New Exhibit Opening—The Home Front

National Museum of World War II Aviation Special Event

New Exhibit Opening—The Home Front
Saturday, October 10, 2020

The latest addition to the National Museum of World War II Aviation is a tribute to the work on the home front to support a nation at war. It’s a fact little understood these days, but when America went to war, the entire nation was engaged, from the production of war goods including aircraft, ships, tanks, and other weapons of war, to providing food, medical supplies and equipment, and uniforms to the front lines.

The new exhibit is divided into four topic areas, each providing a unique perspective on the American Home Front:

• “The War at Home” explores the impact to families at home ranging from the absence of young men and women who went to war to the massive economic change war brought to the U.S. It includes an exhibit about a young man and his fiancé who joined the military, their experiences, and how wartime affected their family. It will also include one of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s wartime “fireside chats”.
• “Mobilizing America” covers rationing, scrap metal drives, conscription, women and minorities taking on industrial jobs, and internment. It includes artifacts pertaining to rationing, the introduction of women into the workforce, and children’s toys of the war period.
• “Building American Air Power” focuses on the revolutionary changeover of American industry from creating consumer goods to producing 300,000 military aircraft. Visitors will learn about the evolution of aircraft engines, the development of aircraft armor and self-sealing gas tanks, tools used in aircraft manufacturing, and aircraft designs. A video is featured, focusing on Ford’s Willow Run B-24 plant that produced a heavy bomber every 55 minutes.
• “The Women Who Served” details the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASP), but will also cover other women’s military service units. The display incorporates a mannequin in WASP flight suit climbing onto a portion of a wing of a Vultee BT-13 training aircraft.

“The story of WWII aviation must include the Home Front; the social change and disruption, the building of a large military, the training of airmen, the building of aircraft, the innovation, in short the marshalling of America, were critical to success in the war,” said Gene Pfeffer, historian at the National Museum of World War II Aviation. “WWII was fought both at home and overseas, but in different ways.”

Volunteers have worked for several months to complete the planning and installation of the new exhibit, which will complement the exhibits and aircraft that are already on display at the museum.

The new exhibit area will be open to the public on October 10, 2020.  Doors to the museum will be open to the public at 10am.  Normal entrance fees will be in effect for the exhibit opening.

For additional information contact the museum’s Front Desk at 719-637-7559.