Hangar-7 Salzburg

If you land at Salzburg Airport, you see it while still rolling out: a flat, glass arch on the east side of the runway that looks as if someone had laid a giant airplane wing on the grass. That is Hangar-7. Under the dome stand a Douglas DC-6B, a B-25J, a P-38 Lightning, a Corsair and other classics – and almost all of them still fly. The hangar is an exhibition hall, gourmet address, bar, art space and television studio, but above all the home of the Flying Bulls. And admission costs nothing.

From aerobatic pilot to collection

The story of Hangar-7 begins not with a building but with a pilot. Siegfried “Sigi” Angerer, born in 1949, was an aerobatic pilot and a collector of old aircraft. According to Wikipedia, he first sat at the controls at 15 and over his life racked up tens of thousands of flights in about 70 types. In 1987 he bought a North American T-28B, one of the first aircraft of the later collection.

In 1990, Angerer met Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz at an airshow in Innsbruck. Angerer was a guest there with a Corsair and later taught Mateschitz to fly on a Piper PA-18. That contact grew into an organization: THE FLYING BULLS GmbH, a subsidiary of Red Bull GmbH, founded in 1996 or 1999 depending on the source. Angerer remained chief pilot until his retirement in 2012 and during that time ferried the B-25J to Austria, among other things.

At first the fleet was stationed at Innsbruck Airport. By the end of the 1990s it had grown too big there. Especially with a view to the large DC-6B, which came to Salzburg in 2000, a hall of its own was needed. The choice fell on Salzburg Airport.

In October 2022, both founding figures died shortly after one another: Sigi Angerer on October 3, Dietrich Mateschitz on October 22. The Flying Bulls have kept flying since then with a team of experienced pilots and technicians.

A hall built around the DC-6B

Planning began in October 1999, and construction started in January 2001. After a good 20 months of building, Hangar-7 opened on August 22, 2003. It was designed by the Salzburg architect Volkmar Burgstaller and his team; according to Hangar-7, engineering firms in London and Stuttgart double-checked the structural calculations. Waagner-Biro supplied and erected the steel structure.

The shape is a flat, slightly tilted shell curved in three directions. Many compare it to an airplane wing, others to a water droplet. Its dimensions had a clear benchmark: the DC-6B, the largest aircraft in the fleet, had to fit through the door.

Two glass cylinders at the hall play a double role: they house the restaurant, bars, lounge and administration and at the same time brace the structure. At the very top of the apex sits a small third glass cylinder with the Threesixty Bar and a panoramic view over the airport and mountains. According to Hangar-7, about 14,000 cubic meters of concrete went into it, and the footprint is about 3,700 square meters.

To the northwest stands Hangar-8, a slightly smaller building in a similar design language. This is where the aircraft are maintained, restored and repaired. It is not open to visitors.

The Flying Bulls fleet

What sets Hangar-7 apart from almost all other aviation museums: the aircraft are not retired exhibits. The Flying Bulls describe their fleet as fully airworthy, and many aircraft perform regularly at airshows. According to the fleet list on the Flying Bulls website, the fleet comprises 18 airplanes and 7 helicopters as of October 2026.

The list shows how broad the collection is: from a biplane trainer of the 1940s through World War II fighters to a modern aerobatic aircraft like the Extra 300. The formerly prominent Dornier Alpha Jets no longer appear in the current fleet list; according to Wikipedia they were retired in August 2025.

Douglas DC-6B: Tito’s aircraft

The centerpiece of the collection is the Douglas DC-6B. It was built in Santa Monica in 1958 and delivered to the Yugoslav JAT. Head of state Josip Broz Tito had it converted into a luxury aircraft for himself and his guests. In 1975 he sold it to Zambia’s president Kenneth Kaunda, who also used it as a VIP aircraft until it was finally parked at Lusaka airport.

There it was found by Chris Schutte, who ran a small airline in Windhoek. He bought it and a sister aircraft and made both airworthy again; in Namibia it flew as “Fish Eagle” with the registration V5-NCF. In March 2000, Sigi Angerer spotted a sale ad in an aviation magazine. On July 7, 2000, the DC-6B departed Windhoek and reached Salzburg in four legs and just under 28 flight hours.

From 2001 it was restored to Flying Bulls standards: new interior, four new engines, modern avionics. In summer 2004 it left the workshop after about three years. At first it carried the US registration N996DM; a good decade later it was registered as the first DC-6B in Austria – and it has flown as OE-LDM ever since.

The warbirds

For many visitors, the World War II fighters and the bomber are the real reason for the visit:

• Chance Vought F4U-4 Corsair (OE-EAS, built 1945): The Flying Bulls call it their “Masterpiece.” Typical is the bent wing, which was necessary so that the four-meter propeller has enough ground clearance. The wings can be folded up hydraulically for use on aircraft carriers. According to the Flying Bulls, only a handful of Corsairs fly in Europe.
• Lockheed P-38 Lightning (N25Y, built 1944): The twin fuselage with two Allison V12 engines makes it unmistakable. It was restored in the US over more than four years, arrived in Hamburg by cargo ship in 2009 and flew on to Salzburg on March 10. According to the Flying Bulls, it is the only P-38 based in Europe.
• North American B-25J Mitchell (N6123C, built 1945): The twin-engine bomber belongs to the most-produced version of the type. You will find more on the history of the series on the page about the B-25 Mitchell.
• North American P-51D Mustang (built 1944): Joined the fleet in 2021; the P-51 Mustang is one of the best-known fighters of all.
• Grumman F8F-2 Bearcat (built 1947): the youngest piston fighter in the collection and one of the last fighter designs with a radial engine that Grumman built for the US Navy.

