The museum was founded in 1992 by Floyd and Lois Peithman Wilson, and has a collection of over 50 static aircraft and many smaller historic items related to aviation in North Carolina and South Carolina. Most of the collection consists of Cold War military aircraft, including several historic jet aircraft from the 1950s and 1960s. Several aircraft came from the closed Florence Air & Missile Museum, in Florence, South Carolina. A significant number of aircraft have also come from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point and Marine Corps Air Station New River. The museum no longer operates flying aircraft, however, due to its location on Charlotte-Douglas International Airport property, it has on occasion hosted historic aircraft for fly-ins. Those aircraft include the B-17, B-24, B-29 and Berlin Airlift C-54.