Aviation museum

{{Short description|Museum exhibiting history and artifacts of aviation}}

File:AvroCF105ArrowRL206Serial25206.jpg RL 206 in the Canada Aviation Museum.]]

File:ex-British Airways Concorde 216 (G-BOAF) on display at Aerospace Bristol 8August2019 arp.jpg Concorde G-BOAF at the Aerospace Bristol museum, England]]

An aviation museum, air museum, or air and space museum is a museum exhibiting the history and artifacts of aviation. In addition to actual, replica or accurate reproduction aircraft, exhibits can include photographs, maps, models, dioramas, clothing and equipment used by aviators.{{cite web|url = http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/about_us/mission_and_vision/|title = Our Mission and Vision|access-date = 2009-01-12|last = Canada Aviation Museum|author-link = Canada Aviation Museum|date = n.d.|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081227034848/http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/about_us/mission_and_vision/|archive-date = 27 December 2008|url-status = dead}}

Aviation museums vary in size from housing just one or two aircraft to hundreds. They may be owned by national, regional or local governments or be privately owned. Some museums address the history and artifacts of space exploration as well, illustrating the close association between aeronautics and astronautics.

Many aviation museums concentrate on military or civil aviation, or on aviation history of a particular era, such as pioneer aviation or the succeeding "golden age" between the World Wars, aircraft of World War II or a specific type of aviation, such as gliding.

Aviation museums may display their aircraft only on the ground or fly some of them. Museums that do not fly their aircraft may have decided not to do so either because the aircraft are not in condition to fly or because they are considered too rare or valuable. Museums may fly their aircraft in air shows or other aviation related events, accepting the risk that flying them entails.{{cite web|url = http://www.warplane.com/pages/aboutus.html|title = Canadian Warplane Heritage About Us|access-date = 2009-01-12|last = Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum|author-link = Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum|date = n.d.| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081217044426/http://www.warplane.com/pages/aboutus.html| archive-date= 17 December 2008 | url-status= live}}{{cite web|url = http://www.vintagewings.ca/|title = About Vintage Wings of Canada|access-date = 2013-03-24|last = Vintage Wings of Canada|author-link = Vintage Wings of Canada}}

Some museums have sets of periodicals, technical manuals, photographs and personal archives. These are often made available to aviation researchers for use in writing articles or books or to aircraft restoration specialists working on restoring an aircraft.{{cite web|url = http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/collections/library_and_archives/holdings/|title = Library and Archives Holdings|access-date = 2009-01-13|last = Canada Aviation Museum|author-link = Canada Aviation Museum|date = n.d.|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081227072447/http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/collections/library_and_archives/holdings/|archive-date = 27 December 2008|url-status = dead}}[http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk Royal Air Force Museum UK] Retrieved on 2013-03-24.