Hickory Aviation Museum

Hickory Aviation Museum The Hickory Aviation Museum is located at the Hickory Regional Airport in Hickory, NC.
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Hickory Aviation Museum---Free Admission
Mailing Address: 3101 9th Avenue NW Box 22A, Hickory NC 28601

Today in MilAvHist, 9/6/1944, the McDonnell XP-67 project came to a flaming end. While on a test flight, the sole flyin...
09/06/2026

Today in MilAvHist, 9/6/1944, the McDonnell XP-67 project came to a flaming end. While on a test flight, the sole flying XP-67's starboard engine caught fire and was brought into Lambert Field, St. Louis.

Upon landing the test pilot attempted to pivot and turn the aircraft into the wind to blow the flames away from the fuselage, but the brakes then failed. The aircraft pivoted the wrong way and flames engulfed the entire airplane with the pilot escaping unharmed.

The XP-67 was a prototype for a twin-engine, long-range, single-seat interceptor aircraft for the United States Army Air Forces. The aircraft was plagued with problems and it's 9 months of flying were spent trying to improve poor engine performance and overheating as well as aerodynamic issues. (Museum of the USAF photos).

Today in MilAvHist, 9/5/1945, first flight anniversary of the Douglas C-74 "Globemaster" heavy lift cargo plane Serial 4...
09/05/2026

Today in MilAvHist, 9/5/1945, first flight anniversary of the Douglas C-74 "Globemaster" heavy lift cargo plane Serial 42-65402. There were only 14 built due to the cancellation of the contract after the end of WWII.

The Globemaster was activated one year later flying cargo and acting as a test bed to study long range cargo aircraft operations and a year after that, they began flying long range missions carrying supplies and supporting overseas deployments to Japan.

By 1959, the USAF retired the remaining Globemasters and most were scrapped, the rest were sold to civilian entities and the last Globemaster was done flying in 1969. There are none left after crashes and scrapping.

-Update from Hickory Aviation Museum as of 9/4/26:-We thank everyone who has visited us since reopening in May! By coun...
09/04/2026

-Update from Hickory Aviation Museum as of 9/4/26:

-We thank everyone who has visited us since reopening in May! By count, well over 20,000 guests have stopped in to see the new museum, restored aircraft and numerous artifacts that have been long stored in boxes. The bulk of the aircraft have been restored and moved into the new hangar, however, there are still about 10 remaining, and the next aircraft will be our LTV A-7A Corsair II BuNo 154345. These remaining aircraft will be the most challenging due to their exterior condition and the Restoration Volunteer Team will be hard at work soon now that they completed the F-5E Tiger II jet this week.

-We've also been working hard on acquiring new aircraft and we hope to have some announcements in the near future once 100% ironed out. We do know that one of them will be a TAV-8B Harrier two seat trainer. This jet, BuNo 164122, flew the ceremonial last formation flight at MCAS Cherry Point on 6/3/26 with VMA-223 "Bulldogs".

Admission Prices Effective October 1, 2026:
* Children 12 and Under are Free.
* Teens/Adults Ages 13-64: $10.00.
* Seniors 65+: $5.00.
* Active Duty Military/Active Reservists are Free.
* All Veterans $5.00

-The Museum Board of Directors are also hard at work formulating Membership plans for families and individuals as well as for tour groups and those will be announced at a later date.

-For Tour Group requests, the link to the online request form is on the main page of our website, www.hickoryaviationmuseum.org . Just fill it out and it goes directly to our tour coordinator who will be in touch. Please give as much lead time as possible, as we're completely slammed with groups for the remainder of the year and we want to be able to accommodate everyone's request as submitted.

-We are always looking for new volunteers to join the HAM team, please fill out a volunteer request form on the website and be sure to indicate your interests. We have jobs for everyone!

Thank you and enjoy your Labor Day Weekend!

Hickory Aviation Museum

Today in MilAvHist, 9/4/1954, two Soviet MiG-15's shot down a P2V-5 Neptune maritime patrol plane from VP-19, who were o...
09/04/2026

Today in MilAvHist, 9/4/1954, two Soviet MiG-15's shot down a P2V-5 Neptune maritime patrol plane from VP-19, who were on deployment to NAF Atsugi, Japan. Flying over the Sea of Japan on a routine weather surveillance and ECM gathering flight, 40 miles off the coast of Siberia, they were jumped and fired upon. The aircraft caught fire and ditched into the sea.

The aircraft immediately began to sink and 9 crewmembers exited and got into one of the rafts. The Navigator and Flight Engineer, Ensign Reid and ADC Mulhollum, were the last two in the aircraft, and according to Chief Mulhollums' son, Ensign Reid ordered his father into the last raft and cut it free from the aircraft just seconds before the aircraft sunk, claiming the life of Ensign Reid who was declared lost at sea. The survivors were rescued by a USAF SA-16 amphibian aircraft.

