 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Volandia" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(July 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Volandia – Parco e museo del volo | |
 | |
  Location within Italy | |
| Established | 2010 |
|---|---|
| Location | Via per Tornavento, 15, Case Nuove 21019Somma Lombardo (VA), Italy |
| Coordinates | 45°37′48″N8°42′24″E / 45.630080°N 8.706800°E /45.630080; 8.706800 |
| Type | Aviation museum |
| Collection size | 100 aircraft, plus cars, motorbikes, scale models and historically significant artifacts |
| Nearest car park | On site (no charge) |
| Website | Official website |
Volandia Park and Flight Museum is the largest Italian aeronautical museum, as well as one of the largest in Europe. Volandia displays over 100 aircraft. The museum covers an area of ca. 60,000m2 (645,000sq ft)[1] of which 20,000 m2 (215,000 sq ft) are indoors.[2] It opened in 2010, after a 10-year preparation phase.[3]
The museum is located immediately adjacent toMilan-Malpensa Airport within the historic buildings of theCaproni Vizzola plant, dating from 1913.[4]
Since its foundation in 2010, the park-museum has been enriched with numerous collections, including the Luciano Piazzai Modeling Collection, and theFlaminio Bertoni Museum; it also houses theGruppo Bertone Collection, which brings together some of the most famous cars designed by the Turin car body shop.
The complex is located within the Ticino Park.
| This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(December 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
During a conference held at the Castello Visconti in San Vito, inSomma Lombardo, on 11 November 2006, a project was launched for the establishment of a large aeronautical museum to be built at the former OfficineCaproni inVizzola Ticino (VA ). This museum should have retraced the aeronautical history of Lombard industries, such asCaproni,SIAI-Marchetti fromSesto Calende,Aermacchi,Agusta, and Piero Magni, and of the province ofVarese. The chosen site was located near the Milan-Malpensa airport, and was easily accessible fromMilan. Numerous local political leaders joined the initiative, such as the president of the province of VareseMarco Reguzzoni, the President of the Regional Council ofLombardy Alberoni, numerous mayors, and aeronautics industry managers such as Carmelo Cosentino (CEO ofAlenia Aermacchi) and Giuseppe Orsi (CEO of Agusta Westland), the president of the Aero Club of Italy Giuseppe Leoni, and the Italian Air Force.
Fondazione Museo dell'Aeronautica was set up, of which Reguzzoni became president, who provided to buy at a favorable price fromAgustaWestland the area of the former Officine Caproni, including warehouses and offices. The realization was carried out with a commitment signed by the Lombardy Region, the province of Varese, and the mayors of the municipalities ofCardano al Campo,Ferno,Lonate Pozzolo,Gallarate,Samarate,Somma Lombardo,Varese andVizzola Ticino, and 19 million euros were made available, to be paid out progressively for the restoration of the buildings, the fitting out and the endowment of the exhibition spaces.
The Volandia Park and Museum was officially opened to the public on 8 May 2010. Already in its first year, Volandia could count on a museum heritage of over 30 aircraft and a thousand models on display.In 2012, following the acquisition of several models, including the American twin-engineDouglas DC-3, a new 4000 m2 exhibition area dedicated to commercial aviation was inaugurated. The Douglas DC-3 by Volandia is the only functioning specimen exhibited inItaly.
From 2018 the museum also houses theBertone collection, a patrimony composed of 76 cars and including vehicles of great importance such as theLamborghini Miura,Espada andCountach, a roadLancia Stratos, an Alfa Romeo Giulia SS, a Giulia Sprint, a Montreal and numerous prototypes designed at Stile Bertone. The cars of the Turin body shop are added to the works of art, cars and sketches of Flaminio Bertoni, another famous Italian designer and artist.
On 8 April 2017, in the presence of the former football playersClaudio Gentile andPietro Vierchowod, the presidentialDouglas DC-9 was inaugurated, an airplane that carried numerous Heads of State and Government, including the President of the RepublicSandro Pertini andPope John Paul II, and twin of the one who broughtthe Azzurri home after the victoriousWorld Cup. In 2018 the MD-80 I-SMEL, the firstMD-80 of theMeridiana fleet, was donated to the museum park.
