State of the art Aviation Museum ready to welcome visitors
Bed Upreti Trust has finally accomplished the construction of the new state of the art aviation museum at Sinamangal, Kathmandu. The giant A330 museum is all ready to welcome visitors but it will be open only to students for a period of one week starting from yesterday. The museum is expected to be open for all the visitors after a week but the decision of doing so depends upon the authorization of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN).
Students, media personnel, guests and delegates from Nepal Police showed their presence at the first ever opening of aviation museum in Kathmandu on Sunday. Capt. Bed Upreti, the mastermind behind the success of A330 Aviation Museum gave the insight and main goals of the museum to all the attendee.
The museum holds more than 350 miniature models of aircraft that resembles Wright Brother’s first aircraft, fighter planes from World War I and II and other commercial airliners. Besides, the museum also features a real-life Ecureil AS350 B3 helicopter whose construction is going on currently.
The museum is opened every day from 10:00 to 5:00 (October-February) and 9:30-6:30 (March-September). There is a free entry for Grade 9 to 12 students for which letter endorsing the group visit from the school is must.
The normal ticket price is Nrs. 300 for Nepali citizens and 50 % discount will be provided to students with IDs whereas the ticket price for foreigners is Nrs. 500. Likewise, Nrs. 150 is allocated for handicapped personnel. All these prices includes 13 % VAT.
The Bed Upreti Trust is a non-profit organisation that hasal ready set up an Aviation Museum in an abandoned Fokker 100 in Dhangadi. The revenue from that project goes to assist cancer patients. This Museum is a sequel to the Dhangadi venture for which the Trust has partnered with CAAN. The Aviation Museum was funded by the savings of Capt BedUpreti, and Rs 20 million loan from Everest Bank. It does notget any other financial help from the government or other charities.
The main motive of the museum is to encourage the younger generation to be enthusiastic towards aviation career in Nepal, provide information about the history of aviation, create awareness about the challenges and opportunities in the aviation sector, attract tourists and mainly encourage and inspire students.
After the Airbus 330-300 went off the runway, its tail blocked the runway and Kathmandu Airport was closed for four days. It was in storage for more than a year before the huge aircraft was dismantled and reassembled at the present site. It took Nepali and foreign technicians more than four months to cut the plane into smaller parts and they were transported in trucks at 1-3 AM with cranes assisting at narrow bends along the way. It took another nine months to reassemble the plane.
