Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum

The Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum is a museum focusing on aircraft and nuclear missiles of the United States Air Force during the Cold War. It is located near Ashland, Nebraska, along Interstate 80 southwest of Omaha. The objective of the museum is to preserve and display historic aircraft, missiles, and space vehicles, and provide educational resources.^[2]

Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird on display
Location within Nebraska Show map of Nebraska Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum (the United States) Show map of the United States
Former name	Strategic Aerospace Museum Strategic Air Command Museum Strategic Air & Space Museum
Established	1959, 1998
Location	Ashland, Nebraska (1998– ) Offutt AFB (1959–1998)
Coordinates	41.018°N 96.320°W / 41.018; -96.320
Type	Aviation museum
Founder	Col. A. A. Arnhym[1]
CEO	Michelle Chartrand
Website	sacmuseum.org

History

Establishment

Offutt Air Force Base, south of Omaha and adjacent to Bellevue, Nebraska, became the headquarters of the United States Air Force's Strategic Air Command in 1948, and continues as the headquarters of U.S. Strategic Command. The museum, then located at Offutt, began with its first airplane in 1959 as the Strategic Aerospace Museum. General Curtis LeMay's vision of a museum that preserved historic aircraft had become a reality. Over the following years, the outdoor museum's name changed to the Strategic Air Command Museum or SAC Museum. Ownership of the museum transferred from the Air Force to the state of Nebraska in 1970.^[1]

Move

However, by 1995, the United States Air Force Museum determined that the aircraft had deteriorated and was considering moving them to other locations. Three individuals, Robert Daugherty, Walter Scott Jr. and Lee Seemann, contributed $4 million each as part of a capital campaign for a new museum. Other contributions eventually raised the total to $32 million.^[3]

On 16 May 1998, the museum moved indoors to a location more accessible to the public, between Omaha and Lincoln, that allowed the aircraft to be protected from the elements to which they had previously been exposed. As part of the moving process, two aircraft (a Douglas C-124 Globemaster II and C-133 Cargomaster) were relocated to the Air Mobility Command Museum at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware.

The new museum building is a $29.5 million, 300,000-square-foot (28,000 m²) structure that features a glass atrium, two large aircraft display hangars, a traveling exhibit area, a children's interactive gallery, a 200-seat theater, a museum store, an aircraft restoration gallery, and a snack bar. The glass atrium is constructed of 525 glass panels that encase a pedestal-mounted Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. The two aircraft display hangars protect the aircraft collection and exhibits from harsh outdoor elements. The museum participates in an exhibit exchange program with other national museums and displays them in the traveling exhibit area.^[2] Four large missiles are displayed outdoors in front of the museum.

In 2001, museum officially became the Strategic Air & Space Museum as part of an increased focus on space, but the name change was unpopular with veterans.^[3] On 25 June 2015, the museum announced another name change to the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum.^[4]

Collection

Strategic Air Command shield
on exterior of museum

Lockheed U-2C on display

Aircraft

The collection includes the Apollo Block 1 command module from the Apollo program's uncrewed February, 1966, AS-201 mission

• Avro Vulcan B.2 XM573^[5]
• Boeing DB-17P Flying Fortress 44-83559 (Configured as a B-17G of the 96th Bomb Group)^[6]
• Boeing B-47E Stratojet 52-1412^[7]
• Boeing EC-135C 63-8049^[8][9][10]
• Boeing KC-97G Stratofreighter 53-0198^[11]
• Boeing RB-52B Stratofortress 52-8711^[12]
• Boeing TB-29 Superfortress 44-84076^[13]
• Convair B-36J 52-2217^[14]
• Convair B-58A Hustler 61-2059^[15]
• Convair F-102A Delta Dagger 54-1405^[16]
• Convair T-29A 50-0190^[17]
• Douglas A-26B Invader 44-34665^[18]
• Douglas C-47A Skytrain 43-48098^[19]
• Douglas C-54D Skymaster 42-72724^[20]
• Fairchild C-119G Flying Boxcar 51-8024L^[21]
• General Atomics MQ-1C Gray Eagle^[22]
• General Dynamics FB-111A Aardvark 68-0267^[23]
• Grumman HU-16B Albatross 51-0006^[24]
• Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk 85-0831^[25]
• Lockheed T-33A 58-0548^[26]
• Lockheed U-2C 56-6701^[27]
• Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird 61-7964^[28]
• Martin B-57E Canberra 55-4244^[29]
• McDonnell XF-85 Goblin 46-0524^[30]
• McDonnell F-101B Voodoo 59-0462^[31]
• McDonnell RF-4C Phantom II 65-0903^[32]
• Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21F-13 60-2105^[33][34]
• Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23
• North American JTB-25N Mitchell 44-30363^[35]
• North American TB-25N Mitchell 44-28738 – Fuselage only^[36]
• North American F-86H Sabre 53-1375^[37]
• North American RB-45C Tornado 48-0017^[38]
• North American T-39A Sabreliner 62-4487^[39]
• Piasecki CH-21B 52-8676^[40]
• Republic F-84F Thunderstreak 51-1714^[41]
• Republic F-105D Thunderchief 61-0069 – Located at I-80W Mile Marker 428.2^[42]
• Rockwell B-1A Lancer 76-0174^[43]
• Sikorsky H-19B Chickasaw 53-4426^[44]

Rockets and missiles

• Boeing AGM-86B ALCM^[45]
• Chance Vought SLV-1 Blue Scout^[45]
• Convair SM-65D Atlas^[45]
• Douglas PGM-17A Thor^[45]
• McDonnell GAM-72 Quail^[45]
• Northrop SM-62 Snark^[45]
• North American GAM-77 Hound Dog^[45]

Spacecraft

• Apollo Block I Command Module CSM-009 – Flown on AS-201^[46]
• Apollo Boilerplate Command Module^[47]
• NASA X-38^[48]
• Project Vela Satellite^[49]