The list of aircraft that were lost during the Cold War is very lengthy, the majority of which were shot down. Cold War surveillance was a very dangerous job for aircrews, and their service and sacrifices should not be forgotten.

Labor Day Weekend hours:
09/03/2026

Labor Day Weekend hours:

Today in MilAvHist, 9/3/1969, our Orion, five days after being accepted by the USN, was assigned to Patrol Squadron Thir...
09/03/2026

Today in MilAvHist, 9/3/1969, our Orion, five days after being accepted by the USN, was assigned to Patrol Squadron Thirty as "LL-37".

VP-30 was established in June 1960 as the East Coast Fleet Replacement Squadron tasked with providing the east coast Fleet with trained pilots, navigators, aircrewmen, and maintenance personnel. At that time, they had their hands full as they were still supplying manpower for Neptune and Marlin aircraft on top of the new Orion aircraft.

In 1993 when VP-31, the West Coast FRS, closed, VP-30 became the only training squadron for the entire Fleet, or what was left of it, as this was during the era of the big drawdown of both Active and Reserve P-3 Orion squadrons on both coasts.

Today, the "Pro's Nest" provide trained personnel for the P-8A Poseidon aircraft. Photo credits on each image.

Monday evening, the newly restored Northrop F-5E Tiger II entered the building and our active Volunteers/Docents/familie...
09/02/2026

Monday evening, the newly restored Northrop F-5E Tiger II entered the building and our active Volunteers/Docents/families gathered for refreshments and to check it out! Team HAM is a great group of people who freely give of their time to make the museum the success that it is, and we can't thank them enough. You can learn about the jet in the aircraft section of our website, and anyone who is interested, we're always looking for volunteers who might like to get involved, we have tons of jobs in restoration, museum ops, etc. Come spend a few hours and see if you like it, the volunteer form is also on our website.

Today in MilAvHist, 9/2/1966, we remember LCDR Dick Oliver, Blue Angel #5. LCDR Oliver was flying his F-11A "Tiger" Bu...
09/02/2026

Today in MilAvHist, 9/2/1966, we remember LCDR Dick Oliver, Blue Angel #5. LCDR Oliver was flying his F-11A "Tiger" BuNo 141764 during airshow practice in Toronto, Canada when coming out of a knife edge pass into a roll, he impacted the surface of Lake Ontario and was killed.

LCDR Oliver was born in Massachusetts and his permanent home of record was Fort Mill, SC which is about 65 miles from our museum. He graduated from Duke University and entered the USN as an Aviation Officer Candidate in 1955. He completed flight school in 1957 and received his wings. After an instructor pilot tour, he would go on to VF-174 for F-8 replacement pilot training and then on to VF-62. Upon completion of that tour, he returned to VF-174 as an instructor pilot. He was selected for the Blues in 1964. He was 32 years old when he was killed.

When it was announced Hickory Aviation Museum was awarded a soon to be retiring Blue Angels F/A-18A Legacy Hornet in 2020, BuNo 162411, we had no idea we'd end up with #5. Shortly before the final flight to Hickory, the Blues leadership inquired about putting names on the cockpit and we're proud to have LCDR Olivers' name on the side of our Hornet, forever remembered.

Today in MilAvHist, 9/1/1967, the U. S. Navy's first dedicated search-and-rescue squadron, Helicopter Combat Support Squ...
09/01/2026

Today in MilAvHist, 9/1/1967, the U. S. Navy's first dedicated search-and-rescue squadron, Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 7 (HC-7) "Sea Devils" is commissioned at Atsugi, Japan operating UH-2 Seasprite helicopters. Previously, all Navy search-and-rescue had been performed by helicopter antisubmarine squadrons.

HC-7 will make its first rescue on October 3 while flying from USS Coontz in Haiphong Harbor, North Vietnam when a VSF-3 A-4 Skyhawk pilot ejected from his damaged airplane 8 miles inland and only a mile and a half from shore. HC-7 was operational until 1975, and their rescue record during the Vietnam War was nothing short of amazing, producing one Medal of Honor recipient and more medals and unit citations than I can count for their performance.

According to an outstanding HC-7 webpage, they show 94 rescue missions flown with 157 successful rescues on top of all their flights during their 8 years.

The HC-7 MOH recipient was LTjg Clyde Lassen who rescued friend of the museum and visitor when he's passing thru Hickory, Captain John Holtzclaw. He and LCDR John Burns flying their F-4 Phantom II had three surface to air SA-2 missiles shot at them and one detonated close enough to destroy the outer third of their starboard wing forcing them to eject into enemy territory.

Address

821 21st Street NW
Hickory, NC
28601

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 10am - 4pm
Thursday 10am - 4pm
Friday 10am - 4pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm
Sunday 1pm - 5pm

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