The Flugwerft Schleissheim is an aviation museum run as an annex of the Deutsches Museum, housed in a combination of the original 1912 Royal Bavarian Flying Corps hangar and a modern exhibition hall on the same historic airfield. The collection is one of the finest in Germany: more than 50 aircraft spanning a century of aviation, from an 1894 Otto Lilienthal glider replica through World War I fighters, World War II aircraft, Korean War jets, and Cold War-era military planes.
Highlights include a Soviet MiG-21, an American F-4E Phantom, a Messerschmitt 109, and several rare early German aircraft. Helicopters, gliders, and aero-engines fill the spaces between. The scale of the building gives the aircraft room to breathe, and the outdoor area holds larger machines including a Vietnam-era jet that would be too big for the hangar. A visit here makes an excellent pairing with the palaces — very different in character, but the contrast is part of the point.