English: The Museum of the Vietnamese Air Force and Air Defence Forces is located in a northern suburb of bustling Hanoi, on the edge of an old air base. It is well worth a visit, with a small entrance fee of around GBP 3 / USD 5. The collection includes much material from the Second Indo-China War (Vietnam War, 1963-75) as well as the the first Indo-China War against French rule which ended in 1958. Later conflicts against the murderous PolPot regime in Cambodia are also included.

As you might expect, most of the complete aircraft are of Soviet origin, although later examples either captured in South vietnam or supplied by the US after the blockade ended are US machines, The surprise for me was the Nazi Germany 88mm Flak gun - just like the Airfix kit! This was captured in WW2 by the Russians, taken to Moscow and later supplied to the North Vietnamese as military aid - and it shot down a US jet too.

There is a large monolithic central building which displays a lot of smaller items including captured US & French uniforms and pilot's equipment as well as some good graphics explaining how both wars unfolded.

The Air Defence Service claimed 2635 kills from a total of 4181 US aircraft shot down during the Vietnam War, including 31 B-52 bombers, largely during the Tet Offensive of December 1972. Most Anti-aircraft gun crews were all-female.