The Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum is a 300,000-square-foot aviation and space museum in two climate-controlled hangars just off Interstate 80 at Ashland. It traces its roots to 1959, when Colonel A.A. Arnhym, with the backing of Strategic Air Command commander General Thomas Power, opened the original museum at Offutt Air Force Base near Bellevue. Ownership passed to the State of Nebraska in 1970, and after decades of weather exposure took a toll on the aircraft, a $32 million capital campaign -- anchored by $4 million gifts each from Robert Daugherty, Walter Scott Jr., and Lee Seemann -- funded the museum's move to its current indoor Ashland facility, which opened May 16, 1998.
The collection centers on Cold War-era military aviation, with aircraft including the B-47 Stratojet, B-52 Stratofortress, SR-71 Blackbird, F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter, and Soviet-built MiG fighters, alongside space artifacts such as an Apollo Command Module (CSM-009) and a NASA X-38 prototype. The museum has carried several names over the years -- Strategic Air Command Museum, then Strategic Aerospace Museum, then Strategic Air & Space Museum in 2001 -- before adopting its current name, Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum, on June 25, 2015.
Address: 28210 W Park Hwy, Ashland, NE 68003
Hours: Monday-Friday 9am-4pm, Saturday 9am-5pm, Sunday 11am-5pm.