Hangar-7

Hangar-7 opened in 2003 at Salzburg airport as the home of the Flying Bulls, the historic aircraft collection assembled by Dietrich Mateschitz of Red Bull, in a building by Volkmar Burgstaller - a free-form shell of steel arches and about a thousand curved glass panels, an ellipse a hundred metres long, so the aircraft stand in daylight with the runway visible behind them. The collection includes a Douglas DC-6B that belonged to Tito, a North American B-25 Mitchell, a Chance Vought Corsair, helicopters and aerobatic machines, alongside Formula One cars from the Red Bull team and motorcycles. Entry is free. There is also a restaurant, Ikarus, which since opening has invited a different guest chef each month to run the kitchen, an arrangement no other restaurant has sustained at that length.

History

Hangar-7 was developed by Red Bull's founder Dietrich Mateschitz, who needed more room for the Flying Bulls, his collection and display fleet of historic aircraft. Volkmar Burgstaller designed the wing-shaped building, of 1,200 tons of steel and about 75,000 square feet of glass, the Austrian firm Waagner-Biro engineered and built it, and it was finished in 2003, with a door 40 metres wide so that the largest aircraft, a Douglas DC-6B, could be brought inside (Wikipedia, Hangar-7).

What to look for

• A glass shell of a thousand panels - the hundred-metre ellipse over the collection.
• The Flying Bulls - Tito's DC-6B, a B-25 Mitchell, a Corsair and aerobatic aircraft.
• Formula One machines - Red Bull team cars alongside the aeroplanes.
• A monthly guest chef - the Ikarus kitchen handed to a different chef each month.

When to go

All year; entry is free and it opens daily. Two hours.

What to expect

Aircraft are sometimes away flying or under maintenance, so the display varies. The restaurants book out months ahead and are expensive. It is a corporate showcase and reads as one.

Nearby

Salzburg old town is fifteen minutes by bus; the airport is next door.

Key facts