If you take the Statale 13 Pontebbana road towards Pordenone and look on the right when you get to Fiume Veneto, shortly after the “Moro roundabout”, you will see a military fighter plane. But don’t worry, this is not the evidence of an emergency landing.

If you look at the direction its silver nose faces, your eyes will be directed towards a large warehouse on which you can read the inscription “Museo Aeronautico del Friuli Venezia Giulia” (“Aeronautical Museum of Friuli Venezia Giulia”) and you will discover the reason for the presence of the fighter here. It is a Swedish fighter plane, a Viggen Saab, one of the airplanes collected by the former pilot and flight pioneer, Giovanni Follador, in the course of 40 years of research. And what you can visit here is the only museum in Friuli Venezia Giulia dedicated to the history of civil and military aviation.

It all began with an old wooden propeller—states Giovanni—that once belonged to the first Italian aerobatic team, founded in Campoformido by Colonnello Rino Corso Fougier. Giovanni’s interest prevented this historical item ending up in a foreign museum and now this heirloom represents the number one of a rare collection of propellers that has no less than seventy similar pieces.

However, to say that it is an aeronautical museum is reductive: there are hundreds of uniforms, magazines, documents and period photos displayed, together with medals, trophies and weapons, including missiles, bombs and even a slow-running torpedo. The most important part of the museum remains the aviation section. On display are a splendid Macchi 308 airplane from the military aviation school, a Hawker Hunter fighter, a Fiat G 91 and several radio-controlled spy vehicles.

There are also the famous “flying bombs”—or rocket bombs—recovered in the former bomb factory of Fiume Veneto (later transformed into a cotton factory): here, during the war, the projects of Baron Wernher Von Braun, creator of the infamous V2 rocket, were constructed.

Giovanni will thrill you by telling you stories cocnerning the aircraft on display, while Tommaso, more interested in technical details, will be the guide during the visit. It seems that the huge archive will soon find a new site, one that is larger and more suitable for holding the entire collection, which you will be able to find with its new title: “Museo storico delle armi civili e militari antiche e moderne” (“Historical Museum of ancient and modern civil and military weapons”).