The Air Force Armament Museum is a military aviation museum adjacent to Eglin Air Force Base in Valparaiso, Florida, dedicated to the display of Air Forcearmament. It is supported by the private, non-profit Air Force Armament Museum Foundation.
History
The museum opened to the public on 22 June 1974 in a converted 1940s era chapel.[1][2] Two years later, the Air Force Armament Museum Foundation was established with the goal of constructing a new building.[3] The foundation faced significant public opposition in its early years driven by a referendum to appropriate county funding for the new building.[4] After the referendum failed, the original building was condemned and the museum was forced to close in 1981.[5][6]
A new 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m2) square foot building located outside the base's west gate was eventually funded entirely through private donations.[7][6] The new museum building opened on 15 November 1985.[8] Shortly thereafter, an exhibit on prisoners of war was inaugurated.[9] Starting in 1990, a number of aircraft were received in quick succession, with an SR-71 arriving that year, a B-52 in 1991, and a MiG-21 in 1992.[10][11][12] An exhibit about Air Force Special Operations Command was dedicated in 1996.[13]
By 2007, the museum began raising funds for an educational annex.[14] In 2019 and 2020, a P-51 and F-86 respectively were experimentally wrapped in vinyl.[15][16] Following decades of planning, an African American Military Heritage Hall – the first of four Quonset hut styled structures – opened to the public in February 2022.[17][18][19] The B-52 on display was repainted the following April.[20]
The museum hosts the Engineers for America education program, which involves a school classroom tour of the museum with basic engineering experiments led by teachers and volunteers.[24][25][26]
^Doman, Joan, compiler; Savoir, Timothy; and Jones, George, eds., Air Force Armament Museum, Air Force Armament Museum Foundation, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida; Reprint rights 2010 by The Creative Company, Lawrenceburg, Indiana, 47025, p. 9.
^Gentile, Dylan (16 October 2019). "Big Blue steals the show". 919th Special Operations Wing. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
^"Gun Vault". Air Force Armament Museum. Archived from the original on 17 May 2007. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
^Doman, Joan, compiler, Savoir, Timothy and Jones, George, editors, Air Force Armament Museum, Air Force Armament Museum Foundation, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida; Reprint rights 2010 by The Creative Company, Lawrenceburg, Indiana, 47025, inside back cover.
Museum News, "SPAD-13 and Air Force Armament Museum", Aerospace Historian, Air Force Historical Foundation, Manhattan, Kansas, Spring/March 1976, Vol. 23, no. 1, p. 50.