A long-awaited project to protect and modernise one of the Polish Aviation Museum’s most recognisable outdoor displays has officially begun. The first stage of the Aleja MiGów – odnowa investment was launched in Kraków on 3 September, with new aircraft shelters, improved surfaces, lighting, landscaping and a visitor rest area planned for the historic site.
The ceremony at the Polish Aviation Museum brought together Iwona Gibas, Marshal of the Małopolska Region responsible for culture, representatives of the museum and the contractor carrying out the works.
The project will eventually provide 22 covered positions for aircraft, creating a new setting for a collection that tells an important part of the history of Polish military aviation during the Cold War.
A new setting for Kraków's MiG collection
Aleja MiGów is one of the most distinctive parts of the museum's outdoor exhibition. Set on the former Rakowice-Czyżyny airfield, it brings together generations of jet aircraft associated with the Soviet era and with Poland's post-war military aviation.
The collection includes MiG-15 and MiG-17 aircraft, together with their Polish-built Lim variants, numerous versions of the MiG-21, and larger supersonic aircraft including the Su-7, Su-20, Su-22, MiG-23 and MiG-29.
Nearby, visitors can still see surviving elements of the historic airfield, including the original taxiway and the apron in front of the Main Hangar.
The open-air setting is an important part of the experience, but it also presents a practical conservation challenge. For years, the aircraft have been exposed to sunlight, rain, snow, moisture and repeated changes in temperature.
The new investment is intended to address that problem while keeping the collection within the landscape of the former airfield.
272 metres of new shelter
The planned structures are substantial. The shelters will extend for 272 metres, with a total roof area of approximately 4,112 square metres. They will be around 7 metres high and 15 metres wide, supported by steel columns.
The roof structure will use trapezoidal sheet metal reinforced with a membrane, while the overall structure is expected to weigh around 350 tonnes.
The design by Kraków-based Vostok Design is intended to sit naturally within the existing landscape. Its form draws on the shape and movement of aircraft wings, while the shelters will work together with the existing earth embankment, created between 1998 and 2001, to form what the project describes as an artificial horizon.
The redevelopment also includes new hard surfaces, small-scale architectural features, lighting and a dedicated rest area.
For the museum, that combination is important. The shelters will reduce direct exposure to the weather, but the redesigned space is also intended to make it easier to spend time around the aircraft rather than simply walk past them.
Work begins in stages
The scale of the investment means that it is being delivered in stages.
An agreement with the Małopolska Region was signed on 21 January 2026, allowing the long-planned project to move forward. Most of the funding comes from the regional budget, while the museum is contributing its own funds towards elements including the design work, tender process, inspection supervision and other costs connected with the core project.
Following a tender process, the museum signed a construction contract with Kraków-based Montero Sp. z o.o. on 22 June 2026. Preparatory work began in July.
The first works include archaeological investigations and earthworks, reflecting the historic character of the Rakowice-Czyżyny airfield site. The construction is being carried out under a valid building permit issued in 2025, with supervision from the Municipal Conservator of Monuments and an archaeologist.
For the end of 2026, the immediate target is clear: prepare the ground and foundations for four aircraft positions and complete the first of the 22 planned shelters.
It will be the first completed section of a much larger redevelopment.
Protecting aircraft that cannot simply be replaced
The conservation aspect is particularly significant for an outdoor collection of this scale. Many of the aircraft displayed at Aleja MiGów are surviving examples of machines that played a direct role in Poland's military aviation history during the second half of the 20th century.
Keeping them outdoors makes the museum's collection unusually accessible, allowing visitors to see the aircraft from close range and from different angles. The challenge is to retain that open character while providing better protection for the structures themselves.
The new arrangement is intended to achieve both.
As Tomasz Kosecki, Director of the Polish Aviation Museum in Kraków, said:
“This is an example of bold but, above all, responsible thinking about public money. It is thinking that does not limit itself to funding day-to-day operations, but allows us to create infrastructure that will serve residents for decades to come. Investments in culture protect what cannot be recreated, while at the same time preparing institutions for the needs of contemporary audiences. This is why projects such as ‘Aleja MiGów – odnowa’ are more than a construction investment: they are an investment in preserving Małopolska's heritage and in enabling future generations to discover it.”
The museum has been seeking a solution for the outdoor aircraft for years. The current project finally provides a framework for gradually transforming the area without losing its character as an open-air aviation collection.
A changing part of Rakowice-Czyżyny
The redevelopment is taking place on a site with an unusually layered history. Rakowice-Czyżyny was once one of Kraków's principal aviation sites, and surviving infrastructure still gives the museum grounds a strong connection with that past.
That makes the Aleja MiGów project particularly visible. The new shelters will become a permanent part of the landscape around the museum's historic airfield structures, while the aircraft themselves remain the focus of the space.
The Polish Aviation Museum currently holds hundreds of aviation-related exhibits, including aircraft, gliders, helicopters, engines and rocket systems. Its location at al. Jana Pawła II 39 makes it one of Kraków's most distinctive places to explore the history of aviation.
For now, visitors will see the project developing in stages. The first four positions and the first shelter are planned for completion by the end of 2026, with further modules to follow as funding and subsequent stages allow.
The result will gradually change the appearance of one of the museum's best-known outdoor spaces while giving its Cold War-era aircraft a more secure future.
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Source and image credit: Polish Aviation Museum in Krakow
