Want to know how aviation took flight in the Gulf region? Visit Al Mahatta Museum on Al Estiqlal Street in Sharjah. It houses old aeroplane models, photographs and plenty of trivia. For example, did you know that the first aircraft to land in Sharjah was a Hanno H 42 (Hannibal Class) built by Handley Page? The plane landed at 4pm on October 5, 1932, at the airport in Al Mahatta. The first cinema in the region was also at Al Mahatta, established in 1949 by the Royal Air Force. Staff photographer Ahmed Ramzan browses through the pages of aviation history
Right: Visitors in the Miracles of Flights section at the museum. In 1932, the first airport in the Gulf opened in Sharjah’s Al Mahatta, and was used as a staging post for commercial flights en route from Britain to India. The first plane to land at the airport belonged to Imperial Airways. It carried four passengers and its British captain, and came from Gwadar, Pakistan, en route to Bahrain.
Below: A little visitor seems mesmerised by the sheer size of the Rolls Royce Avon turbojet engine in the Flight Techniques section.
Above: Visitors get a chance to board the De Havilland Comet 2 G-AMXA aircraft in the museum’s Aircraft Hangar section.
The cockpit of the Vickers Super VC10 5X-UVJ. The aircraft was developed to take off and land in hot and high altitudes. The first VC10 flew in 1962 and only 44 were ever built.
A model of a glider designed and built by Otto Lilienthal in 1984. It was known as No 11 as it was the 11th that the German aviation pioneer built in a series of 18.
The museum retains its original architecture, including the old ATC tower. The airport at Al Mahatta was operational till the new Sharjah International Airport opened in 1977.
A pilot’s seat and control shaft (above) and (left) navigation and flight control instruments displayed in the Flight Techniques section.