Whatever the reason for your stay at our airport — departing, arriving or just transiting — you may use the break to spend your waiting time with art, culture and history.
The Aeronautical Museum — fly through history
CURRENTLY CLOSED FOR RECONSTRUCTION
If, during your stay at our airport, a big round building resembling a strange out-of-space mushroom in the middle of the field caught your eye, do not miss a chance to visit it. This mushroom, with military and civilian aircrafts, radars and other wonders of aviation surrounding it, is the Aeronautical Museum.
A group of enthusiasts founded the Museum in 1957 with War Air Force Command in Zemun while this modern building was built at the end of 1960’s in Surčin.
On May 21, 1989, the Museum was opened to the public with its first permanent exhibition which still attracts the attention of a large number of local and international visitors.
In the 10,700 square meter building, original aircrafts, aircraft engines, aircraft arms, models, as well as numerous items and documents are telling the story of national and international air transport development during the 20th century.
At the very entrance, visitors come across a vintage aircraft from 1910 and a fighter biplane Nieuport, which Serbian pilots flew during the Salonica Front military operations from 1916 to 1918.
Experts believe that the greatest value of the museum collection are fighter planes and fighter-bombers, including specimens of the German Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2 Bf, the English Hawker Hurricane and Spitfire, the Russian Yakovlev Yak-3 and Ilyshin Il-2, the American F-47 Thunderbolt and — the only one of its kind in the world — the Italian Fiat G.50 fighter plane. Together with the local Galeb, Jastreb and Orao, visitors are intrigued by the exhibited parts of the “invisible” US fighter-bomber F-117 and F-16, as well as UAV’s shot down in 1999.
All museum visitors can briefly become pilots in a simulator and experience the controlling of the plane, unfortunately without the adrenaline rush of floating clouds
Flight from Icarus and Daedalus to the space
A mural named “Flight of Icarus and Daedalus to Space” has been decorating the walls of Nikola Tesla Airport Terminal 1 hall for more than five decades and it was done in 1962 by the painter Miloš Bukinac.
The mural represents a decorative wall painting of the mid 20th century and was created using different types of art and industrial paints. The theme is the eternal human desire to fly while the represented motives include Icarus, the first aircraft, paper planes, space ships and modern planes.
In order to restore this painting’s original look and preserve it, a professional team of experts from the Central Institute for Conservation from Belgrade worked on its restoration and conservation from October 30, 2015 to January 25, 2016.
A mural by Zuko Džumhur
The first floor of Terminal 1, in the vicinity of the border crossing, is decorated with a mural made by the painter, caricaturist and travel writer Zuko Džumhur.
The artwork was created over two decades, from 1961 to 1981, with its central theme dedicated to female figures presented by caricature drawings, while landscapes of the city and smaller figures are in the back.
Time had left its mark, so the mural was in poor condition, with a lot of scratches, cracks, writings and mechanical damage until several years ago. The restoration and conservation of this wall painting was done by the members of expert team from the Central Institute for Conservation in Belgrade in 2016.
