Militair Luchtvaart Museum

Militair Luchtvaart Museum, a visit in Oct.2006

During the weekend of 16th and 17th October 2006 the Militaire Luchtvaart Museum (Militairy Aviation Museum) in Soesterberg, Netherlands opened its doors a little wider than usual, to offer its visitors a look in the workshops where restoration was actively in progress.
Since a restoration of a Lockheed L.12A was mentioned as well, I decided to have a look too.

This was the plane I was after, but I got no further than a photo! The aircraft itself was in storage elsewhere. I felt more than a little disappointed.
The restoration we were allowed to look at concerned the wing, the fuselage had been painted a month before and was locked away in the depot of the museum. pity!

In a request to arrange a visit to the depot on a suitable date (allowing for the fact that due to work I won't be able to visit the Open Depot days in April 2007) I was brushed of with the remark there would be Open days in 2008 too !
Sad to find the fact proven once again that government institutions are less cooperative than commercial ones, who by far are more inclined to work towards a mutual satisfying solution...
Nils Rosengaard sent me a photo in a previous identity: Photos by Friends & Guests.

Here are 3 close ups of the wing in question. Pity I won't be able to record the aircraft in more detail, and by now I am not sure I want to anymore!

Since it had been a few years since my last visit, before my digital era, I decided to overcome my disappointment and revisit the museum; a start with this DC-3 seemed appropriate.

X-5 is a Douglas C-47A, with c/n 20118.
Its previous identites include:
43-15652 (USAF), 31562/T-AN (Royal Norwegian AF), 31562/BW-N, 31562/BW-T, 68-688 (Royal Danish AF) and K-688 (RDanAF).
Its present registration X-5 is fake.

Here is some information about the Douglas DC-3/C-47 when used by the Koninklijke Luchtmacht (Royal Dutch Air Force) from the publication Dutch Military Aviation 1945 / 1978 by Paul A Jackson (published by Midland Counties Publications, 1978)
Douglas C-47 Dakota
Twenty KLu aircraft were in use at various times, from several sources, ZU/codes were used by 334 Sqdn. Four aircraft were transferred to 321 Sqdn MLD in 1960-61.
Final 6 aircraft (X-2, -4 -5 -10 -18 and -19 of 336 Sqdn) were retired in Dec 1962. X-1 believed obtained in dubious manner, coded ZU-1. It crashed on 06Feb53. X-2 (cn20122) was ex PH-TBW of KLM, obtained on loan, written off on 14Nov49 (this serial was reallotted).
Serials X-2 to X-5 were obtained from the Belgian AF in Aug52 and coded ZU-2 to ZU-5. Serilas X-6 to X-17 were former RAF, received Jul/Aug52 and coded ZU-6 to ZU-17; X-8 and X-9 were VIP aircraft.

Lockheed SP-2H Neptune , 201.

Info on the Neptune on Wikipedia.org

Fokker F.27 Troopship, C-10.
It is displayed in the colours in which it demonstrated at many air shows.

Info on the Fokker Friendship on Wikipedia.org

Outside there is a neat display of 'Cold War'-jets...

Dehavilland DH89B Dominie "Gelderland"

Information on Dehavilland Dragon Rapide on Wikipedia.org

Fokker G-1A.

Read more on this type of aircraft on Wikipedia.org

B-25J Mitchell

B-25 on Wikipedia.org

There is a lot of information here, unfortunately visitors from abroad will have to learn Dutch to understand any of it!

The Dutch Naval Air Service (Marine Luchtvaart Dienst -MLD) operated 37 of these giant Dornier Do.24 flying boats. The X-24 was nicknamed "de ouwe lobbes" (sorry, but I find that hard to translate!).
These flying boast were operated in the Dutch East Indies. This Do.24K is a modified (by the museum) Do.24T3. It is on loan from the RAF Hendon museum.
Dornier 24 on Wikipedia.org

Grumman S-2N Tracker, 160

Right: the cockpit of the S-2N

More photos of mine, made during this visit, on my Flickr.com account

External links:
www.militaireluchtvaartmuseum.nl (Dutch)
Paul Nann's Military Aviation website, has a detailed list of the inventory

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