Pima, AZ — Sunday marked the 40th anniversary of the Pima Air & Space Museum opening its doors to the public for the first time.
After 10 years of planning, on May 8, 1976 the Pima Air Museum opened its doors to the public with nothing more than a small ticket trailer, an initial collection of 48 aircraft and a chain-link fence surrounding the grounds. Over the past 40 years the museum has grown to now encompass over 250,000 square feet of interior display space on over 80 acres of outside display grounds, boasting over 325 aircraft and 125,000 artifacts in the collection.
An aerial view of the Pima Air & Space Museum (Photo courtesy of Pima Air & Space Museum)
“If it wasn’t for the vision of our original founders and then the determination and devotion of the staff, volunteers, board members, museum members, community leaders and donors the museum would not be where it is today and experiencing the positive growth that we are,” said Chairman of the Arizona Aerospaceb Foundation, Count Ferdinand von Galen. “It is truly remarkable to stop and reflect on the past 40 years!”
The museum has spent the past 40 years acquiring some of the rarest, as well as most diverse aircraft collection in the world. Alone, this past year the museum acquired a Boeing 787 Dreamliner from The Boeing Company, making it one of only three on public display throughout the world. Within the next month the museum will open its sixth display hangar, Hangar 5, which will add an additional 27,000 square-foot of interior display space and be devoted to WWII and Pacific Theater aircraft, including a B-26 Marauder and a P-47 Thunderbolt.
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