Warbird Information Exchange

The Liberty Aviation Museum will be soon beginning construction on a third, 12,000 square foot hangar:

Liberty Aviation Museum

• Exterior

(Source: Sandusky Register)

As part of the "Maximum Effort" capital campaign, the Airman’s Fate exhibit at the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force will be expanded with the inclusion of an original German boxcar of the type used to transport American prisoners of war during World War II:

National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force

• Interior 1
• Interior 2

(Source: Vintage Aviation News)

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Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

The Air Force Heritage Park in Summerside, Prince Edward Island has an old site plan on their website:

Air Force Heritage Park

• Site Plan

(Source: Air Force Heritage Park, PEI)

The National Museum of World War II Aviation, which was mentioned in a previous post, had a groundbreaking on a 40,000 square foot expansion to the Kaija Raven Shook Aeronautical Pavilion on 13 August 2025:

National Museum of World War II Aviation

• Rendering

(Source: National Museum of World War II Aviation)

The Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace, or French Air and Space Museum, has had a large collection of aircraft held in reserve on the west side of Paris-Le Bourget Airport. Just like its American equivalent, Silver Hill, it has suffered the same problem of inadequate storage, forcing the aircraft to be kept in drafty hangars or even parked outside. However, the museum has been working to address this and, as noted in their 2024 annual report, completed a new, climate controlled 3,000 square meter (~32,000 square foot) hangar at at the south end of the site:

Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace

• Rendering

(Source: Atom Graphic)

This is not the first step in the process either. The museum had built another new 3,000 square meter storage facility in late 2020 on the northern side of the facility.[1]

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Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

A pair of renderings for the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre and an older unrealized design:

Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre

• Exterior

(Source: Scoop)

(Source: Marlborough District Council)

(Source: Marlborough District Council)

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Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

The Oregon Aviation Historical Society & Museum, back when it was still just called the Oregon Aviation Museum, had a very ambitious plan for a museum. The design by Gary Moye was to include four hangar galleries, a circulation gallery and an exhibit court, among other features:

Oregon Aviation Museum





(Source: Oregon Aviation Historical Society & Museum)



(Source: Oregon Aviation Historical Society & Museum)

Nine years later, significantly scaled down plans for a storage and restoration hangar were successful:

(Source: Oregon Aviation Historical Society & Museum)

(Source: Oregon Aviation Historical Society & Museum)

More recently, in 2015, the museum created a rendering for an interpretive center:

(Source: Oregon Aviation Historical Society & Museum)

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Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

The Cable Airport has plans for a 15,462 foot event center and 11,135 square foot offices/retail space designed by Michael Lewis Architects. Somewhere within that space is supposed to be an aviation museum, but it is not entirely clear where:

Cable Airport Event Center

• Presentation Slide

(Source: City of Upland via Facebook)

(Source: Adam Estes)

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Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

The Caldwell Collection at Mustang Field recently held its official opening on October 4th at El Reno Regional Airport, showcasing their renovated World War II-era Hangar 3. However, development does not stop there. Plans call for three smaller additional new-build hangars to the east of it:

The Caldwell Collection

• Site Plan and Rendering

(Source: Vintage Aviation News)

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Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

The Houston Wing of the Commemorative Air Force would like to build an Education Center on the vacant lot across the taxiway to the south of their current hangar:

Houston Wing of the Commemorative Air Force

• Exterior 1
• Exterior 2
• Exterior 3
• Interior 1
• Interior 2

(Source: Houston Wing of the Commemorative Air Force, Unlisted)

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Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

The plan that led to the now Sullenberger Aviation Museum was covered in the initial and a subsequent post in this thread. However, this was not the first time the museum had proposed an expansion. Luckily, the Wayback Machine grabbed the attached files from the museum's old website, so its possible to see what it had in mind. The documents, which date to 2005, call for a new 28,800 square foot hangar:

Carolinas Aviation Museum

• Hangar Study

(Source: Carolinas Aviation Museum)

• New Hangar Study
• Overall Site Plan
• Hangar Floor Plan
• Hangar Floor Plan with Bathrooms
• Hangar Elevations (Door for Boeing 757)
• Hangar Elevations (Door for only DC-3 or DC-7)
• Project Data and Proposed Floor Layout for Life Safety Plan
• Ferebee Building Elevations
• New Museum Hangar Site Plan
• New Museum Internal Rendering
• New Museum Hangar Aerial View Rendering

(Source: Carolinas Aviation Museum)

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Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

The Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, which was mentioned in three previous posts (1, 2, 3), recently held the groundbreaking for their new 131,000 square foot facility:

Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum

• Cultural Terrace Map
• Scale Model 1
• Scale Model 2
• Scale Model 3

(Source: Vintage Aviation News)

• Exterior 1
• Exterior 2

(Source: Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum)

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Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

Apparently there was a grand plan for an "Air Force Museum of the West” back in the 1980s. (For example, the now Aerospace Museum of California was briefly named the “Air Force Logistics Museum of the West”.) However, it was the March Field Air Museum that was to be simply the “Air Force Museum of the West”. Apparently, intended as a counterweight to the then United States Air Force Museum in Dayton, the plan never panned out. However, the March Field newspaper does contain a rendering of the proposed museum. It also has a few later ones of an unrealized version of the current museum.

Air Force Museum of the West

(Source: Newspapers.com)

March Field Museum



(Source: Newspapers.com)

It's worth noting that plans from 1986 called for a 200,000 square foot hangar. In the process of compiling this thread, one constant seems to be that aviation museums frequently dream of a much bigger space than they end up being able to build. For example, the Air Victory Museum that was mentioned in a previous post had a goal of a 400,000 square foot facility, but only ended up being 48,000 square foot hangar.

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Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

The Stafford Air & Space Museum announced plans for a 18,000-square-foot addition in 2018:

Stafford Air & Space Museum

• Rendering

(Source: Journal Record)

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Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster