Istanbul Aviation Museum — Attraction in Bakırköy

As a pilot, I travel the world and always try to go to an aviation museum if there is one, wherever I go. The Istanbul museum is a disappointment. The exhibition was partly closed due to renovation, but they still charged a full price of 400tl per adult. We only got to see the outside part. The aircrafts are kept in poor condition with rain leaking into the airplanes destroying what’s left of them. The state of most airplanes: they flew in, dragged onto the museum apron and left to rust. You can clearly see that most of them, were they to be preserved correctly, would’ve still had life in them.

It’s mostly a military exhibition with a handful of civilian airplanes, which is fine. The range of fighters/bombers is actually quite impressive from 1950s up to an f-16.

The description boards are non-informative. They describe the model and years in service, but no indication of speed, engines, fuel consumption and interesting facts that we usually look for when coming into a museum.

In conclusion- the museum lacks aviation enthusiasts to make the exhibition more interactive and interesting. And a good engineer to preserve the airplanes before they are gone completely. Ideally a restoration team to bring life back to the birds. Currently it’s...

An old museum and one of its kind in Istanbul if not in all of Turkey. Sadly very little has been done since my last visit ten years ago. Most of the exhibits are in despair. They're very poorly maintained and literally rotting and disintegrating in place. Some information sheets have misleading information, stating place of manufacture and company origin without distinguishing. (ie they list a Soviet Ukrainian engine as Polish because it was coming from a factory in Poland which may lead people to believe the company is a Polish company. Several items suffer similarly confusing data sheets) There are more clothes and plastic static models than original aviation related items on display. Most of the plastic models are broken and need repair. There are signs of unsuccessful and obviously unprofessional attempts of repair on some of them, adding to the misery. All indoor exhibits, including the static models are very dusty. Can't help but notice the occational "remove before flight" flags they attached to unrelated places on aircraft displayed indoors. This lead me to believe that what's on display here is not aviation but more an image of it. I give a second star for the enthusiasm though. I hope things will improve in the...

If your child loves airplanes, this will be a lot of fun. The outdoor section is the main attraction, with a great assortment of both small and enormous airplanes (and a couple of helicopters).

Even foreigners with valid ikamet must pay the foreigner price, which is 400 tl. I’m not sure where this price came from, since visitors can only go in one airplane, the restrooms were filthy and had no toilet paper, and the gift shop was closed.

This museum feels like a missed opportunity. It was really cool to see the names of famous generals and pilots, whose names we’ve seen all over Istanbul. The Istanbul Aviation Museum could greatly benefit from retired soldiers volunteering and showing people around, helping to fuel the next generation’s love for aviation and military service. I don’t regret going, because my kids had a great time, and also because this museum has SO much potential for greatness. However, I see no reason to go again, and I find...