Flieger Flab Museum at Dübendorf Airfield

Updated: October 2026 – A few kilometers east of Zurich, between Dübendorf, Volketswil and Wangen-Brüttisellen, lies an airfield with more history than any other in Switzerland. Flying first took place here in 1910, from 1914 the army built up its air corps here, and until the end of the 1940s Dübendorf was even Zurich’s commercial airport. Today no fighter jets take off, but on the edge of the grounds stands the Flieger Flab Museum – the museum of the Swiss Air Force and air defense.

For spotters it is the place to catch up on the types you will never catch at the fence again: Hunter, Mirage, Tiger, the Ju 52 HB-HOP and a number of Swiss in-house designs and prototypes that exist nowhere else. This page shows you what to expect, how to plan your visit and how to combine it with a spotting day in Zurich.

Dübendorf: the cradle of Swiss aviation

The place itself is part of the exhibition. When flying began at Dübendorf in 1910, Swiss politics was still not very enthusiastic about aviation. In 1911 parliament rejected funding for airfields, and only a national fundraising campaign by the Swiss Officers’ Society raised money for aircraft and a force of its own. At the mobilization in August 1914, the air corps was then founded – with aircraft that in part belonged to the pilots themselves. One of the first was the aviation pioneer Oskar Bider, who reported for duty with his own Blériot monoplane.

The federal government bought the site in 1918, and Dübendorf became the country’s most important military airfield. At the same time, it was for a long time Zurich’s civil airport; Swissair also flew from here. Only in 1948/49 did scheduled traffic move to Kloten, where Zurich Airport is today. After that, Dübendorf was purely military.

For jet fans, the second half of the 20th century is especially exciting. From 1964 to 1994 the Patrouille Suisse was based here, until 2003 Mirage III RS flew from Dübendorf as reconnaissance aircraft, and in December 2005 fighter jet operations ended with the F/A-18s. In 1985 the airfield reached its peak with over 46,000 movements.

From Hangar 13 to the Air Force Center

For a long time, retired Air Force aircraft were simply scrapped because there was no room. Mainly parts survived, such as engines, instruments and propellers. In the early 1970s, the then director of the Office for Military Airfields, Hans Giger, collected the material in Hangar 13, with Hangar 14 added later. On June 9, 1978, the exhibition opened to the public for the first time – on the condition that volunteers run it.

From this initiative a proper museum grew step by step. In 1980 the prototype of the FFA P-16 arrived, the only surviving example of this Swiss jet project. With donations, the support association built a new exhibition hall from 1985, whose concrete shell roof was designed by the well-known engineer Heinz Isler; it was inaugurated in 1988. In 2002 a second hall followed on the site of the small First World War hangars.

Today the whole operates as the Air Force Center. Under one roof you find the museum, flight simulators, event rooms, a shop and Restaurant Holding. The house is supported by the Association of Friends of the Swiss Air Force (VFL), a foundation, donors and many volunteers; the federal government takes care of maintaining the facility. You will find background on the institution in the profile of the Flieger-Flab-Museum Dübendorf.

The collection: over a hundred years of the Swiss Air Force

According to the museum, the tour passes more than 40 exhibits and shows Swiss military aviation from 1900 to 2019. It is organized by era: the pioneer era and the First World War, the 1930s, the Second World War and postwar period, the beginning of the jet age, the development of fighter jets, the Cold War and disarmament. The following overview is based on the museum’s information and the publicly documented holdings. Exhibits are loaned out or given away again and again – so take it as a guide.

Area	Typical exhibits	Interesting for spotters because …
Pioneer era	Blériot XI-b, Häfeli DH-1, DH-3 and DH-5, Fokker D.VII	Swiss home-built aircraft from the early days that exist only here
Second World War	Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-3, North American P-51D Mustang	Types that flew under their own roundel in neutral Switzerland
Transport	Junkers Ju 52/3m HB-HOP	the best-known “Tante Ju” in Switzerland, with a special exhibition of its own
Jets	N-20 Aiguillon, FFA P-16, Hawker Hunter, Mirage IIIS, F-5E/F Tiger II	Swiss prototypes next to the frontline types of the Cold War
Training and helicopters	Bücker Bü 131 Jungmann, Pilatus PC-7, Alouette III	Training aircraft and rotary-wing aircraft of the Air Force
Air defense	7.5 cm and 20 mm anti-aircraft guns, 35 mm anti-aircraft gun 63, “Superfledermaus”, BL-64, Florida radar	the ground side of air defense, rarely seen so complete

