Aviodrome

The Aviodrome holds the Dutch national aviation collection at Lelystad Airport, moved here from Schiphol in 2003, and it has about a hundred aircraft covering the whole span - early Fokker machines from the period when the Netherlands was a serious aircraft manufacturer, wartime types, the postwar Dutch airline fleet, and a Boeing 747 in KLM colours that visitors walk through, including the cockpit and the cargo deck. The other exhibit is a building: the original Schiphol passenger terminal of 1928, a small brick and glass structure from the era when flying was a handful of passengers a day, dismantled and rebuilt here with the period interior and a Fokker on the apron in front of it. There is a flight simulator, a hangar with restoration in progress, and the working airport alongside, so aircraft movements continue outside.

History

In 1955 KLM, Fokker and other organisations set up a foundation for a national aviation museum. Its first version, the Aeroplanorama, opened at Schiphol in 1960 with seven aircraft; the Aviodome followed in 1971 under a geodesic dome designed by Buckminster Fuller, then the largest in the world, and in 2003 the growing collection moved to Lelystad as the Aviodrome (Wikipedia, Aviodrome).

Highlights

• About a hundred aircraft - Fokkers, wartime types and the postwar airline fleet.
• A walk-through 747 - in KLM colours with the cockpit and cargo deck open.
• The 1928 Schiphol terminal - dismantled and rebuilt here with its interior.
• A working airport alongside - movements continuing outside the hangars.

When to go

All year. A day.

Before you go

Closed some weekdays outside holidays. The 747 walk-through has queues. Restoration hangar access varies. Lelystad Airport is out of town and needs a bus or car.

Nearby

Batavialand is in Lelystad; Oostvaardersplassen is west.

Key facts