That the P-38 and B-25 carry US registrations is no coincidence: many vintage aircraft remain registered in the US for certification reasons. What lies behind the N-numbers is explained in the article on US N-numbers; the counterpart for the Austrian aircraft is covered under OE registrations.

Jets, trainers and workhorses

With the Canadair Sabre Mk 6, the collection has an early jet fighter; according to Wikipedia its acquisition was announced in May 2026. Among the trainers, the T-6, the T-28B and the biplane PT-17 Stearman stand out – types on which whole generations of pilots learned to fly.

Less spectacular but interesting for spotters are the utility aircraft: a Pilatus PC-6 Porter, a Cessna 208 as an amphibian with floats, and a Cessna 337 Skymaster with its push-pull powerplant of two engines at nose and tail.

Helicopters

The helicopter fleet is unusually varied. According to Wikipedia, the Bell Cobra is the only civilian-registered US attack helicopter of its kind. The two Bo 105s (versions C and S) are, according to Hangar-7, the only civilian helicopters in the world certified for aerobatics. In addition there are a Bell 47 with its glass bubble canopy, a Bristol Sycamore from 1957, an EC135 and an AS 350 B3+.

More than a museum

Hangar-7 is deliberately not a classic museum. Besides the aircraft exhibition there are:

• Formula 1 cars from Red Bull’s motorsport history, according to Wikipedia including vehicles from Sauber, Toro Rosso and Red Bull Racing.
• Art exhibitions that change regularly.
• The Restaurant Ikarus with a guest chef concept: since the end of 2003, a different internationally known chef cooks every month, supervised by Executive Chef Martin Klein. According to Wikipedia, the restaurant was awarded two Michelin stars in 2016.
• The Carpe Diem Lounge-Café on the ground floor with a view of the aircraft, the Mayday Bar, the small Threesixty Bar in the tip of the dome and, in summer, an Outdoor Lounge.
• TV productions for ServusTV, including the show “Sport und Talk aus dem Hangar-7,” as well as concerts and private events.

According to Wikipedia, more than 200,000 visitors come every year. For you as a spotter, that means: weekday mornings are quietest.

Planning your visit

Hangar-7 is at Wilhelm-Spazier-Straße 7A on the east side of the airport – so not at the terminal. Admission to the exhibition is free. According to Hangar-7, the exhibition opens daily at 9 a.m. and is open until 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and Saturday, until 5:30 p.m. on Fridays, and until 5 p.m. on Sundays and public holidays. On Mondays it closes at 8 p.m. because of TV productions, and there are special closures during events. So check the website shortly beforehand (as of October 2026).

Everything practical on getting there by trolleybus, parking, photo positions in the hall and accessibility has been collected by our spot guide Hangar-7 at Salzburg Airport.

Photography is allowed for private purposes; for commercial shots you need permission. For guests in the café and bars the usual applies: be considerate and don’t photograph anyone without asking.

Spotting around the hangar

From the hangar itself, scheduled traffic can only be photographed to a limited extent. It works much better from the opposite side: the observation deck at Terminal 1 is free and looks across the apron to the east onto runway 15/33 – with Hangar-7 in the background. Because the deck lies west of the runway, the sun is behind you from the afternoon. That gives the classic Salzburg sequence: hangar in the morning, deck in the afternoon. How to check the sun position in advance is explained in the article Planning the sun position at the photo spot.

When a Flying Bulls aircraft takes off, you usually hear it before you see it – the drone of the radial engines of a Corsair or the DC-6B is unmistakable. These moments cannot be planned. For sharp propellers with motion, the article Photographing propellers helps; for identifying old types, Recognizing vintage aircraft in the sky. What is allowed in Austria when spotting around airports is covered under Plane spotting in Austria.

Putting it in context: Hangar-7 and other collections

With its flyable vintage aircraft, Hangar-7 ranks alongside collections such as the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden or the Imperial War Museum Duxford, where historic aircraft also take to the air. The difference lies in the staging: instead of hangar floor and workshop flair, there is designer architecture, dining and art.

In Austria, the Aviaticum in Wiener Neustadt is the classic counterpart with a focus on domestic aviation history. If you are looking in Germany for a hall with large piston and jet aircraft, you will find it for example at the Technik Museum Speyer – there, however, as retired exhibits. And if you are traveling with children: free admission, race cars and helicopters make Hangar-7 a rewarding destination; more ideas are in the article Plane spotting with kids.

Conclusion

Hangar-7 is an exception among aviation destinations in Europe. A glass dome built to the dimensions of a DC-6B, a fleet of flyable warbirds, trainers and helicopters, plus gourmet cuisine and art – all with free admission. Behind the collection stand the story of the aerobatic pilot Sigi Angerer and the Red Bull founder’s enthusiasm for old aircraft.

For spotters, the visit pays off above all in combination: vintage aircraft in the morning, scheduled and charter traffic in the afternoon from the deck. Ask beforehand which aircraft are currently there – and keep your ears open when a radial engine fires up outside.