Svedinos Bil- och Flygmuseum

When Svedinos Bil- och Flygmuseum was opened in 1961 with 35 historic vehicles, it was the first private automobile museum in Scandinavia. In the meantime it has developed into one of the largest museums of its kind in Europe with over 100 historic cars and around 40 vintage planes.

The museum was built by Lennart Svedfelt (1924 - 1993), who was well known as a magician under the artist name "Svedino". When he bought a Ford Model T from 1919 in 1949, his passion for vintage cars arose. His collection grew and became well-known. The vehicles were borrowed for exhibitions and film companies rented the vintage cars as props for filming.

Lennart Svedfelt met the increasing problem of storing the ever-increasing collection with the purchase of a circus tent, which he used in 1958 to tour through several Swedish cities for a number of months with his 20 vintage cars. At Expo-Norr, which took place in Östersund in 1960, his collection was one of the main attractions. During the exhibition he acquired the property in Ugglarp, where the museum is now located.

The vehicles in the museum

The exhibited vehicles represent automotive history from 1898 to 1991, whereby almost every decade is represented with several copies of different manufacturers. The oldest vehicle, a "Bullerbilen" dating from 1898, is unique because the car was built only once. The second in chronological order is a Tidaholm truck built in 1907 and also a rarity, as the company had only begun to produce trucks in small numbers in 1906, before building around 150 vehicles a year from 1920 onwards.

Both old models of still well-known manufacturers, as for example different models of the Model T of Ford from different decades as well as several vehicles of long forgotten car manufacturers are part of the collection. A particularly luxurious example is a 1918 model from the US manufacturer Pierce-Arrow, a high society status symbol that was in no way less impressive than a Rolls Royce.

Svedinos aircraft collection

Der Reigen der Flugzeug-Veteranen beginnt mit einer "Blériot XI" des französischen Luftfahrtpioniers Louis Blériot von 1918, gefolgt von einer 1926 gebauten De Havilland DH60 "Moth" sowie einer Junkers JU52/3m von 1933.

While among the various aircraft types from the time before 1940 there are also several German productions in the exhibition, the models from the time from 1941 to 1952 come exclusively from American, British and Swedish manufacturers. Among them are the De Havilland DH 100 "Vampire", Gloster Meteor T7 and Saab J29A "Flygande Tunnan", the very first fighter jets of the post-war period.

The most recent model in the collection is a Saab JA 37 "Viggen", built in 1980. Among the aircraft from the period after 1950 are several other Saab models in the exhibition. Probably the most famous fighter jets of this era are the russian MIG 21 and the Lockheed "Starfighter", which became unfortunately famous after a series of crashes.