Located at Port Adelaide amongst businesses and near to a railway museum, is the well maintained, steadily growing and very popular South Australian Aviation Museum (SAAM).
The SAAM has a large number of historical and important aircraft and helicopters on display in the hangar, ranging from partial setup/cockpit sections through to fully intact aircraft. The museum members and volunteers have managed to fit a very diverse array of ex-military (warbirds nowadays), civil and general aviation displays into its main building.
In 2016 it is beginning to expand in size as it acquires a ex RAAF DHC-4 Caribou which means a new building needs to be built to house this. Additionally, hopes are that a RAAF AP-3C Orion will join the collection around 2019.
The main aircraft that the public can see on display are –
Macchi MB-326 ex RAAF
Douglas C-47B ex RAAF
Aero Commander 680
DeHavilland DH-100 Vampire FB.31 ex RAAF
DeHavilland DH-112 Sea Venom ex RAN (in storage area)
Supermarine Spitfire Mk Vc ex RAAF
Fokker F-27 Friendship
English Electric Canberra B.2 ex RAF
General Dynamics F-111C ex RAAF
Westland Wessex HAS 31B ex RAN
Gloster Meteor F.8 ex RAAF
Under restoration is the following projects
a Fairey Battle
a English Electric Canberra B.2 nose section
Avro Anson
Cessna CC-1
…..and soon to arrive a DHC-4 Caribou which is coming from storage in Qld (HARS Caribou shown as example)
Assorted other displays covering missiles, flying gear, collections of personal items donated to the museum and other aircraft components are able to be seen by the general public.
If you are interested to visit the SAAM, go to their website to learn more about their collection and operations – http://www.saam.org.au .
Down Under Aviation News 