The Combat Air Museum is a non-profit aviation museum at

Topeka Regional Airport Topeka Regional Airport , formerly known as Forbes Field, is a joint civil-military public airport owned by the Metropolitan Topeka Airport Authority in Shawnee County, Kansas, seven miles south of downtown Topeka, the capital city of Kansas. The ...

(

Forbes Field Forbes Field was a baseball park in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1909 to June 28, 1970. It was the third home of the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball (MLB) team, and the first home of the Pittsburgh Steelers ...

) in

Shawnee County Shawnee County (county code SN) is located in northeast Kansas, in the central United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 178,909, making it the third-most populous county in Kansas. Its most populous city, Topeka, is the stat ...

, near

Topeka, Kansas Topeka ( ; Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central U ...

. The museum is dedicated to the creation of facilities and resources for the education of the local and regional communities through the collection, preservation, conservation and exhibition of aircraft, information, artifacts, technology and art associated with the military aviation history of the United States.

History

In the autumn of 1976, the Combat Air Museum in Topeka, Kansas organized as a wing of Yesterday's Air Force (YAF) (of David Tallichet). In 1979, the group reorganized as "Combat Air Museum," relocating to Forbes Field Hangar #602.Combat Air Museum - Topeka, Kansas
KansasTravel.org]

Exhibits

Today, the museum has 43 aircraft, mostly military (mostly American), representing

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

to the present day (especially jets from the 1950s to the 1980s), plus various aircraft engines, military vehicles and other military displays.

Aircraft

World War I

Airco DH-2 The Airco DH.2 was a single-seat pusher biplane fighter aircraft which operated during the First World War. It was the second pusher design by aeronautical engineer Geoffrey de Havilland for Airco, based on his earlier DH.1 two-seater. The d ...

– replica * Curtiss JN-4D – replica *

Fokker Dr.I The Fokker Dr.I (''Dreidecker'', "triplane" in German), often known simply as the Fokker Triplane, was a World War I fighter aircraft built by Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. The Dr.I saw widespread service in the spring of 1918. It became famous as th ...

– replica * Fokker E.IV – replica *

Nieuport 27 The Nieuport 27 (or Nieuport XXVII C.1 in contemporary sources) was a World War I French sesquiplane fighter aircraft designed by Gustave Delage. The 27 was the last of the line of Nieuport "V-strut" single seat fighters that began with the N ...

– flying replica * Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 – replica * Sopwith Scout – full-scale replica * Etrich Taube – scale replica * Pfalz E.I – scale replica

World War II

* Beech SNB-5 *

Cessna AT-17 Bobcat The Cessna AT-17 Bobcat or Cessna Crane is a twin-engine advanced trainer aircraft designed and made in the United States, and used during World War II to bridge the gap between single-engine trainers and larger multi-engine combat aircraft. Th ...

* Douglas C-47D Skytrain ''"Kilroy"'' * Fairchild UC-61K Forwarder * Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-10 – scale mockup *

Meyers OTW Meyers is a surname of English origin; many branches of the Meyers family trace their origins to Anglo-Saxon England. The name is derived from the Old French name ''Maire'', meaning "mayor", or an officer in charge of legal matters. The English ...

Serial #1 * North American Harvard IV *

Vultee BT-13 Valiant The Vultee BT-13 Valiant is an American World War II-era basic (a category between primary and advanced) trainer aircraft built by Vultee Aircraft for the United States Army Air Corps, and later US Army Air Forces. A subsequent variant of the ...

Cold War

* Beech RU-8D Seminole * Grumman US-2A Tracker *

Lockheed EC-121T Warning Star The Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star was an American airborne early warning and control radar surveillance aircraft operational in the 1950s in both the United States Navy (USN) and United States Air Force (USAF). The military version of the Lock ...

* Douglas F3D-2 Skyknight *

Douglas TA-4J Skyhawk The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a single-seat subsonic carrier-capable light attack aircraft developed for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps in the early 1950s. The delta-winged, single turbojet engined Skyhawk was designed a ...

* Grumman F9F-5 Panther * Grumman F11F-1 Tiger * Grumman F-14A Tomcat * Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star *

McDonnell F-101B Voodoo The McDonnell F-101 Voodoo is a supersonic jet fighter which served the United States Air Force (USAF) and the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Initially designed by McDonnell Aircraft Corporation as a long-range bomber escort (known as a '' ...

* McDonnell F-4D Phantom II * Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21PF *

North American F-86H Sabre The North American F-86 Sabre, sometimes called the Sabrejet, is a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as the United States' first swept-wing fighter that could counter the swept-wing Sov ...

* PZL-Mielec Lim-2 * PZL-Mielec Lim-6R * Republic F-84F Thunderstreak *

Republic F-105D Thunderchief The Republic F-105 Thunderchief is an American supersonic fighter-bomber that served with the United States Air Force from 1958 to 1984. Capable of Mach 2, it conducted the majority of strike bombing missions during the early years of the Viet ...

Helicopters

Bell UH-1H Iroquois The Bell UH-1 Iroquois (nicknamed "Huey") is a utility military helicopter designed and produced by the American aerospace company Bell Helicopter. It is the first member of the prolific Huey family, as well as the first turbine-powered helic ...

* Bell UH-1M Iroquois * Hiller OH-23A Raven – under reconstruction * Sikorsky CH-53A Sea Stallion * Sikorsky CH-54B Tarhe

Drones

* MMIST CQ-10 Snowgoose *

Ryan BQM-34 Firebee The Ryan Firebee is a series of target drones developed by the Ryan Aeronautical Company beginning in 1951. It was one of the first jet-propelled drones, and remains one of the most widely used target drones ever built. Development Ryan Fireb ...

References

External links

*
Combat Air Museum Information – KansasTravel.org
{{authority control Aerospace museums in Kansas Museums in Shawnee County, Kansas Military and war museums in Kansas