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 .
6-409: The Virginia Aviation Museum was an aviation museum in unincorporated Henrico County, Virginia , adjacent to Richmond International Airport (formerly "Richard Evelyn Byrd Flying Field"). Erected in 1986, the museum housed a collection of some thirty-four airframes, both owned and on-loan, ranging from reproductions of Wright Brothers kite gliders to the still state-of-the-art SR-71 Blackbird . It
12-593: 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 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
18-576: The Vultee V-1, among others. Data from the display placards in the museum. 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 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
24-435: 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 is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This aviation -related article
30-538: The roof and climate control became insurmountable, issuing a terse statement stating "[the building had] reached the end of its useful life." The SR-71 was moved to the Science Museum of Virginia where it is on display. The Shannon collection (acquired in 1981 when Sidney Shannon Jr died) was returned to Shannon Air Museum the year after closure. This collection includes the Pitcairn Mailwing and
36-555: Was a subsidiary of the Science Museum of Virginia . The museum was housed in the Martha C. West Building, a hangar named after Martha C. West, a pioneering aviator and the first president of the Richmond Women’s Flying Club. This building was originally planned to be a temporary storage facility until the actual museum building finished construction. That never happened and the museum closed June 30, 2016 after issues with
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