The Quonset Air Museum was an aerospace museum located in Quonset Point Business Park in

North Kingstown, Rhode Island North Kingstown is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island, Washington County, Rhode Island, United States, and is part of the Providence metropolitan area. The population was 27,732 in the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. North Kingstow ...

. The museum's collection included:

missile In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket i ...

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines ...

and over 5000 smaller aviation artifacts. An extensive archive of magazines, manuals, photos and

blueprint A blueprint is a reproduction of a technical drawing or engineering drawing using a contact print process on light-sensitive sheets. Introduced by Sir John Herschel in 1842, the process allowed rapid and accurate production of an unlimited number ...

s were stored within the Quonset Air Museum. Notable aircraft in the collection included the last surviving

Curtiss XF15C The Curtiss XF15C-1 is a mixed-propulsion fighter prototype of the 1940s. It was among a number of similar designs ordered by the US Navy before pure-jet aircraft had demonstrated their ability to operate from carriers and the mixed-propulsion de ...

mixed propulsion prototype and a

twin tail A twin tail is a specific type of vertical stabilizer arrangement found on the empennage of some aircraft. Two vertical stabilizers—often smaller on their own than a single conventional tail would be—are mounted at the outside of the aircra ...

C-1A Trader. This one of a kind aircraft had been fitted with twin tails and radome (but without associated electronics) to serve the aerodynamic prototype for the

E-1 Tracer The Grumman E-1 Tracer was the first purpose-built airborne early warning aircraft used by the United States Navy. It was a derivative of the Grumman C-1 Trader and entered service in 1958. It was replaced by the more modern Grumman E-2 Hawke ...

Electronic Counter Measure aircraft. This C-1A has the distinction of being the last aircraft to fly from Naval Air Station Quonset Point upon its closure in 1974. The museum housed several

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

era

as well as the legendary

Grumman F-14 Tomcat The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, twin-tail, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experimental (VFX) program after the ...

almost all the air craft and most small items were on loan from USN Heritage, Pensacola Florida.

History

The museum recovered an F6F-5 Hellcat from Martha's Vineyard on 4 December 1993. It became the subject of a court battle after the U.S. Navy claimed that the aircraft had been salvaged without their permission. Eventually, a settlement was reached where the museum received the aircraft on loan from the Navy. An

Antonov An-2 The Antonov An-2 ("kukuruznik"—corn crop duster; USAF/DoD reporting name Type 22, NATO reporting name Colt) is a Soviet mass-produced single-engine biplane utility/agricultural aircraft designed and manufactured by the Antonov Design Bure ...

at the museum was given to the Antonov Foundation in 2004. The following year David H. Payne Sr. became the museum president. The museum occupied Painting Hangar #488 located at what was once the

Naval Air Station Quonset Point A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It includ ...

. This 50,000 sq. ft. facility was one of only three existing specialized wood and brick

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

s built during

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Heavy snowfall in March 2015 partially collapsed the building's roof and the hangar was condemned. In January 2016, plans for a new museum were announced. The museum was originally supposed to leave by April 2, but it was given an extension. Later, in June, a $4 million request for state funding failed to materialize. On December 16, 2016, it was announced that the museum would not reopen. Although many aircraft in the collection have been transferred to other museums, the museum's P2V was scrapped in May 2018, as it was too large to move.

Formerly on display

''01215'' * Douglas AD-5W Skyraider ''135188'' * Douglas A-4M Skyhawk, BuNo ''158148'' * Douglas F3D-2Q Skyknight ''124620'' *

FV433 Abbot SPG FV433, 105mm, Field Artillery, Self-Propelled "Abbot" is the self-propelled artillery, or more specifically self-propelled gun Self-propelled artillery (also called locomotive artillery) is artillery equipped with its own propulsion sy ...

* General Motors TBM-3E Avenger ''53914'' *

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 ...

''155629'' * Grumman C-1A Trader ''136792'' *

Grumman F6F Hellcat The Grumman F6F Hellcat is an American Carrier-based aircraft, carrier-based fighter aircraft of World War II. Designed to replace the earlier Grumman F4F Wildcat, F4F Wildcat and to counter the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero, it was the United St ...

3/4 scale hand built *

''70185'' *

Hughes OH-6 Cayuse The Hughes OH-6 Cayuse is a single-engine light helicopter that was designed and produced by the American aerospace company Hughes Helicopters. Its formal name is derived from the Cayuse people while its "Loach" nickname comes from the acronym f ...

Lockheed P2V Neptune The Lockheed P-2 Neptune (designated P2V by the United States Navy prior to September 1962) is a Maritime patrol aircraft, maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft. It was developed for the US Navy by Lockheed Corporation, Lockh ...

''131427'' *

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 ...

''75-0408'' * M35 Recovery Truck *

McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) AV-8B Harrier II is a single-engine ground-attack aircraft that constitutes the second generation of the Harrier family, capable of vertical or short takeoff and landing (V/STOL). The aircraft is primari ...

* McDonnell Douglas F-4A Phantom II *

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17F The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-17; NATO reporting name: Fresco) is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 and was operated by air forces internationally. The MiG-17 ...

MIM-14 Nike-Hercules The Nike Hercules, initially designated SAM-A-25 and later MIM-14, was a surface-to-air missile (SAM) used by U.S. and NATO armed forces for medium- and high-altitude long-range air defense. It was normally armed with the W31 nuclear warhead, but ...

* Sikorsky SH-3H Sea King ''149738'' *

Silkworm missile The SY (), and HY () series were early anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM) developed by the People's Republic of China from the Soviet P-15 Termit missile. They entered service in the late 1960s and remained the main ASCMs deployed by the People's L ...

* Type 74 37 mm AA gun * ZPU-4 Type 56 AA gun

References

External links

Quonset Air Museum Website
Photos of aircraft and aviation related exhibits at the Quonset Air Museum {{authority control Museums in Washington County, Rhode Island Aerospace museums in Rhode Island Military and war museums in Rhode Island Buildings and structures in North Kingstown, Rhode Island