Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum

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°01′05″N 96°19′12″W / 41.018°N 96.320°W / 41.018; -96.320
Type	Aviation museum
Founder	Col. A. A. Arnhym[1]
President	Clayton C. Anderson
Website	sacmuseum.org

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]

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]

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] Three large missiles are displayed vertically 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]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Strategic Air and Space Museum.

• Official website

41°01′05″N 96°19′12″W / 41.018°N 96.320°W / 41.018; -96.320