Naval Air Station Wildwood (NASW) Aviation Museum is full of unique facts detailing the history of Cape May County during World War II. In October of 1944, this headline was accurate as total takeoffs and landings surpassed large metropolitan airports such as Philadelphia International. At that time, more than 200 aircraft were based at NASW. Did you know that German Prisoners of War worked right here in Cape May County, or that there was once a Naval Air Station Cape May and Naval Air Station Atlantic City?
The Aviation Museum is now open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and invites visitors to stop in and learn more interesting facts, sit in the cockpit of a Huey helicopter, and get up close to other aircraft that helped shape our American Armed Forces. There are plenty of great photo opportunities too, including the Grumman Hellcat, TBM Avenger Torpedo Bomber and the F-14 Tomcat- star of the movie Top Gun! The museum is operating at 25% of capacity, so there is plenty of “social distance” in the 92,000 sq./ft. naval hangar.
Naval Air Station Wildwood Aviation Museum is located inside historic Hangar #1 at the Cape May Airport, New Jersey. The site was formerly Naval Air Station Wildwood, which served as a World War II dive-bomber training center. The museum is dedicated to the 42 airmen who perished while training at Naval Air Station Wildwood between 1943 and 1945. For more information, visit www.usnasw.org or call (609) 886-8787.