Arkansas Air Museum - Fayetteville, Arkansas - Museum Featuring Historic Aircraft and Exhibits

Arkansas Air Museum is located at South School Street in Fayetteville, Arkansas and is just a short walk north of the Drake Field commercial aviation terminal. Drake Field is located on U.S. Highway 71 at the southern-most point of Fayetteville and the museum can be easily found by looking for the red and white aircraft beacon tower. Opening hours are 11am to 4.30 pm Sunday to Friday and 10am to 4.30pm Saturdays with the museum remaining closed on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

The museum first opened to the public in 1986 in one of the few remaining all wooden hangars from the Second World War era. It is now the largest air museum in Arkansas and was built as a tribute to the state's rich aviation history as well as coinciding with the 150th anniversary of statehood. Nowadays the museum provides a history of manned flight with of course its aircraft, engines, artifacts and exhibits.

Many of the aircraft housed here are still airworthy with examples dating from both World Wars, Vietnam, the Apollo rockets and much more. The collection here is always rotating as the aircraft are owned by private collectors and taken to air shows across the country. Therefore, no guarantees can be made about which aircraft visitors will see when they visit the museum.

One of those planes seen at air shows around the country is the LearJet 23, which was built in 1964 and is perhaps one the most modern craft to be seen here, along with 1960s helicopters. The Stinson S Junior is one of the older planes on display here and was built around 1928, and visitors can also see the Boeing-Stearman plane that helped trained U.S pilots during World War II. There is also an international presence here with a replica of an early British plane used in World War I.

There are many more examples of aircraft at the museum as well as rare engines that are workshop mounted and fully accessible, including some special manufacturer's cutaways that show the inner working. Here visitors will see examples of aircraft engines such as the Allison J3, which is a direct descendant of the famous jet engine design of Frank Whittle. Also there is a Rolls Royce engine, the Double Wasp, the X-Power from the 1950s and a rocket engine design that was part of the Saturn booster program in the race to the moon.

Numerous exhibits are featured here too that take visitors through the decades of aviation and each telling a different story, from World War I to the Space Shuttle program. Some of the exhibits are about personal achievements in aviation history such as that of Louise Thaden, who was the first woman to win major flying events, whilst another is about a local hero Richard Covey, who took part in shuttle missions. The story of Drake Field during World War II is also conveyed at the museum as well as other aviation archives from Arkansas' past.