The McChord Air Museum is an aviation museum located at

McChord Field McChord Field is a United States Air Force base in the northwest United States, in Pierce County, Washington. South of Tacoma, McChord Field is the home of the 62d Airlift Wing, Air Mobility Command, the field's primary mission being worldw ...

near

Lakewood, Washington Lakewood is a city in Pierce County, Washington, United States. The population was 63,612 at the 2020 census. History Lakewood was officially incorporated on February 28, 1996. Historical names include Tacoma/Lakewood Center and Lakes Distric ...

. The museum is broken up into three separate areas: the main gallery, located at the south end of McChord Field in Building 517; the Heritage Hill Airpark, which overlooks the McChord Field runway; and the aircraft restoration and maintenance facility in Building 301.

History

Plans for a museum began around 1982, when the McChord Air Museum Foundation was established. By mid-1983, a B-18 had been transported to the museum, an F-106 at the base was expected to join the collection, and negiotiations were ongoing regarding the acquisition of a C-124. The museum opened to the public the following year in the Building 192. Over a decade after the last aircraft left service, a C-124 was flown to the museum on 9 October 1986. The museum began moving to a larger building in 1989. The C-124, along with a C-141, was moved to the newly established Heritage Park overlooking McCord Field's runway on 5 January 2005. An F-16 that responded to the

September 11th attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

was planned to go on display at the museum in 2006, but shortly before it arrived the location was changed to the

Western Air Defense Sector The Western Air Defense Sector (WADS) is a unit of the Washington Air National Guard located at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Tacoma, Washington. As a state militia unit, the Western Air Defense Sector is not in the normal United States Air Force c ...

headquarters building.

Exhibits

Exhibits at the museum include the former control tower of McChord Field, an F-106 simulator, and aviation artwork.

Collection

* Beech UC-45J Expeditor * Consolidated OA-10A Catalina *

Convair F-102A Delta Dagger The Convair F-102 Delta Dagger was an American interceptor aircraft designed and manufactured by Convair. Built as part of the backbone of the United States Air Force's air defenses in the late 1950s, it entered service in 1956. Its main purpo ...

Convair F-106A Delta Dart The Convair F-106 Delta Dart was the primary all-weather interceptor aircraft of the United States Air Force from the 1960s through to the 1980s. Designed as the so-called "Ultimate Interceptor", it proved to be the last specialist interceptor i ...

* Douglas B-18A Bolo *

Douglas B-23 Dragon The Douglas B-23 Dragon is an American twin-engined bomber developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company as a successor to (and a refinement of) the B-18 Bolo. Design and development Douglas proposed a number of modifications designed to improve th ...

Douglas C-124C Globemaster II The Douglas C-124 Globemaster II, nicknamed "Old Shaky", is an American heavy-lift cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach, California. The C-124 was the primary heavy-lift transport for United States Air Force (USAF ...

* Douglas TC-47D Skytrain * Fairchild C-82A Packet *

Fairchild Republic A-10A Thunderbolt II The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II is a single-seat, twin-turbofan, straight-wing, subsonic attack aircraft developed by Fairchild Republic for the United States Air Force (USAF). In service since 1976, it is named for the Republ ...

* Kaman HH-43A Huskie *

Lockheed C-130E Hercules The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally design ...

* Lockheed C-141B Starlifter *

Lockheed T-33 The Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star (or T-Bird) is an American subsonic jet trainer. It was produced by Lockheed and made its first flight in 1948. The T-33 was developed from the Lockheed P-80/F-80 starting as TP-80C/TF-80C in development, then d ...

* McDonnell CF-101F Voodoo *

McDonnell Douglas F-15A Eagle The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force selected McDonnell Douglas' ...

North American F-86D Sabre The North American F-86D/K/L Sabre (initially known as the YF-95 and widely known informally as the "Sabre Dog",) was an American transonic jet fighter aircraft. Developed for the United States Air Force in the late 1940s, it was an interceptor ...

Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw The Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw (company model number S-55) was a multi-purpose helicopter used by the United States Army and United States Air Force. It was also license-built by Westland Aircraft as the Westland Whirlwind in the United Kingdom. ...

References

External links

* {{United States Air Force Museums 1984 establishments in Washington (state) Air force museums in the United States Aerospace museums in Washington (state) Military and war museums in Washington (state) Museums established in 1984 Museums in Pierce County, Washington Joint Base Lewis–McChord

History

Exhibits

Collection

See also

References

External links