Mississippi Aviation Heritage Museum officially opens

GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) – The excitement was clear as the Mississippi Aviation Heritage Museum officially opened to the public Saturday.

© Provided by Biloxi-Gulfport WLOX
The excitement was clear as the Mississippi Aviation Heritage Museum officially opened to the public Saturday.

And a lot of hard work went into making the moment possible for everyone.

“This is a beautiful cause that we built,” said Project Manager Francisco Gonzalez. “This museum. Just by volunteers alone. It’s a different way of doing things that requires patience and persistence more than anything else.”

The museum features 17 galleries, hands-on displays, flight simulators, and kids of all ages seemed to have a good time.

“My favorite thing about the museum is all this history and all this stuff. It’s very exciting,” said Joe Wilson.

Carter Carpenter also expressed what his favorite thing was about the museum.

“All the planes,” said Carpenter. “And you get to go in a movie theater. It’s pretty fun.”

Parents also said they enjoyed the museum, including Brian Bowman, who loved that the museum had so much for children.

“They have some things for the children,” said Bowman. “The flight simulators and they get to learn a little bit about history and flight aviation. So, they have a little something for everyone. It’s really nice.”

This is all just phase one of the museum. There are plans to expand to the second floor, add a restaurant and observation deck. But to do that, the museum needs support from volunteers and donors.

“If you have artifacts or stories that you’d like to donate, we’d love to hear from you,” said Phil Harding, president of the Brown-Condor Association. “And if you have any funds, we’d like to move on to the second and third phase of this museum, we hope to make this a world-class museum but in the meantime, help us build it.”

The museum is located at 429 Pass Road in Gulfport and will be open every day next week during Cruisin’ the Coast. The hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $14 for adults and $7 for children.

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