Cold War Air Museum - Not Just Kidding Around

Education and Exhibition are part of the foundation of the Cold War Air Museum mission. Our ability to combine these elements draws groups like the one below to the museum.  With an environment that supports seeing, touching, hearing and yes, even smelling cold war era aircraft, visitors like this school group will go home with unique memories to link with their history lessons.

Students and Associates alike enjoy their visit.

How many kids can fit inside an Mi24? (not in flight!)

About the same number as fit on a MiG-21 wing

(definitely not in flight)!

Associates and Volunteers at the Museum may not realize that they are already a part of history in these students eyes, but they enjoy having an attentive audience and expect the students will learn from their day's experience.

The Cold War Air Museum is open every Saturday from 10 till 4. Admission is free, however visitor donations are gladly accepted!. Tours and special events can be arranged for other times.

The city, airport and both museums on the field host a number of events at the airport every year. Check our Current Events page from time to time for special events. Driving directions are available on our area map page.

Thanks for visiting, see you soon!

Cold War Air Museum elects a new Director

Although Phil Davis has been introduced and pictured many times before, today is a special chance to recognize him in our blog.

A retired IBM'er and Cold War Era Veteran, Phil has been a volunteer with the museum for more than four years. He has seen the problems and challanges we face and helped present our programs. In addittion to his business experience, Phil has also served in other fund-raising and charitable organization roles. Now on the Board of Directors, he is ready to help us expand and challange the community to help us grow.

We may get a better picture of him for the main Cold War Air Museum web site when it is updated, but this picture serves him well, as every visitor he has greeted will instantly recognize and remember that smile.

If you are new to our blog, The Cold War Air Museum is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to the restoration and maintenance of Cold War era aircraft with a special emphasis on aircraft flown by the former Soviet Union. The Cold War Air Museum, Inc. is a member of the Texas Association of Museums, the American Association of Museums, and the North Texas Association of Aviation Museums. We are located at the Lancaster Regional Airport in Lancaster Texas, a suburb of Dallas/Ft Worth. Aircraft associated with the Museum have participated in local, regional and national fly-ins both in static and in-flight displays. Through its web presence, the Museum also actively displays its aircraft, exhibits and programs to viewers in all 50 states and more than 30 foreign countries.

The Cold War Air Museum is a collection of Sponsors, Volunteers, Programs, Facilities, Aircraft and Exhibits. We work with local schools and charities in fund-raising events and civic, science and technical training programs. Many outstanding and experienced individuals support us with the donation of their time and aircraft. Last year more than 4,000 visitors passed through our facility, we hosted or co-hosted five on-airport events and participated in eleven off-airport events before crowds totaling in excess of 40,000. You can click on the "event" label below to view pictures and stories from some of these events.

We are glad to have Phil as a new director, he can be reached by email at email Phil Davis or through links on the main museum web site. He is anxious to hear from new volunteers.

The Museum is open to the public at no charge every Saturday from 10 to 4, check the museum schedule and location page for an aerial view of the airport and parking areas or click here for an area map. Select "get directions" for driving assistance.

Cold War Air Museum Brochure - Side 2

The Cold War Air Museum will soon be reprinting, and possibly revising, its brochures. The "inside" pages of the current brochure are shown below.



These pages are colorful and interesting, providing scenes and stories from the four decades of history covered by the Cold War period. Sharing this brochure with our web visitors is part of extending the physical presence of the museum to the web and an invitation to share ideas on how to improve our message or graphics in our next generation printing.

Covered in the previous blog piece, Cold War Air Museum - Side 1, the outside pages of the brochure speak to the museum's mission, patriotic values we celebrate as part of that mission and our location.

Cold War Air Museum Brochure - Side 1

The Cold War Air Museum will soon be reprinting, and possibly revising, its brochures. The "outside" pages of the current brochure are shown below.



These pages are colorful and provide information about the museum's mission, important patriotic values that we appreciate and celebrate as part of that mission and where we are located. Sharing this brochure with our web visitors is part of extending the physical presence of the museum to the web and an invitation to share ideas on how to improve our message or graphics in our next generation printing.

The inside pages of the brochure include pictures and snippets of history from the cold war era and are displayed in the next blog piece, Cold War Air Museum - Side 2.

Visitor update

Every so often, its fun to post maps showing the last hundred visitors to our blog.

Although the main Cold War Air Museum web site gets more total hits, the blog site gets a higher percentage of International hits. The higher number of International hits is an interesting aspect of blog linking as compared to the more standard Google searches for Museum topics that are directed to the main site.

It is also interesting to watch the patterns change, The maps above are from three days apart. We thank everyone for coming to either site and hope that our blog helps bring visitors to the Museum and what we have to show and tell.

Wherever you are, let us know what topics interest you and invite your friends to come and visit too!

A Commendation

In addition to restoring and preserving aircraft, the museum's mission also includes acting as a resource for school programs. Many of our current and past activities are listed on our main web site. Recently we received a Certificate of Appreciation from State Senator Royce West in recognition of some of these activities.


We are proud of the work we have done and the recognition we are starting to receive. With the help of our Associates, Volunteers and Sponsors we intend to continue to expand. Thank You All! For a job well done.

