Museu do Ar

The Museu do Ar is the Portuguese Air Force’s museum, and its main collection sits on the Sintra air base at Granja do Marquês, near Pêro Pinheiro. The museum first opened in Alverca in 1971. It outgrew that site, and the Sintra museum opened beside Base Aérea n.º 1 at the end of the 2000s. Across all its sites the collection runs to more than 100 aircraft and about 9,500 catalogued objects. In Sintra there are more than 40 planes and helicopters, plus flight simulators, engines and propellers, spread over more than 8,000 square metres.

For younger children the fun is the scale: propellers taller than they are, wings you walk underneath, a row of aircraft that seems to go on for ever. Older children get the story of how flying changed over a century, from machines made of wood, wire and fabric to jet trainers.

You go in through the main hangar, built in the late 1940s. It covers 3,000 square metres and holds 42 aircraft arranged in date order, so walking from one end to the other is a walk through time. A long photo panel runs alongside and tells the story of the first 100 years of flying in Portugal. It starts in 1909, when the French pilot Armand Zipfel made the country’s first flying demonstration in a small Voisin Antoinette at the old Belém racecourse in Lisbon.

The museum lists some of its planes as rarities anywhere in the world: the Junkers Ju-52 transport from 1930, the Avro Cadet trainer from 1931 and the de Havilland Dragon Rapide. Children who know their planes will also want to find the Spitfire, the DC-3 Dakota and the F-86 Sabre jet.

Some of the most striking objects are full-size replicas of early aircraft. They look as if they’re made of sticks and cloth, and in a sense they were. The museum shows five:

• The 14-Bis, the machine Alberto Santos-Dumont flew outside Paris in 1906, which the museum describes as the first heavier-than-air aircraft to take off on its own. It had a light 24-horsepower Antoinette engine. The replica was built in Brazil.
• The Demoiselle XX, a tiny plane Santos-Dumont built and flew in Paris in 1907.
• The Blériot XI, one of the first planes to fly in Portugal, in 1910. Louis Blériot crossed the English Channel in one of these.
• The Maurice Farman MF-4, the first plane to fly over Porto, in 1912.
• The Caudron G.3, built in Portugal under licence in the 1920s, which trained generations of Portuguese military pilots.

Put a modern jet next to the 14-Bis and ask your child what changed: the wings, the engine, where the pilot sits. It makes for a good conversation about how engineers solve problems one step at a time.

Behind the main hangar are three smaller hangars dating from 1920, when the army’s flying school moved to Granja do Marquês. The first has a multimedia auditorium that shows films about aviation, and light civil aircraft such as a Piper Super Cub and a de Havilland Hornet Moth. The second is about the Portuguese Colonial War and shows aircraft used in the three African theatres of the conflict. That hangar suits older children and teenagers who are studying 20th-century history; younger ones will just see planes. The third holds jet trainers and a Dassault Falcon 20 that first carried VIPs and later flew test flights to calibrate radio navigation equipment.

Two 700-square-metre rooms cover civil flying. The TAP room tells the story of Portugal’s national airline since 1945 and has its first flight simulator for training pilots, plus old uniforms and the crockery passengers ate from. The ANA room is about airports. It has the original scale model of Lisbon airport, which opened in 1942, and the original equipment and furniture from its first air traffic control tower. Children who fly to see grandparents often like working out what the controllers did before screens.

The Pioneers’ Room covers the great early Portuguese flights on a big map, with personal papers, trophies and navigation instruments. The star is the 1922 crossing of the South Atlantic to Brazil by Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho, whose navigation methods were new at the time.

• Under-6s go free and mostly enjoy the size of everything. There are no play areas, so keep the visit short.
• Ages 4 to 7 can hunt for the plane with the most wings or the biggest propeller, and count the helicopters.
• Ages 8 to 12 get the most from the replicas, the simulator and the control tower, and can follow the audio guide.
• Teenagers interested in history or engineering can spend longer in the Colonial War hangar and the Pioneers’ Room.

When checked in September 2026 tickets were €3 for adults, €1 for children and students, €1.50 for over-65s, and free for under-6s and disabled visitors. Entry is free for everyone on the first Sunday of each month, which is worth planning around. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00, with last entry at 16:15, and is closed on Mondays, 24, 25 and 31 December, 1 January and Easter Sunday.

The museum is inside a military base outside Sintra town, so a car is by far the easiest way to get there. From Lisbon take the IC19 or A16, then the N9 towards Pêro Pinheiro and turn off where signs say Base Aérea N.º 1 / Museu do Ar. Follow any signs and staff instructions at the entrance. The museum lists a shop as one of its eight zones, but its website does not mention a café, so bring snacks and water.

Hangars can feel chilly in winter, so bring a layer. The museum has a free audio guide on the izi.Travel app in Portuguese, English, Spanish and French; download it at home and bring headphones. The virtual tour on the museum’s website takes you into several cockpits, which is a good way to build excitement before you go or to revisit afterwards.

According to Estrelas & Ouriços, the museum often joins in with Museum Night in May, and the base holds an open day in September with activities for children. Dates change each year, so check the museum’s website or social media. Groups and guided visits are booked by phone or email.

The museum’s second site, in Alverca, opens only on Mondays, when Sintra is closed; see our Museu do Ar in Alverca page. The third site, in Ovar, was temporarily closed when we checked.

The air base is a short drive from Sintra town, so it pairs well with a morning at Quinta da Regaleira and its spiral well. Palácio Nacional de Mafra and the Tapada Nacional de Mafra are a little further north. For more planes and engines in Lisbon, the Museu de Marinha in Belém keeps the Santa Cruz, the seaplane Cabral and Coutinho flew to Brazil.

How much does the Museu do Ar cost for children?

€1 for children and students, and free for under-6s, when checked in September 2026. Adults pay €3. On the first Sunday of the month everyone gets in free.

How long do you need at the Museu do Ar?

About one to two hours. Plane enthusiasts using the audio guide can stay longer.

Can you visit on a Monday?

The Sintra museum is closed on Mondays. The Alverca site opens on Mondays only, from 10:00 to 17:00.

Is it good for toddlers?

Toddlers enjoy the size of the aircraft and entry is free, but there is nothing designed for them to play with. Keep it short and bring snacks.

Can you get inside the planes?

The website doesn’t say you can climb into the aircraft on display. The online virtual tour does take you inside several cockpits.