The air force museum in Dęblin

Today, being World Car-Free Day, Koleje Mazowieckie once again refused to take money for train tickets, and one could travel all over the network for free. This year, I decided to visit Dęblin, in particular the Air Force Museum. And on arrival, I discovered that today, a Tuesday, entrance was free too. Great! Below: 'Attacker Avenue' and a vista of old Soviet MiGs and Sukhois and the occasional helicopter.

But the getting there could be easier... Below: Over the Vistula by electrical traction, out of Mazowsze and into Lubelskie, till we come to a town associated with Polish military aviation – Dęblin.

Dęblin (pop. 13,000) reminds me of Warka (pop. 11,500) as it used to be before Warka Miasto opened. Dęblin's one station is a long way from the town centre – three and half kilometres to be precise! 

And the town's bus service is pathetic. There are four weekday bus routes, an hourly service from the station to the main market square that departs four minutes before the train from Radom arrives in Dęblin. Left: bus route no. 2; just two buses a day to the railway station, in the early afternoon. That's it.

So it's wait nearly an hour or walk for 45 minutes (I can't complain; it stayed dry and I covered 20,000 paces today). Public transport – not that good. And by car from Warsaw – be warned of roadworks on the DK48 along the way, the museum's website says.

Despite the difficulty of getting here, if you are into military aviation history in the slightest, this museum is a must-visit, along with the one in Kraków. Below: A Polish Air Force MiG-21 in NATO Tiger Meet colours.

Dęblin has been home to the Polish Air Force's training school since 1925; today there was much activity with four fast-jet take-offs, many helicopters circling around the base and piston-powered basic trainers practicing touch-and-goes, just the other side of the museum's perimeter fence. 

Left: rear end of an Ilyushin Il-28, NATO codename 'Beagle', and in the sky above it a Diamond DA-20 Katana trainer.

Dęblin – where NATO's top guns would whoop it up... but where? The town is decidedly dull. I am a great fan of Poland's progress, and in Dęblin I can see new asphalt and pavements, but, other than four kebab shops and a couple of Viet-Pol restaurants – like, where's the action for the airmen?

All in all, Dęblin is not as good in terms of the actual aircraft on show as I remember Kraków's Air Museum to be; my interest not being in the vast display of old Soviet kit at both museums, rather pre-war Polish and NATO aircraft from the Cold War. Thankfully, the good stuff is in hangars rather than exposed to the elements. Below: a British Miles Magister basic trainer that Polish fighter pilots got started on, and behind it a Polish designed-and-built LWD Junak basic trainer from the 1950s.

I did appreciate the indoor exhibition with its focus on the interwar years and the Polish Air Force fighting alongside the RAF in WW2.  Below: an interior representing RAF Northolt in the glory days, the peak of the Battle of Britain, when 303 (Polish) Fighter Squadron was the top-scoring unit defending the British Isles.

There was a smaller part of the indoor exhibition featuring Polish aviation within the Warsaw Pact. One chilling exhibit was this large wall-map showing the direction of the thrusts of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Western Europe, as planned in the 1980s. By D+3, Polish forces were expected to have been 270km into West Germany

Below: a LIM-2, being a Polish licence-built version of the ubiquitous Soviet MiG-15bis first-generation jet fighter.

Below: flight deck of a Polish Air Force Antonov An-26 (like this one, snapped over Jeziorki near the end of its career).

This time last year
Mińsk Mazowiecki (by Koleje Mazowieckie, for free)

This time two years ago:
Car-free day 2024 - Łowicz

This time five years ago
Into darkness

This time eight years ago:
Summer's end

This time nine years ago:
In which I lose a lot of data from my old laptop

This time ten years ago:
Konin – town of aluminium, electricity and coal

This time 13 years ago:
Car-free day falls on a Sunday

This time 14 years ago:
Vistula at record low level

This time 17 years ago:
Car-free day? Warsaw's roads busier than ever

This time 18 years ago:
The shape of equinox

This time 19 years ago:
Potato harvest time in Jeziorki