The Spirit of Flight Foundation museum opened its new facility at Nampa Municipal Airport (KMAN) Oct. 1, 2022.
Relocated from Colorado, the museum features a rotating collection of exhibits designed to inspire generations to explore aviation and aviation history, according to museum officials.
Flying aircraft are on display to promote living history through ride experiences, they said, adding the new facility is also home for Spirit of Flight Productions.
The museum’s Oct. 1 opening featured aircraft flyovers, door prizes, music, museum gallery tours, and a special presentation by Navy Top Gun John Flanagan.
“We are excited to be able to open the doors…after 18 hard months of work to construct it,” said Gordon Page, president of the Spirit of Flight Foundation. “We have a lot more to do and add, but wanted to show the community what we are doing to save aviation history.”
The museum’s main building is 8,000 square feet, which includes 3,200 square feet of office and gallery space.
The museum site allows for a future 3,600-square-foot building to complement the Spirit of Flight Center campus,” said Page.
“It’s been a crazy few years trying to find a new home for the Spirit of Flight,” said Museum Director Chris Pedersen. “Visitors will be impressed at how the collection is set up in Nampa. It’s a wonderful facility.”
Founded in 1998, the non-profit Spirit of Flight Foundation features more than 2,000 aviation artifacts at the museum. Aircraft in the collection include a James Bond BD-5 jet, a 1947 race plane built by Art Chester, a 1936 Lockheed 12A, and a Radioplane target drone, built in the factory where Marilyn Monroe was discovered.
Nampa is becoming a “go to place” for those addicted to museums with the Spirit of Flight, MAF, and the Warhawk museum all withing walking distance of each other. Way to go.
I stuck my nose in there a number of years ago when I was driving through the area. I think that it was only worth a couple of hours, but as I recall, it was enough that I would have made a second stop if I had the time a few years later. It won’t be Dayton, Boeing, or the Smithsonian, but… with the additions from Spirit of Flight, it should easily be worth 4-6 hours. I haven’t flown into there, but my recollection is that it would be a pretty easy in and out. Nampa ID is on the west end of Boise, so there’s definitely enough to do to make a weekend of it. Hopefully, I’ll be visiting in the next year or so.
The location should have been part of the article.
Just a suggestion: For future articles, let your readers know where the airport is. Most of us don’t consider Nampa a world famous location. Per ForeFlight, KMAN is in Idaho.
Thanks—I was about to look it up?