FC-2 (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Modell of the Hindenburg (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder)
De Havilland Dh-90 Gipsy Moth (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Engine De Havilland Dh-90 Gipsy Mot (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Engine Anzani (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Entering the museum you pass underneath an inverted Pitts special of
the Halcones, the Chilean Air Forces aerobatic team that has also displayed
in Europe several times already.
Inside visitors are handed a self guided tour and some information about the
museum which is also available in English.
The tour starts with explaining flight in nature and in mythology and then showing the pioneering ideas and experiments through the ages. The second floor presents the pioneers of Chilean aviation as well as some of the aircraft used for these feats. Also on the second floor is the aeronautical library that is open for visitors. There is also a special exhibition for the blind with special models and writings in braille.
Coming down to the main hall we have many aircraft that played an important role in Chilean history. Without exception all the aircraft are in very good shape while some remain in flying condition. One rare aircraft is the Fairchild FC-2 from which a burnt out skeleton was found in the desert and restored to prime condition. Behind the aircraft on display you see a big picture of how the remains looked like when they were found. Another rarity is a Vought Kingfisher.
The main building also contains an exhibition on space exploration as well as a hall with changing displays that are showing topics of special interests. During my visit there was a model exhibition about the pacific war.
Douglas A-26B Invader (Picture
courtesy Urs Schnyder) 
Aircraft on outside display
Behind the museum there is a big area of lawn that is so far only partly occupied by aircraft on exhibition. So the museum will not run out of space that quickly. Unfortunately not all the aircraft can be accommodated under cover because like everywhere else museums have to compete with other institutions for money.
But as Mr. Guiterrez the museum director told me during the visit, they had offers for their Kingfisher that would have paid for another museum building. But then who wants to sell off the best pieces in one’s collection.
The museum was founded in July 1944 at a time when a lot of other countries were still decades away from starting to preserve their heritage.
If you ever happen to be in Santiago then take your time to visit the
museum. It really is worth it.
My thanks to Mr. Guiterrez and his staff for their help during my visit.
Aircraft not on display
