The Aviation Education Exhibition Center in Kaohsiung is not only designed to look like a UFO, but it has something unique inside — it is the first museum in Taiwan where historically important planes are exhibited suspended from the ceiling.
The museum’s exterior was designed to convey the idea of an advanced aircraft carrying older planes, the center said.
It has 36 decommissioned military planes, 19 of which are hung from the ceiling, including an AT-6 trainer, an F-84G, a U-3A liaison aircraft and others used between 1945 and 1967.
Photo: CNA
Also suspended from the ceiling are an O-1 observation aircraft and an UH-1H helicopter, along with three Chinese MiGs that were flown to Taiwan by defectors, the center said.
Among the ground exhibits are a C-47 transport plane used between 1937 and 1945, a B-26 bomber and an F-104G that saw service between 1945 and 1967.
Covering 2.8 hectares, the facility, which is located at the Air Force Academy on the Gangshan Air Base, opened for a trial run in August last year.
The academy said it would commission a private company to run the center before it is formally opened to the public.
However, since the center is on a military
base, Chinese nationals and Hong Kong and Macau residents will not be allowed to visit for security reasons, the center said.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,