Cold War Display Analysis at The Military Aviation exhibition: Norsk Luftfartsmuseum (Norwegian Aviation Museum, Bodø)

This exhibition is about the history of Norway’s military aviation and the science and technology behind it – from the testing and building of early aircraft and Northern Norwegian exploration to contemporary history. It tends to focus on the technical aspects of large objects such as aircraft, missiles and monitoring equipment and utilises traditional display techniques with labels, maps, photography, film and diorama. There are also reconstructed scenes in several areas, using mannequins to display uniform and military equipment. The space is split into mezzanine and ground floor, with aircraft hanging in attitudes from the ceiling and placed on the ground too. During this research visit, a new row of interpretation panels on Norway’s Cold War were being refined and have now been installed. Key events highlighted include the deployment of atomic weaponry in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the U2 Spy plane incident in Bodø and the background to Gary Powers’ intelligence-gathering flight.