The Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum (WOTR) is located on the former

Lowry Air Force Base Lowry Air Force Base (Lowry Field in 1938–1948) is a former United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) training base during World War II and a United States Air Force (USAF) training base during the Cold War, serving as the initial 1955–1958 si ...

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, United States. The museum preserves the history of Lowry AFB's operations from 1938 to 1994 in its collections, archives, and research library. Features of the museum's collection include the USAF's B-1A Lancer and

B-52 Stratofortress The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the United States Air ...

bombers and many other military and general aviation aircraft.

History

From 1937 to 1994 Lowry Air Force Base, located on the eastern edge of Denver, was primarily a technical training center. It graduated more than 1.1 million enlisted members and officers in skills ranging from armament to photography, aiding the country's war efforts in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Cold War. From the 1980s Lowry Air Force Base remained one of Colorado's largest employers, with approximately 10,000 military and civilian men and women, providing an economic impact approaching $1 billion annually. In 1994, the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

transferred Hangar 1 to a group of volunteers, who established Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum. The Museum includes more than 182,000 square feet of hangar space and 50 iconic aircraft dating from 1939 to 1990. In 1997, the Colorado State Legislature passed House Bill 1269 that made Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum Colorado's official air and space museum, and the site of the

Colorado Aviation Historical Society The Colorado Aviation Historical Society (CAHS) is located in Denver, Colorado and was founded in 1966. CAHS home is at Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum. The Society acquires, restores, preserves and provides for public display, aircr ...

Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame The Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame was established by the Colorado Aviation Historical Society (CAHS) in Denver, Colorado, USA, on November 11, 1969 for the State of Colorado. The original and first ten Colorado aviation pioneers were inducted in ...

Exploration of Flight

Exploration of Flight is a campus located at Centennial Airport that serves as the second location of Wings Over the Rockies. While the Air and Space Museum focuses on the history and heritage of aviation, Exploration of Flight is home to future-focused aviation and space galleries and exhibits.

Aircraft exhibits

Military

* Beechcraft UC-45 Expeditor ''42-37496'' * Boeing GB-52B Stratofortress ''52-0005'' *

Cessna U-3 The Cessna 310 is an American four-to-six-seat, low-wing, twin-engine monoplane produced by Cessna between 1954 and 1980. It was the first twin-engine aircraft that Cessna put into production after World War II. Development The 310 first flew ...

''57-5894'' *

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 ...

''56-0984'' * Douglas B-18A Bolo ''39-25'' * General Dynamics FB-111A ''68-0287'' *

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 ...

''159829'' *

Lockheed F-104C Starfighter The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic air superiority fighter which was extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the "Century Series" of ...

''56-0910'' *

Lockheed T-33A 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 ...

''56-1710'' *

LTV A-7D Corsair II The LTV A-7 Corsair II is an American carrier-capable subsonic light attack aircraft designed and manufactured by Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV). The A-7 was developed during the early 1960s as replacement for the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. Its design was ...

''73-0996'' ''"Speedwell"'' *

Martin EB-57E Canberra The Martin B-57 Canberra is an American-built, twin-engined tactical bomber and reconnaissance aircraft that entered service with the United States Air Force (USAF) in 1953. The B-57 is a license-built version of the British English Electric C ...

''55-4293'' *

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 ...

''58-0271'' *

McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber originally developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy.Swanborough and Bow ...

''66-0286'' ''"Julie"'' * North American F-86H Sabre ''53-1308'' *

North American F-100D Super Sabre The North American F-100 Super Sabre is an American supersonic jet fighter aircraft that served with the United States Air Force (USAF) from 1954 to 1971 and with the Air National Guard (ANG) until 1979. The first of the Century Series of ...

''56-3417'' *

Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler The Northrop Grumman (formerly Grumman) EA-6B Prowler is a twin-engine, four-seat, mid-wing electronic-warfare aircraft derived from the A-6 Intruder airframe. The EA-6A was the initial electronic warfare version of the A-6 used by the United S ...

* Republic F-105D Thunderchief ''60-0508'' * Republic RF-84K Thunderflash ''52-7266'' *

Rockwell B-1A The Rockwell B-1 Lancer is a supersonic variable-sweep wing, heavy bomber used by the United States Air Force. It is commonly called the "Bone" (from "B-One"). It is one of three strategic bombers serving in the U.S. Air Force fleet along with ...

''74-0160'' * Schweizer TG-4 ''92-1541''

Civilian

McDonnell Apollo Boilerplate BP-1101A Capsule

* Adam M-309 (No. N309A) * Aviat Special (No. N15JB) *

Ball-Bartoe Jetwing __NOTOC__ The Ball-Bartoe JW-1 Jetwing was a United States, US research aircraft flown in the 1970s to investigate blown flap, blown wing technology. Design and development The Jetwing was a small, mid-wing design powered by a turbofan and fi ...

Christen Eagle II The Christen Eagle, which later became the Aviat Eagle in the mid-1990s, is an aerobatic sporting biplane aircraft that has been produced in the United States since the late 1970s. Design Designed to compete with the Pitts Special by Frank Ch ...

