History
In 1962, the Australian Aircraft Restoration Group was formed as a nonprofit group by a group of members of the Aviation Historical Society of Australia. The project began with the recovery and restoration of an Australian-built Bristol Beaufighter, that was threatened to be scrapped. Following the donation of the Beaufighter in April 1962, a CAC Wackett trainer was purchased, followed by a DH.60G Moth. In 1964, after additional purchases and donations, the collection was relocated to a service station in north Lilydale near the Moorabbin Airport. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (formerly Australian Department of Civil Aviation) leased land to the museum, and erected a fence on 20 May 1965. In July 1967, the museum erected a new fence, and increased its land size for its growing collection.
In the 1980s, the museum had over 30 aircraft, but were all suffering from weathering. In April 1989, a 12,000-square-foot (1,100 m2) hangar was built to house and protect the aircraft. Between 1980 and 2000, the aircraft collection increased by an average of one airframe per year. The collection now totals 52 machines.
The museum was awarded a Certificate of Merit, in the 1985 Museum of the Years Awards
Read more about this topic: Australian National Aviation Museum
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.”
—Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)
“... that there is no other way,
That the history of creation proceeds according to
Stringent laws, and that things
Do get done in this way, but never the things
We set out to accomplish and wanted so desperately
To see come into being.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)