The Historic Wendover Airfield is an aviation museum located at

Wendover Airport Wendover Airport is a county-owned, public-use airport located one nautical mile (2 km) southeast of the central business district of Wendover, a city on the western edge of Tooele County, Utah, United States, near the border with ...

Wendover, Utah Wendover is a city on the western edge of Tooele County, Utah, Tooele County, Utah, United States. The population was 1,115 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Description Wendover is on the western border of Utah and is contiguous ...

focused on the history of

Wendover Air Force Base Wendover Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base in Utah now known as Wendover Airport. During World War II, it was a training base for B-17 and B-24 bomber crews. It was the training site of the 509th Composite Group, the ...

History

Background

Due to the remote location and favorable climate, many of the buildings at the base remained in unaltered, although somewhat deteriorated, condition. For this reason, the base was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1975.

Establishment

The Historic Wendover Airfield Foundation was established in 2001 after Jim Petersen visited the airport as part of a tour group. The following year he became airport manager. The project began with the renovation of, and opening a museum in, the former operations building in March of that year. The Enola Gay Hangar was placed on the 2009 list of America's Most Endangered Places and as a result the foundation received a number of grants, including one from the

Save America's Treasures Save America's Treasures is a United States federal government initiative to preserve and protect historic buildings, arts, and published works. It is a public–private partnership between the U.S. National Park Service and the National Tru ...

program, that allowed the structure to be restored. This was followed by the rededication of the control tower in 2012 and the completion of work on the service club in 2015. The museum encountered some controversy when, in 2017, it agreed to display one of the one thousand origami cranes folded by atomic bomb victim

Sadako Sasaki was a Japanese girl who became a victim of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by the United States. She was two years of age when the bombs were dropped and was severely irradiated. She survived for another ten years, becoming one of the most wi ...

. The museum acquired a Douglas C-54 Skymaster in September 2020. Two months later, one of the barracks was destroyed by fire after a stove was left unattended. Then, in 2021, the museum unveiled a four phased plan, called "Save Where They Walked", for the restoration of many of the remaining buildings on the airport. The museum placed a replica of the

Fat Man "Fat Man" (also known as Mark III) was the design of the nuclear weapon the United States used for seven of the first eight nuclear weapons ever detonated in history. It is also the most powerful design to ever be used in warfare. A Fat Man ...

atomic bomb on display in June 2023.

Facilities

* 2410 barracks – restoration completed * Administration building – restoration ongoing * B-29 hangar – restoration ongoing * Control tower – restoration completed * Dining hall – restoration ongoing * Norden bombsight storage – restoration completed, 2013 * Nurse's quarters – restoration ongoing * Service club – restoration completed * Shower and latrine building – restoration upcoming

Exhibits

Exhibits at the museum include a replica of the

Little Boy Little Boy was a type of atomic bomb created by the Manhattan Project during World War II. The name is also often used to describe the specific bomb (L-11) used in the bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress ...

atomic bomb, an origami crane made by Sadako Sasaki, World War II homefront materials, World War II uniforms and prototype atomic bomb components.

Collection

Aircraft

Douglas C-54 Skymaster The Douglas C-54 Skymaster is a four-engined transport aircraft used by the United States Army Air Forces in World War II and the Korean War. Like the Douglas C-47 Skytrain derived from the DC-3, the C-54 Skymaster was derived from a civilia ...

Fairchild C-123K Provider The Fairchild C-123 Provider is an American military transport aircraft designed by Chase Aircraft and built by Fairchild Aircraft for the U.S. Air Force. In addition to its USAF service, which included later service with the Air Force Reserve an ...

North American F-86L Sabre The North American F-86D/K/L Sabre (initially known as the YF-95 and widely known informally as the "Sabre Dog") is an American transonic jet interceptor. Developed for the United States Air Force in the late 1940s, it was an interceptor deriva ...

Ground vehicles

* 1949

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

military police car *

American LaFrance American LaFrance (ALF) was an American vehicle manufacturer which focused primarily on the production of fire engines, ladder trucks, and emergency apparatus such as ambulance and rescue vehicles. Originally located in Elmira, New York, the fi ...

700 *

Ford GPW Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

Ford GTB The Ford GTB, commonly called the Burma Jeep, was a 1-ton 4x4 truck produced during WWII by Ford and was used primarily by the United States military, primarily the US Navy and Marine Corps. The GTB was used primarily in the Pacific Theater duri ...

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

/American LaFrance fire engine *

GMC CCKW 2½-ton 6×6 truck The GMC (automobile), GMC CCKW, also known as "Jimmy", or the G-508 by its List of U.S. military vehicles by supply catalog designation, Ordnance Supply Catalog number, was a highly successful series of Off-road vehicle, off-road capable, 2 1/2 ...

Events

The museum holds an annual airshow.

References

Footnotes

Notes

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.wendoverairfield.org Aerospace museums in Utah Military and war museums in Utah Museums in Tooele County, Utah