Construction starts this summer on a new wing at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force near Dayton. The 224,000-square-foot addition will host the presidential aircraft gallery, an expanded space gallery, the research and development gallery, and a global reach gallery about airlift operations.
Museum Director Jack Hudson says the new facility will make the museum’s displays more convenient—right now visitors have to take a shuttle to hangars on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to see the presidential aircraft and research exhibits, and time is limited to visit the exhibits.
Funding for the $35 million project is being raised privately. An official groundbreaking was held Tuesday, and construction is expected to wrap up next summer with the new wing opening in 2016.
Lewis Wallace is WYSO's economics reporter and substitute morning host. Follow him @lewispants.
