Fleet Air Arm Museum
HMAS Albatross, the primary naval air station for the Fleet Air Arm, the Royal Australian Navy’s aviation branch, is right outside Nowra.
The base’s museum holds a fleet of 34 aircraft, collected since the mid-1970s.
Some of the picks include a WWI-era Sopwith Pup, two McDonnell Douglas Skyhawks, two carrier-borne Fairey Gannets, a de Havilland Sea Venom, a de Havilland Sea Vampire and a MiG-15. Being a museum for naval aviation, helicopters feature heavily, with five Westlands, two Sikorskys, three Bells, a Bristol Type 171 Sycamore and a Eurocopter AS350.
These aircraft are neatly presented in a hangar, labelled with detailed information and accompanied by a wealth of equipment, photographs, documents and weapons going back to the dawn of naval aviation.