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Malta Aviation Museum

Florian Buechting Museums & Exhibitions No Comments

Malta Aviation Museum

7 EUR
Malta Aviation Museum
4.1

Rating

 4.1/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Very nice collection
  • Good documentation
  • Former air base

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Remote Location
  • Credit card fees

With Malta being an island, it feels quite obvious that you might expect a rather interesting local history of air traffic. If you are interested in aviation and visit the country, the Malta Aviation Museum is likely on your bucket list. I visited the place during the Easter holidays 2022 and share my thoughts with you.

 

Malta Aviation Museum – Location & Admission

The museum is located in Ta’Qali, an area rather in the center of the main island. The area used to be a Royal Air Force airfield. Nowadays, it is rather well-known due to the National Stadium, which is a direct neighbor of the Malta Aviation Museum. You can easily go there by car. The Maltese bus system works very good as well, though. The bus routes 56, 186 and 202 stop right next to the museum (Stadium stop). Some of the sightseeing bus lines halt in the area as well.

The museum is opening daily from 9:00 to 17:00 in winter months (October to May). In summer, there is a shorter Sunday opening until 13:00 hrs. The adult admission to the museum is 7 Euro. Paying with credit card, the museum added a four per cent charge, which is at least very unusual in my point of view.

 

Malta Aviation Museum – The Visit

Even though the runway as such is no longer existing, the museum is located in three major hangar buildings. The reception and main part of the exhibition is is in the Workshop Hangar, there is the major Main Hangar and the smaller Air Balttle of Malta Memorial Hangar. I felt that the Workshop Hangar was the most comprehensive one as it also featured a lot of models and other items which illustrated the Maltese aviation history. Thi  part of the museum also features some interesting wings like the De Havilland Vampire T11 or a Hawker Sea Hawk FGA.6.

Even though the historic value of the plane might be comparably limited, the Douglas DC-3 is the catch in the largest hangar of the museum. Theere are also some other exhbits like helicopers or the rotocraft Autogiro. Two versions of the Gloster Meteor reminded me of my visit at the excellent Jet Age Museum Gloucester. You can also walk into the cockpit section of a BAC 1-11 in this part of the museum, for example.

The smallest hangar comes with a lot of interesting items explaining the Air Battle over Malta quite nicely. Again, the museum features some nice items in here.

 

Malta Aviation Museum – Services

The reception area features a small souvenir store, toilets are outside the hangars. There are also some additional buildings, like a small self-service cafe hangar and a chapel.

 

Malta Aviation Museum – My View

Unfortunately, the Malta Aviation Museum is a bit of remote (despite its rather central location on the island). It features some really nice exhibits and the documentation of the planes as well as historic background is very well done. It is a very interesting place, which has less visitors than it should have – but the detour might be just a bit too long. Taking explicit credit card fees, even though they are small, is not very guest-friendly.

 

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