New Hampshire Aviation Museums
If you're a fan of aviation history, or just looking for something to do this weekend, check out these aviation museums in New Hampshire
Aviation museums offer a unique and fascinating insight into the incredible technological progress achieved in aviation since its origins. Although they often contain rare and preserved aircraft, they also aim to provide education, creating interactive displays with multimedia presentations. Aviation museums can be incredibly varied, offering many different experiences. Visitors might be able to see a historical aircraft suspended from the ceiling, explore significant artifacts related to iconic figures in aviation history. Further still, there are air shows and other special events to behold. Aviation museums make for an ideal day out for both aviation enthusiasts and those wishing merely for an entertaining, educational experience.
Helicopter Museums
Helicopter museums are an exciting learning experience for those passionate about aviation. These institutions have a variety of aircrafts from different eras, allowing visitors to walk through history and get insights into the development of helicopters throughout time. At these museums, one can find both working and non-working aircrafts; some may even be used for giving rides! In addition, many of these museums feature interactive exhibits that allow visitors to gain hands-on knowledge on how aerial apparatus is operated and maintained. A visit to a helicopter museum promises to be an informative and thrilling journey into the world of aviation history.
There are a few airplane museums solely dedicated to helicopters such as the ones below.
| Helicopter Museum | Location |
|---|---|
| American Helicopter Museums | PA |
| National Helicopter Museum | CT |
| Vietnam Helicopters Museum | CA |
Naval Aviator Museums
US Naval Aviation has a long and proud history. It began in 1910, when the first aircraft was purchased by the US Navy and has since grown to become one of the largest air forces in the world. Naval aviators take part in both offensive and defensive operations, providing air support for ground troops, delivering cargo and personnel around the world, conducting search-and-rescue operations, conducting surveillance missions, providing medical evacuation assistance and performing other vital tasks. Today's naval aviators are some of the most skilled pilots in the world due to their rigorous training regime which involves advanced cockpit techniques, navigation instrument knowledge and weapon systems proficiency. This training enables them to carry out their duties efficiently, often under extreme circumstance. There are a few museums dedicated solely to Naval Aviation. For the purposes of this directory, aircraft carrier museums have been included in this list.
Set in the relocated 1937 terminal and control tower of what is now Manchester–Boston Regional Airport, the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire offers a concentrated look at how aviation developed in a small New England state and fed into wider American air power. The preserved terminal building itself, moved to 27 Navigator Road on the airport’s east side and enlarged in 2011, anchors the story: early commercial and civil aviation infrastructure that paralleled the old Manchester and Lawrence Railroad, marking a shift from rail to air as the primary vector of movement and, eventually, military logistics. Operated by the New Hampshire Aviation Historical Society, the museum focuses on documenting pilots, aircraft, and industries with state connections, placing figures such as Alan Shepard, Joseph C. McConnell, and Harrison Thyng in their regional context rather than as isolated national icons. For military history enthusiasts, the value lies less in spectacle than in tracing how local airfields, training activities, and aviation culture created a human and technical pipeline that fed the U.S. services across the twentieth century and into the jet and space ages.
For those interested in the military dimensions of aerospace history, the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord ties New Hampshire’s local story to the broader arc of Cold War and postwar defense technology. Dedicated to Christa McAuliffe and Alan Shepard, the center anchors two distinct yet related narratives: the civilianization of spaceflight and the military test-pilot culture that helped create it. Shepard, a Navy test pilot before becoming the first American in space and later a moonwalker, represents the close interweaving of naval aviation, rocketry, and early human spaceflight. Outside, the full-sized replica of a Mercury-Redstone rocket and the 1:1 Mercury capsule model provide a tangible sense of the engineering scale behind the first U.S. manned launches, a program rooted in ballistic missile development. The on-loan 1956 Vought XF8U-2 jet from the National Naval Aviation Museum further situates the site within the evolution of high-performance carrier aviation during the jet age. Taken together, the artifacts and context offer a compact study in how military research, test flying, and strategic imperatives shaped the technologies that later defined human space exploration.