Forsvarets flysamling at Oslo Gardermoen Airport

Updated: October 2026 – If you land at Oslo Gardermoen Airport, you taxi across a site with a long military past. Long before airliners operated here, the army drilled on the plain, in World War II the German occupiers built the airfield, and afterward Gardermoen was one of the most important bases of the Norwegian Air Force for decades. On the western edge of today’s airport, the Flysamlingen Gardermoen – also called Forsvarets flysamling – tells this story with almost 40 aircraft.

For spotters, the place is interesting for two reasons. Inside, you’ll find rarities like the Taube monoplane “Start” from 1912, German bombers from April 1940 and the complete line of Norwegian Cold War fighter jets. Outside, right behind the museum, is an official spotter hill at the west runway. This page shows you what to expect, how to get there and how to combine the museum and live traffic in one day.

Gardermoen: from parade ground to capital airport

The Gardermoen plateau has been military terrain since the 18th century. Around 1740, the army set up a parade ground for the cavalry here, and later infantry and artillery drilled on the wide expanse. When World War II broke out, Gardermoen was the country’s largest training ground.

Gardermoen became an airfield in the modern sense during the German occupation. The occupiers built two runways, several large and small hangars and the necessary infrastructure. After the war, the Norwegian armed forces took over the site, and Gardermoen Air Station remained a central Air Force location for decades.

In 1992, the Norwegian parliament decided to build the new capital airport at Gardermoen. The old air station had to make way, and most of the historic buildings were demolished. Some buildings worth preserving were moved, among other places onto the grounds of the Flysamlingen. Since 1998, Gardermoen has been Oslo’s main civil airport. The Air Force stayed anyway: since 1996, a new military station has stood about 1.5 kilometers north of the passenger terminal, sharing the runways with civil traffic.

From the volunteers’ hangar to a new museum building

The collection has come a long way. Many of today’s exhibits used to be scattered across the country – in Air Force depots or at air stations. The impetus for bringing them together came mainly from the Norwegian aviation history society founded in 1967, which campaigned for an aviation museum and helped recover aircraft from the mountains and from lakes.

From the late 1970s, the aircraft were collected and restored in an old German hangar at Gardermoen. In 1984, part of the collection was shown to the public for the first time at an air event, and in the following years the hangar opened to visitors in summer – carried by a lot of volunteer work. How important such volunteers are for aviation museums is described in the article Volunteering at aviation museums.

In the early 1990s it became political: with the founding of the national aviation museum in Bodø, moving the Gardermoen holdings to the north was on the table. After a lengthy debate, parliament finally approved almost 73 million kroner for a separate new building at Gardermoen in 1997. The new museum opened in May 2000. Since 2015, the collection has belonged organizationally to the armed forces’ museums; today it appears under the umbrella of Forsvarshistorisk museum.

The collection: over a hundred years of military aviation

According to the museum, the collection comprises almost 40 aircraft and helicopters and covers Norwegian military flying from its beginnings around 1912 to the recent past, in war and in peace. All the fighter jets the Air Force flew in the Cold War are represented. The following overview draws on the museum’s information and the publicly documented holdings. Exhibits are rearranged or restored – take it as a guide.

Area	Typical exhibits	Interesting for spotters because …
Pioneer era	“Start” (Rumpler Taube), B.E.2e, Farman F.46	the beginnings of flying in the army and navy
World War II, German side	Heinkel He 111, Junkers Ju 52/3m, Ju 88	wrecks from April 1940 with recovery stories
World War II, Allied side	Northrop N-3PB, Spitfire PR XI, Lockheed Lodestar, Noorduyn Norseman	Norwegian units in exile and a one-of-a-kind aircraft
Early jets	de Havilland Vampire, Republic F-84G Thunderjet and RF-84F, T-33	the rebuilding of the Air Force within NATO
Cold War	F-86F and F-86K Sabre, CF-104 and TF-104G Starfighter, F-5A/B, F-16AM	the Air Force’s complete jet line
Transport and helicopters	C-47, C-130H Hercules, Twin Otter, Bell 47, UH-1B, Sea King, Lynx	the Air Force’s workhorses to this day

“Start”: Norway’s first military aircraft

The oldest exhibit, and probably the most important one for Norwegians, is “Start”, a Taube monoplane from the Rumpler works. Prompted by naval officers, the money for the aircraft came together through private donations in 1912, and Lieutenant Hans Fleischer Dons flew it on June 1, 1912 – the first flight of a Norwegian aircraft in Norway. On August 1, 1912, the aircraft was officially donated to the navy. That made “Start” the country’s first military aircraft.