The museum is especially strong on the jets with which Switzerland modernized its air defense after the war. The Hawker Hunter and the Northrop F-5 Tiger II shaped the image of the Air Force for decades; many still know the Tiger from the Patrouille Suisse displays. Alongside stand Swiss in-house designs like the N-20 Aiguillon and the P-16, which never went into series production – exactly such one-offs make the appeal of a country’s military museum.

Pilatus from Swiss industry is represented too. The PC-7 is still the aircraft of the PC-7 Team, which uses Dübendorf as its home base. The museum’s PC-9, by contrast, was transported to Locarno by helicopter in April 2026. If you want to place older types more confidently, the article Identifying vintage aircraft in the sky helps.

The Ju 52 and the history of Ju-Air

For many visitors it is the real reason for the trip to Dübendorf: the Junkers Ju 52. In 1939 the Swiss Air Force procured three Ju 52/3m for training observers. The three-engine corrugated-skin aircraft stayed in service astonishingly long and were not retired until 1981.

Instead of disappearing into a museum, all three went to Ju-Air, which was founded in 1982 and offered sightseeing flights from Dübendorf airfield. The owner of the aircraft was the Association of Friends of the Swiss Air Force; flying and maintenance were done by volunteers. For decades the aircraft with the registrations HB-HOT, HB-HOS and HB-HOP were a familiar sight in Swiss skies. How these registrations are built is explained in the article Swiss HB registrations. Later, a Spanish-built CASA 352, the HB-HOY, joined them.

On August 4, 2018, HB-HOT crashed in the Graubünden Alps southwest of Piz Segnas; all 20 people on board died. In the aftermath, the remaining Ju 52s were grounded, and in 2019 the Federal Office of Civil Aviation withdrew the permit for commercial operation. Ju-Air then temporarily switched to replicas of the Junkers F 13. HB-HOS went to the Luftfahrtmuseum Wernigerode in the Harz in 2023, and HB-HOP stands today in the Flieger Flab Museum.

In the museum, several special exhibitions recall this chapter: the history of Ju-Air, the journey of the “Tante Ju” to the USA and the rescue operation on the Gauli Glacier, one of the best-known missions in the history of the Swiss Air Force. The article Junkers Ju 52 – the Tante Ju presents the type itself in detail.

Air defense and engines: the underrated halls

The “Flab” in the name stands for Fliegerabwehr (air defense), and in Dübendorf it has a hall of its own. There you see heavy and light air defense with the 7.5 cm gun 38 and the 20 mm gun 37, a historic sound locator from the days before radar, the 35 mm gun 63 and the fire-control unit 69 “Superfledermaus”. The finale is missiles and radar with the BL-64 launcher and the Florida radar including its operations center. For spotters this is a good chance to get to know the other side of air defense.

The museum calls the engine collection unique in Europe. On display are over 80 piston engines and over a dozen jet engines – from the Dufaux engine of 1907 through Maybach and Saurer units to the Wright R-3350 Turbo Compound and the Turbomeca Artouste. The collection is, however, accessible only with a tour. If you are interested in powerplants, book the tour right away; it is also possible without museum admission.

Also exciting for tech fans is the walk-through collection with special exhibitions on onboard weapons, aerial reconnaissance, communications and radar. For airborne electronic warfare there is a show of its own with the jamming equipment and the aircraft that carried it; according to the museum, it is open daily from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. during normal opening hours.

Simulators and sightseeing flights

The Air Force Center lets you not just look but take the controls yourself. On offer are a Pilatus P-3 simulator and an H135 helicopter simulator, and in the SimCenter the Mirage III, F/A-18, Boeing 737 and Boeing 747 await. According to the museum, you need no previous experience. Add virtual reality films with a VR headset.

