Combat Air Museum


The Combat Air Museum is a non profit aviation museum at Topeka Regional Airport in Williamsport Township, Shawnee County, near Topeka, Kansas. The museum is dedicated to the creation of facilities and resources for the education of the local and regional communities through the collection, preservation, conservation and exhibition of aircraft, information, artifacts, technology and art associated with the military aviation history of the United States.

The Museum and the Airport

Topeka Regional Airport is a joint civil-military public airport located six miles south of the central business district of Topeka.
Topeka Regional Airport is owned by the Metropolitan Topeka Airport Authority. The Museum rents two hangars from the MTAA. It is one of a handful of major aviation museums in the United States located on an active air field.
Topeka Regional Airport, formerly Forbes Air Force Base, is home to Forbes Air National Guard Base and the 190th Air Refueling Wing of the Kansas Air National Guard, the 1st Battalion, 108th Aviation Regiment of the Kansas Army National Guard, and other private commercial operators.
Visitors to the Museum are regularly treated to flying activities of Air Force tanker and fighter aircraft and Army helicopter operations. With the second longest runway in the State of Kansas, large refueling tanker aircraft of the Air National Guard and army troop transports often fill the skies around the Museum.

History

In the autumn of 1976, the Combat Air Museum in Topeka, Kansas organized as a wing of Yesterday's Air Force . In 1979, the group reorganized as "Combat Air Museum," relocating to Forbes Field Hangar #602.

Exhibits

Today, the Museum has 36 aircraft, mostly military, representing World War I to the present day, plus various aircraft engines, military vehicles and other military displays.

Aircraft

Nearly all of the museum's aircraft are U.S. military aircraft. Some are military versions of civilian airplanes, or civilian planes used for military purposes. According to the Museum's website, as retrieved in April 2015, the Museum has these aircraft:

World War I