In 2019, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of thefirst Moon landing, Volandia presented, with the participation of astronautPaolo Nespoli, the new pavilion of Astronomy and Space. During "Linate Air Show", Volandia has also exposed aYakovlev Yak-40 completely restored.
On January 25, 2020, a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter arrived at Volandia. The aircraft, from the Luftwaffenmuseum in Berlin, was officially inaugurated on February 8, 2020. From July 4, 2020, the second prototype of theAermacchi M-346 trainer is also kept in Volandia. Before the exhibition, the aircraft will remain inside the Volandia workshop until the assembly operations are completed.
The initial intent of the museum was to make the history of world aviation known, with particular attention to the companies that have made the history of flight in Italy, such as the Caproni, the Agusta, the Aermacchi and the SIAI-Marchetti, all based in the province of Varese. With the acquisition of the Bertoni and Bertone collections, which focus on the automobile and the Ogliari collection, mainly focused on rail and road transport, the museum has taken on the aptitude to range over the entire transport world in general.
Volandia's aeronautical museum heritage explores all the main topics related to fixed-wing and rotary-wing flight, from commercial to military aviation. The helicopter heritage is also of great value and size.
The museum preserves and exhibits some of the most iconic models in the history of Italian aeronautics, including the pioneeringCaproni Ca.1, the first aircraft to take off from the Malpensa moorland. TheCaproni Ca.18 belong to the period of consolidation of the air fleet (first plane of national conception to fully equip an Italian squadron) and theCaproni Ca.113, one of the most famous aerobatic aircraft of the years between the two wars. The era of the jet engine is revived through theFiat G.91 (the first Italian aircraft to equip the National Acrobatic Patrol), theAMX Ghibli, the trainersMB.326 andMB.339 and the 3 prototypes ofSIAI-Marchetti S.211. There are also numerous examples of the era used by other foreign air forces, such as theMikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 andMikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21, theRepublic F-84F Thunderstreak andNorth American F-86 Sabre, theBAC Jet Provost and thede Havilland Vampire.
The history and development of commercial aviation are represented by the specimens ofDouglas DC-3 Dakota,McDonnell Douglas MD-80 andFokker 27, the most commercially successful aircraft of the respective eras. Of significant historical value is also theDouglas DC-9 of the Presidency of the Italian Republic. The President of the RepublicSandro Pertini,Pope John Paul II and other Heads of State and Government traveled on the sample in question at the 31st Wing of theItalian Air Force. The plane also transported the coffin of theFormula 1 championAyrton Senna, who died tragically following an accident in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, from theBologna airport to theParis airport.
In the section of the museum dedicated to the rotating wing, Italian and foreign helicopters are preserved. Particular attention is paid toAgusta models. Among these, theAB.47 G3B1, under theArma dei Carabinieri from 1966 to 1977, theAgustaWestland AW109 A-II, which allowed the Guardia di Finanza to achieve night-time operational capacity, theAgustaWestland AW139 and theAB.204 andAB.206-A1. A special space is reserved for theAgustaWestland AW609convertiplane, an aircraft designed and built to obtain an effective synthesis between the helicopter's operational versatility and the airplane's own advantages.
Purchased by the Italian Historical Automotoclub in 2015, since 2018 the Bertone Collection has been preserved in the homonymous pavilion of Volanda. The collection includes 76 cars - in addition to a motorcycle and a bicycle - designed by the Turin atelierBertone and his collaborators. Among the models on display, aLamborghini Miura S from 1967, anAlfa Romeo Giulia SS from 1963 and theLancia Stratos HF, protagonist of an extraordinary series of sporting successes. Prototypes such as the BMW Birusa, the Porsche Karisma, the Ferrari 308 GT4 Rainbow, the Aston Martin Rapid Jet, the two Jaguar PU99 and the Bertone Birusa are also of considerable interest.
The Flaminio Bertoni Museum brings together much of the creative and intellectual production of the designer from Varese, considered one of the greatest car stylists of all time. In addition to the three most famous cars designed by Bertoni (theCitroën Traction Avant of 1934, the2CV of 1948 and theDS of 1955), the museum also includes numerous sculptures and sketches by the artist.
The Piazzai Collection brings together more than 1200 scale models that trace the history of world aviation from the dawn of pioneering flight to the most recently designed aircraft.
