Australian War Museum - Aircraft

The AWM has an impressive collection of WW2 iconic aircraft including a Japanese Zero and German Messerschmitt 109 as well as allied planes such at the Sea Fury, Kittyhawk, Mosquito, Mustang and the Australia’s Wirraway and even a Lancaster Bomber. They even have a MiG-1 on display and planes of the WW1.

Above - Mitsubishi A6M2 Model 21 “Zero” Fighter Aircraft abandoned at Gatmata PNG, first displayed in 1988.


Above Hawker Sea Fury VX730 The last propeller-driven fighter to serve with the Royal Navy, it was also one of the fastest production single piston-engined aircraft ever built. It “acquitted itself well in the Korean War even against MiG 15 jets.

Above “Polly” – the single seater P40 Kittyhawk fighter aircraft. The armament was six M2 0.50 inch calibre Browning machine guns, mounted in the wings. Nearly 850 P-40s were acquired for use by the RAAF and served with distinction during the Second World War.


Above - Messerschmitt Bf 109 “ME 109” was the most common German Fighter of WW2. Often lethal, it was armed with one 20-millimetre or 30-millimetre cannon and two 13-millimetre machine-guns. This is the last example in the world still displaying its original camouflage and markings: a 1944 day-fighter scheme, with variations resulting from service repairs and replacements.


North American P51 Mustang

6 x .50-in machine-guns

907 kg of bombs or 6 x 12.7-mm rockets

Avro Lancaster -

The twin-engine Manchester bomber was re-designed with four Rolls Royce Merlin engines, and called the Lancaster. With a crew of seven, the armament was eight .303-inch machine-guns; 6,350 kilograms of bombs. It entered operational service in 1942 and went on to become the outstanding British bomber of the war. It carried heavier bomb loads than its American equivalent, the Boeing B-17. Thousands of Australians flew in Lancasters, including those in 460, 463, and 467 Squadrons RAAF

Below, various planes of the early 20th Century