Flygvapenmuseum Linköping

Sweden is a country with its own fighter aircraft tradition – and it is written almost entirely with four letters: Saab. If you want to understand how a country of a few million people was able to develop its own jets like the Draken, Viggen and Gripen over decades, you go to Linköping. There, where Saab develops and builds its aircraft, the Flygvapenmuseum, the museum of the Swedish Air Force, sits at Malmen military airfield. It shows the entire Saab lineage under one roof – plus a piece of the Cold War you will not see in any other museum: the recovered wreck of a DC-3 shot down in 1952.

A museum at the origin of Swedish aviation

Malmen is no random location. This is where the aviation pioneer Carl Cederström – who had earned the first Swedish pilot’s license in 1910 – founded a flying school in 1912. When the independent air force Flygvapnet was created in 1926, the wing at Malmen became F 3. The street where the museum stands today bears Cederström’s name.

According to Swedish Wikipedia, the basis of the collection was eleven aircraft that F 3 commanders had gathered. In 1967 the collection was on public view for the first time, then in Ryd in Linköping with 26 aircraft. On March 8, 1984, King Carl XVI Gustaf then opened the first exhibition hall at today’s site in Malmen, and in 1989 a second hall followed with space for about 60 aircraft.

The museum got its present character from a major renovation. It closed in March 2009 and reopened on June 12, 2010 – with about 6,000 square meters of public space, thematically organized exhibitions, a knowledge center with an archive and library, a science center for children and a restaurant. The effort paid off: in 2011 the Flygvapenmuseum was named Swedish Museum of the Year, and the DC-3 exhibition before that was named Exhibition of the Year 2010.

The museum is run by a state museum group. For a long time, it belonged together with the Army Museum in Stockholm to the Statens försvarshistoriska museer; since January 1, 2026, according to the museum, it has been part of the Statens museer för maritim-, transport- och försvarshistoria. It is supported by the support association Östergötlands Flyghistoriska Sällskap (ÖFS).

Why so much Saab stands here

Saab was founded in 1937 in Trollhättan, but aircraft development moved to Linköping soon afterward, where the company still develops and builds combat aircraft today. You can read more about the company history on the page for the manufacturer Saab. For the museum, this means: almost every type Saab built for the Swedish Air Force is represented in the collection – often in several examples and versions.

According to the museum, the exhibitions show about 50 aircraft. The rest of the more than 300 airplanes and helicopters is in storage or on loan to other museums at home and abroad.

Which example stands where changes because of renovations, loans and special exhibitions. The table is a guide, not a guarantee of location.

The propeller era: B 17, B 18 and J 21

The permanent exhibition “Flygfärdig” leads from the aviation pioneers to the start of the jet age; according to Swedish Wikipedia, the first Saab types stand here. The B 17 was a single-engine dive bomber, the B 18 a twin-engine bomber and reconnaissance aircraft. Both were created around World War II, when Sweden stayed neutral and buying aircraft abroad became ever more difficult – an important impetus for its own industry.

Especially striking is the J 21: a fighter with a pusher propeller behind the cockpit and two tail booms. For spotters, it is a lesson in conversions: on its basis, Saab developed the 21R with a jet engine instead of the piston engine, used first as a fighter and later as the A 21R ground-attack aircraft. According to English Wikipedia, a J 21A and an A 21R stand in the halls.

Tunnan and Lansen: the leap into the jet age

The J 29 Tunnan owes its nickname “the Barrel” to its thick, rounded fuselage. It was Sweden’s first jet with swept wings and was built in series in the first half of the 1950s. Next to it, the museum shows the A 32 Lansen, a two-seat jet of the 1950s for ground attack and all-weather missions. If you compare the two directly, you see how fast jet design developed in just a few years.

Draken, Lill-Draken and Viggen

The Saab 35 Draken is the type in which you recognize Swedish engineering most clearly: the double-delta wing was radical in the 1950s. So that the shape could be tested beforehand, Saab built the small test vehicle Saab 210 Lill-Draken – and the museum shows this “little dragon,” too. A visit is worthwhile just to see the two side by side.

The Saab 37 Viggen followed with a delta wing, forward canards and a thrust reverser, designed for short runways and road sections. According to English Wikipedia, an AJS 37, the upgraded multirole version, stands in the halls. If you want to practice identifying modern fighter jets, the article Identifying fighter jets in Europe provides the right foundation.

Gripen and Sk 60

The lineup is completed by the JAS 39 Gripen, the current combat aircraft of the Flygvapnet. According to Swedish Wikipedia, a two-seat JAS 39B is also among the exhibits. Next to it stands the Sk 60, the Swedish designation for the Saab 105, a jet trainer with side-by-side seating on which generations of Swedish military pilots learned to fly.

Hemliga handlingar: the DC-3 that disappeared

The most impressive room in the museum has nothing to do with Saab. On the lower level lies the wreck of a Tp 79, the military version of the Douglas DC-3. The aircraft disappeared on June 13, 1952 with eight men aboard over the Baltic Sea. Officially it was on a navigation flight; in reality it was collecting radio signals for the Swedish intelligence service.

Three days later, a Swedish Catalina searching for the DC-3 was also shot down by Soviet fighters – its crew survived. The Soviet Union denied both incidents until its end. Only in 1991 did a former Soviet officer admit to having ordered the shootdown of the DC-3 by a MiG-15. The case is known as the Catalina affair.

The DC-3 wreck was found in June 2003 at a depth of about 126 meters and raised in March 2004. Bullet holes confirmed the attack by a MiG-15. On May 13, 2009, the shot-up aircraft was brought to its final place in the museum; the exhibition “Hemliga handlingar – DC-3:an som försvann” was built around it. The story of the aircraft type itself is told in the article on the Douglas DC-3.

