An aviation museum , air museum , or air and space museum is a museum exhibiting the history and artifacts of aviation . In addition to actual, replica or accurate reproduction aircraft , exhibits can include photographs , maps , models , dioramas , clothing and equipment used by aviators .
6-595: Hickory Aviation Museum is an aviation museum at the Hickory Regional Airport in Hickory, North Carolina . It features a museum located in the former airport terminal with artifacts, a hangar with aircraft and outdoor exhibits of aircraft on the former airport ramp . The museum originated from the Sabre Society, which was formed in 1991 to restore a North American FJ-3 Fury on display at
12-552: A ballpark in Taylorsville, North Carolina . Co-founded by Kyle and Kregg Kirby, it opened to the public on 19 May 2007. In 2021, the museum announced it would receive an F4F on loan from the National Naval Aviation Museum . In 2022, plans were announced for a new building located at Hickory Regional Airport. In addition to housing the museum's aircraft, it will also serve as a training facility for
18-605: A number of aircraft on loan from the National Naval Aviation Museum, including a NU-1B in January 2024. This trend continued with the announcement of the arrival of an AV-8B in July of that year. Aviation museum Aviation museums vary in size from housing just one or two aircraft to hundreds. They may be owned by national, regional or local governments or be privately owned. Some museums address
24-540: The Catawba Valley Community College . The new facility will cost a total of $ 22 Million, with $ 15 Million appropriated from the state budget and the remaining $ 7 Million from museum fundraising. Stipulations of the plan include relinquishing the spot the museum has within the commercial terminal should commercial operations return to Hickory Regional Airport. The museum broke ground on the new building on 26 October 2023. The museum has received
30-645: The ground or fly some of them. Museums that do not fly their aircraft may have decided not to do so either because the aircraft are not in condition to fly or because they are considered too rare or valuable. Museums may fly their aircraft in air shows or other aviation related events, accepting the risk that flying them entails. Some museums have sets of periodicals, technical manuals, photographs and personal archives. These are often made available to aviation researchers for use in writing articles or books or to aircraft restoration specialists working on restoring an aircraft. This aerospace museum–related article
36-519: The history and artifacts of space exploration as well, illustrating the close association between aeronautics and astronautics . Many aviation museums concentrate on military or civil aviation, or on aviation history of a particular era, such as pioneer aviation or the succeeding "golden age" between the World Wars, aircraft of World War II or a specific type of aviation, such as gliding . Aviation museums may display their aircraft only on
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