Source: General Directorate of Civil Aviation of Chile

  • It was created as a cultural organization, with the purpose of being in charge of the protection and promotion of the aeronautical heritage of Chile
  • The National Aeronautical and Space Museum is part of the General Directorate of Civil Aviatiation of Chile.

In the premises of the old War Academy of the Chilean Air Force, in July 1944, the Aviation Museum was inaugurated with only ten heritage objects: the propeller of the Bleriot XI “Manuel Rodríguez”, airplane of the first martyr of Chilean military aviation, Lieutenant Francisco Mery and the record sheet of the crossing of the Andes mountain range written by Lieutenant Dagoberto Godoy, on December 12, 1918, among other important pieces.

After nearly fifty years of operation, on December 12, 1992, the current premises in Los Cerrillos district of the Chilean capital city of Santiago were opened to the general public. Thanks to the efforts of the Commander in Chief of the Air Force of the time, General of the Air, Fernando Matthei Aubel and the Director of the museum, Colonel of Aviation (A), Mario Jahn Barrera, today we can enjoy a space dedicated entirely to the dissemination of the aeronautical historical heritage and that is recognized nationally and internationally.

The Aeronautical Museum is the only one of its kind in the country and it houses and exhibits a collection of more than 90 aircraft that make up an important part of the national aeronautical history, tangible witnesses of the development of the South American nation and important feats of its heroes who have left an undying legacy in Chilean skies. Within these aircraft, 35 have been declared a National Historic Landmark through the Council of National Monuments, which is a source of maximum satisfaction for the significance they represent for the country.

Due to the health contingency, today the museum is closed to visitors and the general public at large. But the museum and its 64 officials, together with its Director Ricardo Gutierrez, continue to work – in person and remotely – in the most diverse areas of maintenance and restoration, administration, historical archives gardening and the premises ornate, among others, to keep alive the legacy of the history of national civil and military aviation.