Combat Air Museum

Set in active hangars at Topeka Regional Airport, the Combat Air Museum places historic aircraft back in their natural environment of concrete, steel, and jet noise rather than in a conventional gallery. Founded in 1976 as the Kansas Wing of David Tallichet’s Yesterday’s Air Force and reorganized under its current name by 1979, it reflects the broader post-Vietnam effort to rescue military aircraft from scrapping and dispersal. More than 40 airframes trace U.S. military aviation from World War I–era replicas through World War II trainers into Cold War jets and helicopters, allowing close comparison of changing structures, propulsion, and cockpit design across decades. The museum’s setting on a former Strategic Air Command base at Forbes Field reinforces that trajectory, linking hardware on the floor to the wider histories of continental air defense and training. Nearby, the Museum of the Kansas National Guard anchors the state’s ground and air service story, making this corner of the airfield a compact node of Kansas military heritage. For enthusiasts interested in restoration practice, organizational history, and the material evolution of combat aviation, the museum functions as a working archive in sheet metal, rivets, and composites.