While on holidays in Europe a few weeks ago, and having a passion for Aviation, we headed to Toulouse for two nights mainly to see the Airbus Beluga. While we were in Toulouse, we visited an aviation museum called Aeroscopia.
Aeroscopia is a French aerospace museum, located at the north-western edge of Toulouse, in the commune of Blagnac, and is a 10-minute drive from the Toulouse Blagnac airport.
This museum notably hosts, not one, but two Concordes, one outside as a static display and one inside, which you can go through. The Concorde inside the hangar is a prototype that never flew, but outside on the tarmac is a real Air France Concorde that retired from service in 2003.
As you walk into the hangar you can't help but see three of the largest aircraft in the hangar.
The Super Guppy cargo plane dominates the initial entrance into the exhibition hall. Its rotating nose is opened up, giving you a cross-section view of the enormous cargo bay that was constructed in the 1960s to help NASA transport equipment for its space program.
Next to the Super Guppy sits a large widebody Airbus A300. While it doesn’t look hugely different to some of the aircraft flying in the sky today, its significance is massive as it was the first commercial plane ever built by Airbus. For older Australian's reading this, you may remember TAA (later becoming Australian Airlines) flew Airbus A300B4's.
The A300 was available to explore, and the floor has been converted to glass to allow visitors to see the cargo bay below. You can only gain access to the A300 via the Concorde.
Other aircraft on display outside are:
- Airbus A380 (second one ever built)
- Airbus A400M
- Airbus A340
- Airbus A320 (first one ever built)
- ATR 72
- ATR42
- Carvelle
- Transall C-160
We arrived around 4.15pm and by the time we got tickets and went in, it was just after 4.30pm.
There was a small lineup for the Concorde, so we lined up... little did we know it would be another hour before we got in. So, after getting a very quick photo of the cockpit and inside the amazing aircraft, we had 30 minutes to see everything else. Sadly, we didn't have time to actually stop and take in the sites, it was a quick photo and move on.
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| AIR INTER AEROSPATIALE SE-210 CARAVELLE 12 F-BTOE (MSN 280) |
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| FRENCH AIR FORCE TRANSALL C160 64-GL (MSN 215) |
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| AIR FRANCE AEROSPATIALE BAC CONCORDE 101 F-BVFC (MSN 209) |
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| AIRBUS A400M ATLAS F-WWMT (MSN 001) |
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| AEROSPATIALE CONCORDE 100 F-WTSB (MSN 201) |
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| COCKPIT OF AIRBUS A300B4 |
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| AEROSPATIALE SN 601 CORVETTE F-GKGA (MSN 11) |
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DASSAULT FALCON 10 F-ZACB (MSN 2)
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| ATR 72-600 F-WWEY (MSN 098) |
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| AERITALIA ATR 42 F-WEGA (MSN 003) |
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| AIRBUS A320-111 F-WWAI (MSN 001) |
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AIRBUS A340-642 F-WWCA (MSN 360)
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| AIRBUS A380-841 F-WXXL (MSN 002) |
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| MORANE SAULNIER M6 760 |
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| VOUGHT F-8 CRUSADER |
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| LOCKHEED F-104G STARFIGHTER 21-91 (MSN 7060) |
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| FAIRCHILD SA226 MERLIN F-GMTO (MSN AT-031) |
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| SAFIRE DASSAULT FALCON 20F F-GBTM (MSN 397) |
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| MIKOYAN GUREVICH MiG 15 FAGOT 1170 (MSN 713001) |
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