Hickory Aviation Museum is an aviation museum at the Hickory Regional Airport in

Hickory, North Carolina Hickory is a city located primarily in Catawba County, with formal boundaries extending into Burke and Caldwell counties. The city lies in the U.S. state of North Carolina. At the time of the 2020 census, Hickory's population was 43,490. Hickor ...

. 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 airport apron, apron, flight line, ramp, or tarmac is the area of an airport where aircraft are parked, unloaded or loaded, refueled, boarded, or maintained. Although the use of the apron is covered by regulations, such as lighting on vehic ...

History

The museum originated from the Sabre Society, which was formed in 1991 to restore a North American FJ-3 Fury on display at a ballpark in

Taylorsville, North Carolina Taylorsville is a town in Alexander County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 2,098 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Alexander County. Taylorsville is part of the Hickory– Lenoir– Morganton Metropolitan St ...

. Co-founded by Kyle and Kregg Kirby, it opened to the public on 19 May 2007. 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 the

Catawba Valley Community College Catawba Valley Community College is a public community college in Hickory, North Carolina. The college, established April 3, 1958, is part of the North Carolina Community College System. The main campus covers and includes 16 buildings. The col ...

. 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.

Collection

* Beechcraft T-34C Turbo Mentor * Bell AH-1W SuperCobra * Curtiss XF15C-1 * de Haviland Vampire * Douglas A-4L Skyhawk *

Grumman A-6E Intruder The Grumman A-6 Intruder is an American twinjet all-weather attack aircraft developed and manufactured by American aircraft company Grumman Aerospace and operated by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps. It was designed in response to a 1957 r ...

* Eastern FM-2 Wildcat *

Grumman F-9 Cougar The Grumman F9F/F-9 Cougar is a carrier-based fighter aircraft for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. Based on Grumman's earlier F9F Panther, the Cougar replaced the Panther's straight wing with a more modern swept wing. Th ...

Grumman F-14A Tomcat The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic aircraft, supersonic, twinjet, twin-engine, two-seat, twin-tail, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experi ...

– cockpit * Grumman F-14D Tomcat * Grumman OV-1D Mohawk * Hispano HA-200 Saeta * Howard GH-3 Nightingale *

Lockheed P-3C Orion The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a four-engined, turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft developed for the United States Navy and introduced in the 1960s. Lockheed based it on the L-188 Electra commercial airliner.