The Lithuanian Aviation Museum (LAM) is an institution subordinate to the Ministry of Culture, which takes care of collecting, storing, researching, conserving, restoring, and popularizing the history of aviation and fire rescue service equipment.

HISTORY

The museum was established in 1990. February 19 (until February 1, 1995, it was called the Lithuanian Technical Museum), located in Kaunas, Aleksotas, on the territory of S. Darius and S. Girėnas airfield. LAM’s predecessor – the Public Sports Aviation Museum – was started in 1971 with the efforts of Lithuanian aviators. and was officially opened in 1983.

Since 1991 The homesteads of S. Darius and S. Girėnas , rebuilt with the efforts of aviator Vytautas Pakarskas, became the units of LAM . Memorial expositions reminding the history of the flight across the Atlantic were established there, complemented by ethnographic exhibits of the Žemaitija region.

EXHIBITS

Over 20,000 exhibits are kept in the museum’s collections (including over 40 flying machines), and the exhibition area reaches 4,700 square meters. Large-sized aircraft and Fire Rescue Service equipment are exhibited on a 2 ha open field. The specialized library of the museum has about 19 thousand publications.

The most popular exhibit is the flyable replica of the legendary “Lituanica”, designed and built by the famous aviator Vladas Kensgaila in 1982, during the making of the film “Flight across the Atlantic”. The pride of the museum are Lithuanian gliders used in Lithuania, among which Bronius Oškinis’ glider collection stands out. Sports planes used in Lithuania, planes of the Lithuanian and Polish air forces, helicopters of the Air Force and the State Border Guard Service are on display. On the site you can see the participant of the “Baltic Road” – the plane An-2. Visitors can familiarize themselves with the collection of aircraft engines, airplane models, historical photos, and other exhibits, sit in the cockpits of the An-2 airplane and the Mi-8 helicopter. The museum exhibit includes the symbolic crypt of S. Darius and S. Girėnas, and the memorial room of Antanas Gustaitis. Besides that, there is an exposition of the history of firefighting.

COOPERATION

The museum cooperates with the Air Force of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, the Union of Kaunas Aviation Veterans, the Lithuanian Aeroclub, the A. Gustaitis‘ Aviation Institute of the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, the B. Oškinis’ Children’s Aviation School, joint-stock companies “Helisota”, “Sportinė aviacija”, “Termikas”, Kaunas County Fire Rescue Service. The museum also liaises with aviation museums, aviation historians, and publishers in other countries.