Items

There are many viewpoints to the items in our collections. They often represent the newest technology of their time. After all, aviation has been in the center of technological development in the past century. The items also act as evidence of past times – war and peace – and of people developing and applying different technologies. The items portray the lives and experiences of individual pilots, other aviation professionals and passengers.

Of all the small items donated and acquired to our collections, only a small part is on display. The rest are waiting for future exhibitions and future generations, ready to contribute their stories to the big picture of Finnish and European history of aviation.

The Museum has a large collection of aircraft motors from the early years of Finnish aviation to jet age, from a rotary Clerget 9B engine of the 1910s to the Marbore jet engine of the 1950s.

The various wooden airplane propellers represent a speciality of the Finnish aircraft industry. The propellers of the 1930s and 1940s were made of Scandinavian wood, mostly wood veneer made of birch or ash.

Many of our airplane parts are from the countless of wartime aircraft wrecks from all around Finland.

Air travel is probably the most familiar form of aviation for the average museum visitor. In the Post-War-Years, air traffic in Europe developed rapidly. The ever-growing airliners enabled the airline companies to carry more and more passengers faster and to further destinations. Nowadays most of us have some experience of flying.

Our collections include uniforms of airline pilots, cabin crew and other airline professionals – part of our common history.