Hill Aerospace Museum

Location & history

Hill Aerospace Museum is located about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City on Interstate 15. It was founded in 1981 and first opened its doors in 1987.  Four years later the museum moved to its current location in the northwest corner of Hill Air Force Base, an important WW2 maintenance and supply base that provided structural repairs, engine overhauls, and spare parts for military planes such as the A-26, B-17, B-24, B-29, P-40, P-47 and P-61.

Major Ployer Peter Hill

The base and the museum are named in honor of Major Ployer Peter Hill of the U.S. Army Air Corps, who died test-flying a prototype Boeing Model 299 that would later become the famous B-17 Flying Fortress. Hill Aerospace Museum is also home of the Utah Aviation Hall of Fame.

Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress

Hangar displays

The Museum exhibits over 90 military aircraft, missiles, and aerospace vehicles outdoors and inside the two hangars. The hangar collection includes a 1903 Wright Flyer replica, Curtiss JN-4D Jenny, Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress, Consolidated B-24D Liberator, Curtiss P-40N Warhawk, North American P-51D Mustang, North American B-25J Mitchell, Lockheed C-140B JetStar, North American T-28B Trojan, McDonnell Douglas F-4C Phantom II, Sikorsky CH-3E Jolly Green Giant, Sikorsky MH-53M Pave Low, Sikorsky MH-53M Pave Low, Fairchild A-10A Thunderbolt II and several others.

McDonnell Douglas F-4C Phantom II

Outdoor displays

Most of the larger aircraft is displayed outdoors and includes Boeing B1-B Lancer, Vertol CH-21C Workhorse, Convair C-131D Samaritan, Fairchild C-119G Flying Boxcar, Fairchild-Chase C-123K Provider, Boeing KC-135E Stratotanker, Boeing B-52G Stratofortress, Boeing B-29 Superfortress, Lockheed NC-130B Hercules and Douglas C-124C Globemaster II.

Boeing WB-47E Stratojet

Lockheed SR-71C Blackbird

The Museum’s Lockheed SR-71C Blackbird is the only model C ever built and the last Blackbird to be manufactured. The plane was constructed using the rear fuselage of the first Lockheed YF-12A (S/N 60-6934) and a functional engineering mockup of a SR-71A forward fuselage built for static testing.

Lockheed SR-71C Blackbird

Douglas XB-19

While admiring vintage warbirds in the hangars you can easily miss a very unique exhibit, an enormous wheel and a tire. It is the only remaining piece of the Douglas XB-19 experimental bomber. The plane flew for the first time in June 1941 but it never entered production as the design was obsolete before it was completed. However, the valuable data gathered during the testing was later used in construction of other large American aircraft, such as the Boeing B-29 and Convair B-36. The XB-19 made its final voyage in 1946 to Davis-Monthan Field in Tuscon, Arizona, where it was scrapped a few years later.

Sikorsky MH-53M Pave Low

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