Foreign types in Swedish colors

Before and after World War II, Sweden also bought abroad – and these aircraft make up a large part of the appeal. They carry Swedish designations that you find again on the signs:

• Junkers Ju 86 (B 3) – according to English Wikipedia, the last surviving example worldwide
• Hawker Hart (B 4) and Gloster Gladiator (J 8) – interwar biplanes
• J 26 Mustang – the Swedish P-51 Mustang
• S 31 Spitfire – a reconnaissance version of the Spitfire
• J 28 Vampire and J 33 Venom – first-generation British jets, including the de Havilland Vampire
• J 34 Hunter – the Swedish Hawker Hunter
• Tp 47 Catalina – the flying boat, a representative of the type from the Catalina affair
• MiG-15 – the Soviet counterpart to the jets of the West

Add exotics such as the Fiat CR 42 (J 11), the Reggiane Re.2000 (J 20) and the Seversky Republic (J 9) – types Sweden acquired in the war years when hardly any suppliers were left. Outdoors, according to English Wikipedia, stand larger aircraft such as an English Electric Canberra (Tp 52) and a Vickers Varsity (Tp 82). If old types appeal to you, the article Identifying vintage aircraft in the sky helps you place them.

Cold War, Flyglabbet and special exhibitions

Besides the type show, the museum tells everyday history. The exhibition “Om kriget kommer – Sverige under kalla kriget” shows how Sweden prepared for a possible attack during the Cold War – with furnished apartments, one for each decade from the 1950s to the 1980s, and about 15 airplanes and helicopters. It also puts Sweden’s nonalignment between the blocs, air reconnaissance and submarine hunting in context.

For families, there is Flyglabbet, a science center with hands-on stations, virtual aircraft building and insights into jet engines. A detail for Gripen fans: according to Swedish Wikipedia, the control stick in the simulator there comes from the first Gripen prototype 39-1. A JAS 39 Gripen E simulator can be booked separately for visitors aged ten and up.

In 2026, the Flygvapnet celebrates its 100th birthday. The museum accompanies the anniversary with its own program and the special exhibition “EFFEKT – Flygvapnets drivkraft under 100 år”, which shows the development of aircraft engines and jet engines from the radial engine to the Sk 60’s jet engine and, according to the museum, runs from July 1, 2026 to December 31, 2029. The anniversary program also includes theme days, talks and special tours – watch for dates when pieces not otherwise on display can be seen.

Photography at the Flygvapenmuseum

The museum is bright and modern, but as in most aviation museums, the aircraft stand close together. With a little planning, you still get good pictures.

The museum is an ideal destination for days when the weather at the airport fence is no fun. More ideas for that are collected in the article Plane spotting in bad weather.

Getting there, admission and your visit

The museum is at Carl Cederströms gata 2 in Malmslätt, about seven kilometers west of downtown Linköping.

• By bus: line 6 from Linköping Resecentrum, the city’s station. According to the museum, the ride to the Flygvapenmuseum stop takes about 20 minutes.
• By car: via the E4 to exit 111, then follow the brown signs. Parking at the museum is free.
• By train to Linköping: Linköping is on the main line between Stockholm and Malmö and is therefore easy to do as a day trip from Stockholm.

For admission, the museum differentiates by season: adults pay 120 SEK from September to May and 150 SEK from June to August; seniors and students pay 100 SEK. Children and teens up to 18 get in free. The Gripen simulator costs extra; the museum lists prices on its website.

The museum publishes its opening hours as a calendar on its website. On Thursdays there are evening hours; there is no fixed last admission, but you must be back outside by closing. The archive and library are open on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The building also houses the restaurant Aviatören with a lunch menu and a museum shop. The restaurant was most recently temporarily closed, so check the current status before your visit.

Combining museum and live traffic in Sweden

Linköping lies between the two big Swedish airports – so a museum day fits well into a spotting trip.

• At Stockholm Arlanda Airport, there are official spots for spotters, described on the page for the spotter hill at Arlanda. There, SAS shapes the traffic.
• In the west, you reach Gothenburg Landvetter Airport.
• Practical notes on the museum as a spotting destination are on the spot page Flygvapenmuseum at Malmen airfield.

Saab also left its mark in civil aircraft building: the turboprops Saab 340 and Saab 2000 still fly with regional airlines in some cases. If you want to experience the manufacturer’s civil side after the museum, keep your eyes open at Scandinavian regional airports.

For a museum trip through the north, the Norwegian Aviation Museum in Bodø and the Finnish Aviation Museum at Helsinki Airport are good options. If you want to compare military museums in Central Europe, the Flieger-Flab-Museum in Dübendorf, the Prague-Kbely Aviation Museum or the Military History Museum Berlin-Gatow offer good counterparts – Dübendorf, with the Swiss Air Force, also shows Hunters and Vampires, by the way.

Conclusion

The Flygvapenmuseum in Linköping is the museum for everyone who wants to understand Swedish military aviation. At the place where Carl Cederström founded his flying school in 1912, the Saab lineup stands almost without gaps: from the B 18 propeller bomber through the Barrel Tunnan, the Lansen, the double-delta Draken and the Viggen to the Gripen. Add foreign types in Swedish colors, the world’s last Ju 86 and, with the DC-3 from the Catalina affair, a moving witness to the Cold War.

Give yourself at least half a day, check the hours in the museum’s calendar and combine the visit with a spotting day in Stockholm or Gothenburg. If kids are along, your travel budget will thank you: admission is free up to 18.