(No. N6LA) *

HL-20 Personnel Launch System The HL-20 Personnel Launch System is a NASA spaceplane concept for crewed orbital missions studied by NASA's Langley Research Center around 1990. It was envisaged as a lifting body re-entry vehicle similar to the Soviet BOR-4 spaceplane design. ...

on loan *

Learjet 24 The Learjet 24 is an American six-to-eight-seat (two crew and four to six passengers) twin-engine, high-speed business jet, which was manufactured by Learjet as the successor to the Learjet 23. History The Learjet 24 was designed as an improve ...

(No. N241JA) * McDonnell Apollo Boilerplate BP-1101A (No. 101), on loan from Smithsonian * Murray Model T homebuilt helicopter, 1st to register in Colo. (No. N7222) * Piper J3C-65 Cub (No. N42427) *

Rand Robinson KR-1 The Rand Robinson KR-1 is a single-seat, single-engine sport aircraft designed in the United States in the early 1970s and marketed for homebuilding.Grimstead, Bo"Flight Review: The Rand KR-2" September 13, 2010, ''Kitplanes,'' retrieved Novemb ...

(No. N60BV) * Schweizer SGS 1-24 ''Brigadoon'', on loan from

National Soaring Museum The National Soaring Museum (NSM) is an aviation museum whose stated aim is to preserve the history of motorless flight. It is located on top of Harris Hill near Elmira, New York, United States. The NSM is the Soaring Society of America's officia ...

(No. N91888) * Sky Star Aircraft Corp Kitfox * Aerosport Woody Pusher (No. N393EA)

Other aircraft and related exhibits

Casis - Science in Space Exhibit at Wings Over the Rockies

Westinghouse J46 on display at Wings Over Rockies Museum

Space Station Freedom Space Station ''Freedom'' was a NASA project to construct a permanently crewed Earth-orbiting space station in the 1980s. Although approved by then-president Ronald Reagan and announced in the 1984 State of the Union address, ''Freedom'' wa ...

command module mockup built by

Martin Marietta The Martin Marietta Corporation was an American company founded in 1961 through the merger of Glenn L. Martin Company and American-Marietta Corporation. In 1995, it merged with Lockheed Corporation to form Lockheed Martin. History Martin Mari ...

with

CASIS The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), a non-profit organization, is the manager of the International Space Station United States National Laboratory, a US government-funded laboratory with principal research facilities located ...

' ''Science in Space'' Exhibit of the

ISS The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (J ...

* U.S.

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Astronauts with Colorado connections. * Aircraft engine collection on display, both propeller and jet engines * Nuclear weapons collection on display * The Aviator Uniform Collection Exhibit Room. * The

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

Exhibit. * The History of Avionics Exhibit Room. * The

Colorado Air National Guard The Colorado Air National Guard (CO ANG) is the aerial militia of the State of Colorado, United States of America. It is, along with the Colorado Army National Guard, an element of the Colorado National Guard. The units of the Colorado Air Nation ...

Heritage Exhibit Room with Buckley Field and Buckley Air Force Base exhibits. * The

's Heritage Hall featuring the

. * Rocky Mountain Airways Flight 217 Memorial * Former United Airlines DC-10 And Boeing 727-200 Cockpits, with open flight engineer post. * Lucasfilm X-Wing Starfighter: a 3/4 scale replica built to promote the re-release of the first three ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'' films in 1997. * MaxFlight: a 360° full-motion flight simulator.

Education and services

*Wings Aerospace Academy is a tuition-free enrichment program that offers hands-on programs from the Museum and online core courses provided by Elevate Academy, a certified, multi-school district charter school. The focus of Wings Aerospace Academy is to offer hands-on aerospace-themed

STEM Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...

experiences for students grades 6–11, with 12th grade planned to be added in the fall of 2019. *Teacher Flight Program – A unique aerospace program that encourages STEM teachers from across Colorado to become Teacher Envoys. It provides interested teachers with a free, 20 minute flight on a vintage 1940s Shearman biplane, and also provides other perks for their school, such as free entry tickets for all their students. The main goal of this program is to excite teachers and get them to inspire their students into undertaking an educational or professional career in the field of aviation and aerospace. *Summer Camp Programs – Four summer camps twice each summer offer insight into the aviation and aerospace industry. Camps include The Red Planet, Wings of All Types, The Good Old Days, and Rocket Science 101. *Technical Research Library – A library which contains over 15,000 book titles on aviation and aerospace and 800 titles covering ballooning, aviation and aerospace in English and other foreign languages. There are also extensive documents on Lowry Air Force Base history, including 1000 digital photos of the base. Other things from the library include retrospective airline tables, seat magazines and a collection of rare NASA documents. *''Behind the Wings'' – A television show produced by Wings Over the Rockies.

References

External links

Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum official website
{{authority control Museums in Denver Aerospace museums in Colorado Military and war museums in Colorado