The small Military Aviation Museum at Zeltweg Air Base, in Austria
ESThe Republic of Austria was founded in 1919 after the First World War, but the history of its military aviation dates back to 1893.
It was in that year that the Militar-Aeronautische Anstalt (Military Aeronautical Service) of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was founded, formed with observation balloons. This initial body gave rise to the Luftfahrtruppen (Aviation Troops), an air force smaller than that of Germany but which came to have more than 500 airplanes, which also used the Iron Cross as an emblem (in addition to the Austrian flag). After the Austro-Hungarian defeat in the First World War, the Luftfahrtruppen were dissolved.
The Treaty of Versailles prohibited the Republic of Austria from having its own air forces. However, the Österreichische Luftstreitkräfte (Austrian Air Force) was born in 1927 as a paramilitary organization formed from the Austrian Army and which secretly trained its first pilots, using mainly Italian aircraft.
This first Austrian Air Force was dissolved in 1938 with the annexation of Austria by Germany. After World War II, Austria was divided into four occupation zones (France in the west, the US in the north, the UK in the south and the USSR in the east), with its capital, Vienna, equally divided between the occupiers as Berlin was.
The present Republic of Austria was founded in 1955 as a neutral country, and with it the Austrian Air Force re-emerged, albeit subject to constitutional limitations that prevented it from using missiles (both air-to-air and air-to-surface) on its aircraft until 1990. Because of these limitations, for decades the Austrian Air Force used outdated fighter aircraft. The new Air Force initially used Soviet Yak-11 and Yak-18 training aircraft.
In 1961, Austria purchased its first jet fighter aircraft from Sweden, 15 outdated Saab J-29F Tunnans, which remained in service until 1972. In 1970, Austria purchased 40 Saab 105s to replace the Tunnans, which were used as training and attack aircraft. In 1985, Austria purchased 28 Saab J-35D Draken fighters, which remained in service until 2005. After many years of using outdated fighter aircraft, Austria decided to purchase 18 Eurofighters from Tranche 1 in 2002, an order reduced to 15 aircraft in 2007. There are currently plans to replace these fighters with F-16s or Saab Gripens.
Today, the Austrian Air Force has eight air bases. The Austrian Eurofighters are based at Zeltweg Air Base in the centre of the country. In 2005, a temporary exhibition was created in Hangar 8 of this base (with an area of 5,000 square metres) to mark the 50th anniversary of the Austrian Air Force.
The exhibition was eventually retained and in 2012 was converted into the Militärluftfahrtmuseum Zeltweg (Military Aviation Museum Zeltweg), part of the Vienna Museum of Military History. Today, 25 aircraft from Austria and abroad are on display there. You can check the opening hours and days of the museum here.
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Main photo: Heeresgeschichtliches Museum.
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