Wrecks from April 1940

A focus of its own is German aircraft that were lost during the attack on Norway in spring 1940 and recovered decades later. The Heinkel He 111 P-2 had to make a forced landing in the mountains after an air battle on April 26, 1940, and was recovered in 1976 and restored at Gardermoen. The Junkers Ju 52/3m broke through the ice of a lake near Narvik in April 1940 and resurfaced in 1983. A Ju 88A-1 that sank in Jonsvatnet near Trondheim in April 1940 was raised in 2004 and is being restored in the collection’s workshop. The story of “Tante Ju” is told in the article Junkers Ju 52.

A one-of-a-kind aircraft from exile

On the Allied side, the Northrop N-3PB stands out, a floatplane flown by the Norwegian 330 Squadron in exile. The exhibited example crashed into a river in Iceland in 1943; the crew survived. In 1979 the aircraft was recovered and overhauled at Northrop in California. It is regarded as the only surviving example of the type. Next to it stands a Supermarine Spitfire in the PR XI photo reconnaissance version that the Norwegian Air Force used after the war, and a Spitfire IX replica hangs under the ceiling.

The Cold War jets

For many spotters, the jet hall is the reason for the visit. After 1945, Norway rebuilt its air force as a NATO member with American and British types, and the Flysamlingen shows this development almost without gaps. It begins with the de Havilland Vampire and the Republic F-84G Thunderjet along with its reconnaissance version RF-84F Thunderflash. With the F-86 Sabre, swept wings and supersonic ambitions arrived in the 1950s; the all-weather version F-86K with its radar nose is on display as well.

A highlight is the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, which the museum itself names as one of its flagship exhibits. On display are a Canadian-built CF-104 and a two-seat TF-104G. Next come the light Northrop F-5 in the A and B versions and as the RF-5A reconnaissance aircraft, and the F-16 Fighting Falcon in the modernized F-16AM version. Today Norway flies the F-35A Lightning II, which you have to look for at the country’s fighter bases rather than at Gardermoen.

If you also want to tell these silhouettes apart reliably in the air, the guide Recognizing fighter jets in Europe has the key features. For the older types, the article Recognizing vintage aircraft in the sky helps.

Transports, helicopters and the Hercules connection

Less spectacular, but just as important for the Air Force’s history, are the transports and helicopters. A Douglas C-47, the military DC-3, stands for the first postwar years. The DHC-6 Twin Otter is a reminder of how important rugged short-takeoff aircraft are in Norway – in civil service the type shaped regional traffic at Widerøe for decades.

Among the rotary-wing aircraft, the range runs from the Bell 47 with its glass bubble canopy through the Bell UH-1 to the rescue helicopter Westland Sea King, which served along Norway’s coasts for decades, and the Westland Lynx. Tips for photographing helicopters in action are in the article Helicopter spotting.

Especially fitting for the location is the C-130H Hercules in the collection. The Air Force flew the H version from 1969 and retired it in 2008. Its successor, the C-130J Hercules, came to 335 Squadron at Gardermoen from November 2008; by mid-2010 all four aircraft had been delivered. In March 2012, one of them was lost on a flight from Evenes to Kiruna; today the squadron again flies four Hercules. That way you see two generations of the transport in one place: the older one in the museum, the newer one possibly in the sky. How to tell transports like the C-130, A400M and C-17 apart is explained in the article Recognizing military transports.

Air defense and model collection

Two smaller permanent exhibitions complement the aircraft hall. Luftvern is devoted to air defense: the first anti-aircraft guns came to Norway in 1916, in 1931 all anti-aircraft artillery was consolidated in one regiment, and in 1959 the Nike battalion was created. On display are guns and equipment as well as missiles of the Nike Ajax and Nike Hercules systems – a part of the Cold War you never get to see at spotting sites.

The Modellflysamlingen shows, according to the museum, more than 1,500 models of military aircraft from around the world, many of them donations from model builders. For spotters who want to expand their knowledge of types, this is an unexpectedly useful corner: here you see types side by side that no European museum displays together.

The spotter hill behind the museum

What sets the Flysamlingen apart from many other military museums is its location right at the active airport. Avinor, the operator of Oslo Gardermoen, designates several spotter sites on its own website – and one of them is right here. Spotter site 3 is a small hill right behind the museum, equipped with a bench and table. It sits at the south end of the west runway and is oriented toward movements on 01L, that is, landings from the south and takeoffs heading north.

