The National Museum of Science and Technology of La Coruña and the Boeing 747 inside it

Although I am from Vigo and there is a rivalry between both Galician cities, I must admit that La Coruña is a city that I love.

The history of Iberia's Boeing 747, the largest aircraft of a Spanish operator
A nostalgic walk between two huge Boeing 747 planes awaiting their end

In addition to having a very pleasant historic center to walk around, with the Plaza de María Pita as the most prominent place, there you can see such interesting things as the Tower of Hercules (the only maritime lighthouse of Roman origin still in operation), the B-8 Battery of Monte San Pedro (with two enormous 381 mm Vickers cannons), the Menhirs Sculpture Park (located near the aforementioned lighthouse and which is a place that I especially like), and the House of Sciences (whose interesting contents include a splendid planetarium), among many other attractions.

On May 4, 2012, one of the newest museums in the city was inaugurated, the National Museum of Science and Technology (MUNCYT), which has two locations: this one in La Coruña and another in Alcobendas (Madrid). The Coruña museum is located to the west of the city's isthmus, next to the promenade that runs along the city and near the Los Rosales neighborhood. Its headquarters are in the Prisma de Cristal building, designed by Victoria Acebo and Ángel Alonso. Its exterior is shaped like a glass cube and its interior is shaped like a concrete tree.

MUNCYT is dedicated to addressing different topics related to science and technology, for which it includes permanent and temporary exhibitions, recreational activities, etc. Its contents include the assembly of the first particle accelerator in Spain, designed and built by the Nuclear Energy Board around 1957, as well as a wide variety of vehicles, machines and instruments, adding up to more than 15,000 objects.

The largest object at MUNCYT is the front of an Iberia Boeing 747-256BM Jumbo airliner, the "Lope de Vega", registered EC-IAF, as well as one of the Pratt & Wittney JT-9D engines from that plane, which first flew on March 12, 1981.

The "Lope de Vega" was initially operated by Iberia under the registration EC-DLD from 1981 until January 2001, when it was leased to Air Atlanta Icelandic, adopting the Icelandic registration TF-ATM for a few months, until adopting its definitive registration (EC-IAF) on 23 October 2003. It returned to Iberia in October 2003. The rest of the aircraft was scrapped in March 2009, according to Airfleets.es, after being parked for a time at Madrid Barajas Airport.

This Friday, the excellent YouTube channel Fly By Wire Aviation (I highly recommend that you subscribe to it if you are interested in aeronautical topics) published a video showing the Boeing 747 in this museum, thanks to the collaboration of Martín García García and the testimony of former Iberia pilot Ángel Becerra (the video is in Spanish, you can activate automatic English subtitles in the bottom bar of the player):

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Photos: MUNCYT / Xunta de Galicia / Concello da Coruña.