If you want real air under your wings, book a sightseeing flight. In the open cockpit of a Bücker biplane you sit in front, the pilot behind; with or without aerobatics, as you prefer. New is the sightseeing flight in the Pilatus PC-6 Porter, the rugged Swiss short-takeoff aircraft with room for up to six passengers. Because both aircraft count as historic aircraft, you fly there as a club member. You will find prices and dates on the Air Force Center’s website; the flight dates for the next season are published there each spring.

Photography in the museum

Dübendorf is a hall museum, and that determines your gear. The aircraft stand relatively close together, wings partly overlap or exhibits hang from the ceiling. A wide-angle is therefore a must; for details like roundels, serials and armament, a standard zoom is enough. You can leave long focal lengths at home. What to watch for with short focal lengths is explained in the guide Wide-angle and normal lenses for spotting.

More important than any telephoto is a fast lens. In the halls, daylight from above and artificial light mix, so it is worth shooting in RAW and adjusting the white balance later. The concrete shells of the Isler hall are, by the way, a strong subject in themselves – especially in combination with a jet underneath.

If possible, come right at opening. Then there are fewer visitors in the frame, and you can take your time with the main subjects. Whether and how tripods or flash are allowed, the museum doesn’t say online – when in doubt, ask at the desk and be considerate of other visitors.

Getting there and planning

The museum is at Ueberlandstrasse 271 in Dübendorf, on the edge of the airfield grounds. From Zurich you get there quickly: Dübendorf is connected to the S-Bahn network, and you cover the last stretch by bus or on foot. Because lines and frequencies can change, it is best to look up the exact connection in the SBB or ZVV timetable using the museum’s address. The Air Force Center provides directions on its website.

By car, you reach Dübendorf via the Zurich motorway network. If you come to special events such as “Flug & Zug”, expect more of a crowd – in 2025, about 2,000 visitors came on one August weekend, according to the museum.

What else belongs in your camera bag is covered in the Plane spotting gear checklist.

The active airfield next door

Even without fighter jets, Dübendorf is not a quiet place. The Air Force flies helicopters and light fixed-wing aircraft here, plus the Federal Air Transport Service, the operations base of Rega, police helicopters and the air traffic control provider Skyguide. The paved main runway 11/29 is about 2.4 kilometers long, and there is also a short grass runway. What applies when photographing at military airfields is summarized in the article Photographing military airfields. In 2014 the federal government decided on mixed use as a civil airfield with a federal base and an innovation park – so expect the surroundings to keep changing.

Most interesting for spotters is the PC-7 Team, which uses Dübendorf as its home base. At the PC-7 Fan Day, which took place for the second time on April 13 in 2026, the museum opens a cordoned-off outdoor area in front of Hall 1. From there you follow the team’s training sessions up close, and in the afternoon there are autographs. Such dates are listed in the Air Force Center’s calendar.

Combining Dübendorf with other destinations

Because the museum only opens at midday on weekdays, an almost perfect day plan results: traffic at Zurich Airport in the morning, history at Dübendorf in the afternoon. For takeoffs, the Butzenbüel at Zurich Airport is suitable, and for a relaxed overview of the apron the observation deck B. You will find all the other locations around Kloten in the article Plane spotting in Zurich.

If you want more Swiss aviation history, continue to the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne, which covers the civil side with Swissair and others. On Lake Constance, the Fliegermuseum Altenrhein awaits, which also shows historic military aircraft. And if you want to see the Air Force live and live-fire once, the Axalp air firing demonstration is the must-do in fall.

In European comparison, Dübendorf plays in the league of national air force museums – similar to the German Air Force Museum in Berlin-Gatow or the Nationaal Militair Museum in Soesterberg, only more compact and focused entirely on one country. How volunteers keep such houses running is described in the article Volunteering at aviation museums.

Conclusion

The Flieger Flab Museum is not a spot for movements but for history – and in exactly the place where it happened. At Switzerland’s oldest airfield stand pioneer aircraft, warplanes, Swiss jet prototypes, Hunter, Mirage and Tiger, plus the Ju 52 HB-HOP, an impressive air defense exhibition and an engine collection of a kind rarely found.

The limits are clear: short opening hours on weekdays, tight halls and no official view of everyday flying. But if you combine the visit with a morning at Kloten or come for a special event like the PC-7 Fan Day, you experience at Dübendorf one of the finest aviation days Switzerland has to offer.