Heritage in Flight Museum

Heritage in Flight Museum occupies wartime infrastructure at Logan County Airport in Lincoln, Illinois, giving the collection a setting rooted in mid-20th-century aviation history. Founded in 1981 by Gerald Oliver Jr., the museum began around an ambitious B-25 restoration effort, initially based at Capital Airport in Springfield before relocating to Logan County in the mid-1980s. The arrival in 1987 of a former World War II barracks from nearby Camp Ellis, later renovated as a primary exhibit space, anchors the site in the training and support networks that underpinned U.S. air power. Over time the institution shifted from a single-aircraft project toward broader preservation, highlighted by notable feats of logistics such as transporting an F-4B Phantom II by helicopter sling load from Chanute Air Force Base in 1991. Housed on an active regional airfield, the museum represents how community-level organizations safeguard Cold War and World War II aviation material, from large airframes to equipment like period searchlights, while continually wrestling with hangar space, structural upgrades, and the long-term demands of conserving aging technology.