The west runway 01L/19R is, at 3,600 meters, the longer of the two parallel runways. Traffic is dominated by SAS, Norwegian and the turboprops of Widerøe, plus long-haul, cargo and occasionally the Air Force Hercules. Which runway is in use depends on wind and traffic – check the runway direction in use before your visit.

Avinor recommends the hill on warm summer days from afternoon to evening. That fits the opening hours perfectly: you go into the museum at noon and then switch outside with your camera. If landings are on 19R or you want more variety, spotter site 1 at the forest edge of the west runway is the next address; Avinor calls it the best spot for takeoffs and landings on the west runway, with good light in the summer half-year from about 1:30 p.m. For landings on 01R of the east runway, Avinor also names the gravel hills “Flishaugene”, which have good light from midday.

Photography: wide-angle indoors, telephoto outdoors

The museum hall is packed tightly, and some aircraft hang from the ceiling. A wide-angle lens is a must if you want to fit a Starfighter or the He 111 fully in the frame. For IDs, national markings and details, a standard zoom is enough. Hall lighting is a mix of daylight and artificial light – shoot in RAW and correct the white balance later. What to keep in mind with short focal lengths is covered in the guide Wide-angle and standard lenses for spotting.

At the spotter hill, on the other hand, you need a telephoto. For approaches to 01L and takeoffs from the west runway, a zoom in the range of 100 to 400 millimeters is enough. Since you look at the runway from the west in the afternoon, you usually have the sun behind you or to the side – a good reason to head for the hill only after your museum visit. With the sun position planner in Planetrack, you can check beforehand when the light is best on 01L. What else belongs in your camera bag is in the equipment checklist for plane spotting.

The museum doesn’t say on its website whether tripods and flash are allowed in the hall. If in doubt, ask at the ticket desk.

Getting there and planning

The museum is at Museumsvegen 35 in Gardermoen, on the western edge of the airport grounds and about 35 kilometers north of Oslo. If you drive, you park for free right at the museum.

Without a car, take Ruter bus line 400 or 420 from the airport to the Lilleplassen stop, then it’s about a five-minute walk. According to the museum, the buses leave the airport on weekdays at minutes 24 and 54, on weekends hourly at minute 24. Alternatively, the S55 shuttle bus takes you to the Park Inn by Radisson Oslo Airport Hotel West, about 100 meters from the museum; it runs at minutes 10, 30 and 50. You get to the airport itself from Oslo fastest by the Airport Express train or regional trains.

Groups book guided tours in advance, also outside regular opening hours for an extra charge. Guided tours are free for school classes. The museum doesn’t mention a café or a shop on its website – for a long day with spotting, it’s best to bring something to eat.

Combining Gardermoen with other destinations

Within Norway, the Norsk Luftfartsmuseum in Bodø is the logical complement. It is the national aviation museum with a civil and a military department and is also located right at an airport. Together, the two museums give a fairly complete picture of Norwegian aviation.

If you work through Scandinavia systematically, you’ll find the Flygvapenmuseum in Linköping in Sweden with its Saab jets and the Danmarks Flymuseum in Stauning in Denmark. The comparison is exciting: while Sweden built its own jets, Norway relied almost entirely on American and British types – at Gardermoen you see the NATO counterpart to the Swedish line.

In a European comparison, the Flysamlingen plays in the same league as the Luftwaffe Museum in Berlin-Gatow or the Nationaal Militair Museum in Soesterberg. Its advantage over both: here, aircraft still land behind the museum. If you want to know more about military aircraft in current operation, the article Tracking military aircraft online is the place to start.

Verdict

The Flysamlingen Gardermoen tells the story of Norwegian military aviation in a place that is itself a part of it. From the Taube monoplane “Start” through the recovered German wrecks from April 1940 and the only surviving Northrop N-3PB to the Sabre, Starfighter and F-16, you get an almost seamless overview in one hall. The air defense exhibition and model collection round off the visit.

The limitations are clear: outside July it’s open only on weekends, and the hall is tightly packed. In return, hardly any other military museum in Europe offers an official spotter site right behind the building. If you go into the museum at noon and switch to the hill at 01L in the afternoon, you get one of the most well-rounded spotting days in Scandinavia at Gardermoen.