Plane Spotting - At The Swedish Air Force Museum

After our warmer and almost sunny day yesterday, winter returned and it snowed most of today. That was OK because as I said earlier in the week - life carries on as normal in Sweden and no one bats an eyelid at snow!  And we had indoor plans anyway!  

After our morning walkies with Alice (see Extra photo) Elisabet and I went to visit the Swedish Air Force Museum. I had been here once before to specifically see the fascinating exhibit about the Catalina Affair - a Swedish DC-3 that was shot down in 1952 and recovered 50 years later at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Fascinating story.

But today we were back so I could take a longer look at the rest of the museum. The biggest part of the museum showed the development of aviation technology and especially displayed the Swedish military aviation between 1910-1945. There was also an exhibit about animals & war which included spying cats, submarine-hunting seals and land-mine sniffing rats!

The area where we spent most of the time was the exhibit: 'Expecting the Worst – Sweden during the Cold War' - showing the history of the Cold War and how it particularly affected Sweden, militarily and socially, as they prepared for possible war in the 1950s - 1980s. 

The main picture is of two of the aircraft displayed outside of the museum. The top one is a Douglas DC-47 Skytrain - the military version of the civilian Douglas DC-3. The bottom picture is of the French made Caravelle, used as a short and medium-range jet airliner, mostly by European airlines (and United Airlines in the US!) in the 1950s and 60s. This particular Caravelle was taken on by the Swedish Air Force when it was retired by SAS and used for signals intelligence during the Cold War.

For Alice’s version of today, click here.