Expansion
Donate to help accomplish the next phase of expansion
Expansion Donation
Support by donating to help us create new exhibits, interior/exterior building renovations, and aircraft expansion.
Help Us Reach Our Next Goal
$1,500,000
With your help, we can bring Phase 3C to life. See the future plans and renderings for expansion below.
As part of our Master Plan, Phase 3 is currently in development. A new, dynamic campus will create expanded stories, thought-provoking questions, and interactive content, all designed to create a seamless web between past, present, and future. Visitors will grapple with social issues of the time and consider their impact on gender history.
Phase 3 has been subdivided into three chapters, 3A, 3B, and 3C at a total cost of $3 million. This campaign includes all-new hands-on, interactive exhibits across the entire campus that are foundational to expanding our educational programs.
PHASE 3A - Complete!
Housed in our historic Hangar 2, Phase 3A has been completed. Students and adults discover life in Sweetwater in the 1940s and how living conditions impacted the WASP, all straight from the mouth of our WASP trainee, Betty. Visitors learn about training and can tour our four airworthy training aircraft.
PHASE 3B - Complete!
The WASP Museum’s objective is to preserve the history, promote the legacy, and protect the airfield of the WASP. To help accomplish this objective, the Museum has doubled its campus, created all-new exhibits, purchased aircraft, and launched new educational programs. But to what end? We do it for the next generation.
These strategic plans have been executed with students in mind. Today the Museum is elated to announce the completion of fundraising for Phase 3B. Because of the generosity of hundreds of donors across the country, a $450,000 private donation, and grants from the Dian Graves Owen Foundation, the Prairie Foundation and the Wayne and JoAnn Moore Foundation, the Museum will be able to complete its outdoor exhibit space by fall 2025. This phase will include a granite ground map of the U.S. marked with the WASP’s duty bases. This outdoor map which fills the plaza will create many opportunities for students to “fly” from base-to-base calculating routes, fuel, and time in the air as they look across the taxiways of Avenger Field.
Expansion is not for the past but for the future. If WASP history is not to be lost again, it must matter to the youngest generation. Students will need to esteem the stories, inspiration, and values imparted by the WASP and their legacy pilots. Some learners will use new information to go into various fields, but it is the goal of the Museum that many motivated students will enter aviation and carry on the legacy of the WASP.
PHASE 3C
Phase 3 ends on a high note. It completes Hangar One, a replica of the original Hangar One located on Avenger Field and used for the WASP’s advanced training. This segment creates more authentic connections and educational moments for our next generation visitors.
Three crown jewels will sparkle in Hangar One. A control tower will be added to the exterior of the hangar. The building cannot be an exact replica without this important structure. Inside the hangar, a static PQ-14 aircraft with an original tow-target will be installed and surrounded by playful, interactive exhibits highlighting the work of the WASP at their duty bases. Lastly, visitors will be treated to a tour of Avenger Field Army Air Corps base as it was in 1942 thanks to technology. A powerful 3D diorama restores the infrastructure of the field taken from us through the passage of time.
These additions are vital in giving visitors a true 1942 perspective of Avenger Field and the work of the WASP. They will complete our narration of the basic WASP story and provide stronger opportunities to weave in smaller, special vignettes during the year. With the backdrop of a completed museum, opportunities abound to instill the WASP story and their values and work ethic to the next generation.
Click the image below to view all of the renderings for the future plans of the WASP Museum.
