Aviation Museum of New Hampshire

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.