Cold War Air Museum - Getting more visitors

We are pleased that our web following continues to evolve and grow. Our visitor maps, like this one, show a constantly changing pattern formed by our last 100 visitors.

Short term "hit" data helps us see the popularity of our most recent posts. By providing a mix of topics, stories and authors, we intend to reach out to a larger and more diverse audience. When we concentrate too long on one topic, we tend to see the viewership drop off. So when we have a long running series about a topic, we will start to try to mix in some posts on other items of interest. If you find a post on a particular day boring, please come back and try again tomorrow. Or, leave a helpful comment about what you would like and how we can improve our web experience. And, if you have information or a story that is relevant, please send us an email and let us know.

Our other graphic shows a week's worth of recent visitors by region. Click on the image to see a larger, more readable copy. Visitors came from 30 different countries and within the U.S. from 32 different states.

Many "hits" are a single individual, from a single city or country. We are glad you came to visit and hope you'll come again, but please tell a friend about us as well. There is nothing we would like more than to see both of you come see us next time.

Thanks, for visiting, and come again!

All Over the World

Recently we gave a museum briefing to a local community group that included a retired general and a retired admiral (who asked many good questions!) Some of the things we shared with them and learned from them will be in future blog posts. One of the things they found interesting was how our exhibits, programs and aircraft are on display 24/7, "all over the world" through the web.

While we are very pleased that we had more than 4,000 visitors at "our place" last year, we are even more pleased that we could take the museum to 10-20 times as many by visiting "their place", through airshows and through the web. The snapshot below shows recent web visitors from around the U.S. and around the world.

Mission Objectives

Last week, Phil Davis and I had the pleasure of attending a luncheon hosted by the High Noon Club of Dallas. The guest speaker and program for the day was B. G. Burkett and his book Stolen Valor. When asked to help with fund raising for the Texas Vietnam Memorial, Mr. Burkett found that there was a lot of public misinformation about veterans in our society. Contrary to the image generated by the media, American Veterans as a group are more stable, better educated and more successful than equivalent non-veterans in each socio-economic group. Mr. Burkett's book is well researched and well written. A veteran of Vietnam himself, Mr. Burkett is well recommended as a speaker and writer. More information on his book can be found at the Stolen Valor web site.

Phil "volunteered" to co-present the program this week on the Cold War Air Museum. Phil's official title with the museum is "Volunteer Coordinator". As anyone who has that job can tell you, it compares unfavorably with professional cat herding. A retired IBM'er and Vietnam Era Veteran himself, Phil is one of our most dedicated volunteers and we are glad to have him.

Mission Briefing Begins: In preparing for our turn at the podium, I was reminded that a good briefing should always begin and end with a statement of objectives. I hope that everyone coming to the Blog visits the CWAM web site. There, hopefully you will find all the information you need about us. If you don't, please email or leave comments so we can respond. But in case you never visit the main site, my objective here and in our presentation is to inform you of Who we are. Where we are. What we are and Why we are making this presentation to you.

Who we are: The Cold War Air Museum is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to the restoration and maintenance of Cold War era aircraft with a special emphasis on aircraft flown by the former Soviet Union. The Cold War Air Museum, Inc. is a member of the Texas Association of Museums, the American Association of Museums, and the North Texas Association of Aviation Museums

Where we are: The Cold War Air Museum is physically located at the Lancaster Regional Airport in Lancaster Texas, a suburb of Dallas/Ft Worth. Aircraft associated with the Museum have participated in local, regional and national fly-ins both in static and in-flight displays. Through its web presence, the Museum has actively displayed its aircraft, exhibits and programs to viewers in all 50 states and more than 30 foreign countries.

What we are: When a young man was asked; What is a museum? He answered, "its a place where you go to look at boring old dead peoples stuff". That is the definition of "WHAT WE ARE NOT". The Cold War Air Museum is a collective of Sponsors, Volunteers, Programs, Facilities, Aircraft and Exhibits. Each of those components is necessary for our success. The combination of those components is what makes us successful. Last year we had more than 4,000 visitors, hosted or co-hosted five on-airport events and museum aircraft flew or displayed at eleven other events in Texas and other states before crowds totaling in excess of 40,000 people. The museum also works with local schools and charities in fund-raising events and civic, science and technical training rolls.

Why we are making this presentation: We are still a relatively small and young museum. As we grow, part of our job is to reach out to the community, not only to let everyone know we are here, but to also increase the number of programs and visitors we have. In order to do this, we are seeking compatible sponsors and volunteers to expand and support the museum. We are also looking to expand the number of working relationships we have with schools, colleges, community organizations and other museums.

Mission Briefing Ends: In conclusion, you should now know who, where, what and why. There will be no test. But seriously, I want to emphasize one more important word and that is, "How". The "How" comes from your help and participation. If you are in our area, please consider volunteering or sponsoring an activity. Come see us on any Saturday or email Phil Davis our Volunteer Coordinator. If you are not in our area, you can still participate by contacting us with any ideas you may have for helping with our activities or improving our organization. Thank you.