How the collection came to be
The museum was established on 14 December 1962 and dedicated in June 1963 in a cramped wartime building of some 8,500 sq ft at Pensacola, the air station where the Navy had trained its aviators since 1914. In 1966 the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation was set up to raise money, and it raised enough for a purpose-built museum. Construction began in November 1972. Phase I opened in November 1974 and was dedicated on 13 April 1975. Phases II and III followed in 1980 and 1990, and in May 1989 the institution became the National Museum of Naval Aviation, now styled the National Naval Aviation Museum. The Quarterdeck entrance opened in 1994, with the fifth Grumman YF-14A prototype, BuNo 157984, mounted outside as gate guardian. The Emil Buehler library arrived in 1992, the Cubi Bar and the giant-screen theatre in 1996.
The collection's headline loan arrived in 1974. The Smithsonian placed Curtiss NC-4 A-2294 at Pensacola, five years after it had been restored and shown on the National Mall for the transatlantic flight's fiftieth anniversary. The museum also acted as the Navy's programme manager for retired airframes. That made it a clearing house as well as a display, which is why the airframes it shows tend to come with exact histories: BuNos, squadrons and the names of the men who flew them. The SBD-2, BuNo 2106, survived Pearl Harbor on Ford Island. It bombed shipping at Lae and Salamaua from USS Lexington on 10 March 1942, and was flown at Midway on 4 June 1942 by 1st Lt Daniel Iverson of VMSB-241, coming home with more than 200 holes in it.
Much of the Second World War collection came out of Lake Michigan. Training carriers USS Wolverine and USS Sable worked from NAS Glenview, and dozens of aircraft were lost over their sides during carrier qualification. The museum began salvaging them in the early 1990s. F4F-3 Wildcat (ditched 17 August 1943) came up in 1990. SBD-2 2106 (ditched 11 June 1943) was raised in 1994 and put on show in 2001. F6F-3 Hellcat BuNo 25910, a VF-38 Solomons veteran lost in January 1945, followed in 2009. An F4U-1 'Birdcage' Corsair, the 312th built and lost on 12 June 1943, was recovered in 2010 and finished restoration in 2024. The only surviving SB2U Vindicator came from the same lake.
The galleries run roughly in chronological order. The South Wing carries the NC-4 and the inter-war biplanes, and the West Wing the war in the Pacific, with the PB2Y-5R Coronado BuNo 7099 that carried Nimitz's staff into Tokyo Bay. The glass Blue Angel Atrium holds four A-4 Skyhawks in diamond formation. Hangar Bay One brings the story up to date with Vietnam, the Cold War, Coast Guard and presidential exhibits, among them the R4D-5L 'Que Sera Sera', first aircraft to land at the South Pole on 31 October 1956, and F-14D 161159, which flew the Tomcat's last combat sortie on 8 February 2006. Behind the restoration hangar the outdoor flight line holds the larger types, Fat Albert among them. A C-2A Greyhound, BuNo 162159, was added in July 2026.
Getting in has been the difficulty. Hurricane Ivan damaged the museum and outdoor aircraft in September 2004. After the shooting at NAS Pensacola on 6 December 2019, the base was closed to the general public, and the museum stayed shut to non-DoD visitors until 17 May 2023, apart from a seven-month COVID closure in 2020. In 2026 it shut again during the federal funding lapse from 31 January. Public access was then cut to weekends from March, and flight-line viewing of the Blue Angels was suspended on 30 March. Daily public access returned on 1 May 2026 and public practices on 5 May. Capt Sterling Gilliam, a former Prowler pilot, has been the museum's fourth director since 2015.




























