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In Campinas, in the interior of São Paulo, an aircraft scrap yard has turned into an open-air airplane museum. The collection, made of retired fuselages, has already done business with Embraer and allows visitors to enter the planes, start the engines, and even buy parts.
An aircraft scrap yard in the interior of São Paulo has become an attraction. In Campinas, what was once an aircraft scrap company has transformed into an open-air airplane museum, where visitors can enter the aircraft, play with starting the engines, and even buy an entire plane. The pieces range from cheap souvenirs to aircraft costing around 100 thousand reais.
According to a report by g1, the airplane museum emerged by chance about 10 years ago and has an official opening scheduled for early 2027, although it is already open to the public. Leading the project is the owner Vitório Bim, who left the common scrap business to dive into the aviation world after a deal that even involved Embraer.
How the open-air airplane museum in Campinas works
The space is located on Lix da Cunha Highway, known as the old Indaiatuba Old Road, in the Três Vendas neighborhood in Campinas.
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Although the official opening is scheduled for early 2027, the site is already open for visits from Monday to Friday, from 7:40 am to 5 pm, with weekends available by appointment only.
Admission costs 20 reais for adults and 10 reais for children, with free entry for children under five and people over 60.
The main attraction is the interaction. Unlike a traditional airplane museum, where everything is behind ropes, here the public can enter the fuselages, sit in the cabins, and pretend to start the engines of old aircraft.
It is this mix of collection and play that has been attracting curious people and aviation enthusiasts to the old junkyard.
You can take an entire airplane home and turn it into a restaurant
In the airplane museum, observing is not the only option: almost everything is for sale. According to g1, a Cessna 150 model airplane can be taken home for about 100 thousand reais, while large aircraft are often purchased to become restaurants and even homes.
For those who just want a souvenir, there are individual decorative items, such as seats, tires, and mechanical components removed from the fuselages.
The owner, Vitório Bim, says that customers take everything, from larger parts to small objects, “even if it’s for decoration.” For him, each aircraft holds a story, and it is this memory that gives value to the collection.
Thus, what was a simple junkyard began to sell not only scrap but also aviation pieces to collectors, merchants, and curious individuals.
From junkyard to collection: how the airplanes get there
The aircraft arrive whole at the site and go through a dismantling process. According to aircraft mechanic Fábio Anderson Santos, the mechanical parts are reused in commercial aviation, but the shell, that is, the fuselages, has a very high recycling cost.
Without a destination, this material would simply be discarded and end up polluting the environment.
It was precisely from this limitation that the idea of the collection was born.
Instead of becoming trash, the fuselages that lost their operational function gained historical and decorative value, transforming the junkyard into an open-air airplane museum.
The solution combines reuse and income, giving a second life to structures that would otherwise be rotting in a yard.
The business with Embraer and the passion for aviation
The fame of the place grew to the point of reaching São José dos Campos, the city that hosts the headquarters of Embraer, the Brazilian Aeronautics Company.
According to g1, it was from there that a contact was made to see if the merchant was interested in buying an unused plane. The deal was closed and, in the words of mechanic Fábio, marked the beginning of an adventure that has lasted about 10 years.
The relationship with Embraer and the aviation world changed Vitório Bim’s routine. It all started when he bought a small plane just as a business card for the junkyard, and the public began to associate him with airplane scrap.
After that, he decided to specialize and even took a pilot course, not to fly, but to talk on equal terms with aviation enthusiasts who visit the airplane museum in Campinas.
Transforming a junkyard into an open-air airplane museum, where you can start the engines and take an aircraft home, is the kind of idea that mixes nostalgia and business.
Tell us in the comments if you would visit this airplane museum in Campinas and what you would do with a whole plane in your backyard.
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