The AMC Museum is now OPEN to the public from 9am to 4 pm Tuesday through Saturday. No special ID is required. Entrance is on De Route 9 one half mile from the intersection of US 113. 

Group Tours
Meeting Facilities
Additional Information

Open year-round except federal holidays. Admission is free, but donations are welcome. The Dover Air Force Base is one of the best-known attractions in Central Delaware. The base is important to the country’s defense, as it represents one-fourth of the nation’s strategic airlift capacity. Approximately 7,000 people are stationed at the DAFB. Dover is home to 36 giant C-5 Galaxy cargo planes, which are used to transport troops and equipment wherever they are needed around the world. The C-5 is the largest airplane in the U.S. military. Each plane is nearly as long as a football field, and could carry 6 motor coaches in its hold. The base cargo terminal known as the “Superport” is the largest anywhere in the US military, processing more tons of cargo than Kennedy airport in NY. During an emergency, its capacity more than doubles. The mortuary is also the largest in the Department of Defense and responds to crises anywhere in the world. With over 1,700 buildings on 3,900 acres, Dover AFB ranks as Delaware’s third largest industry. For information about the base, contact the Public Affairs Division, 436th Airlift Wing, 302-677-3372. 

The Air Mobility Command Museum on the base is equally impressive. Plan to spend plenty of time there because there is a lot to see and experience. The AMC Museum houses a large collection of vintage and veteran Aircraft, plus historical artifacts since the beginning of the air base in 1941. Within the museum’s large historic aircraft hangar and on the ramp outside are numerous restored aircraft, including a D-Day veteran C-47, the first C-141 Starlifter, a B-17 Flying Fortress, the last C-133, an F-101 Voodoo Fighter, a P-51 Mustang, and a Berlin Airlift C-54M, plus many others. The aircraft are only part of the museum. There are a variety of educational exhibits (including a unique set of flags in U.S. history) and historical displays dated from WWII to the present, plus a colorful fuselage artwork exhibit. Special events featuring demonstrations by the base fire department, bomb disposal robot, and military working dogs are featured as mission workload permits. 

Group Tours
Amenities: Ample restrooms, unique museum store, picnic area, Commemoration Park, small theater, meeting rooms. Free movies and cockpit tours available. The museum is wheelchair accessible, as is one of the outdoor aircraft. 
Group Tour Rates: Admission is free, but donations are welcome. 
Tour Tips: Allow 1 to 2+ hours for a guided tour. Maximum of 6 motor coaches at one time. Motor coach parking available on-site. Reservations suggested a minimum of one week in advance. 

Meeting Facilities
Meeting rooms from 30 to 200 people. 
Convention facilities available for military and veterans groups only. Exhibits, free movies, and cockpit tours available. Commemoration park at the museum can host small ceremonial events. 

Additional Information
The Air Mobility Command (AMC) Museum on the DAFB has over 24 aircraft on display, and features more multi-engine aircraft than the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC. Veteran aircraft on display include a C-47 “Gooney Bird” that dropped paratroopers over Normandy on D-Day, and the world’s only-remaining C-54M that flew coal into Berlin during that city’s blockade by the Soviet Union. See everything from a massive four engine jet “Starlifter” that you can climb aboard to Vietnam veteran C-7 and C-123 Transports. Check out the Delta Wing F-106 fighter or the P-51 from WWII.  

The AMC Museum is housed in an historic hangar on the south side of the base. The hangar was a top-secret Rocket Test Center during WWII, where the military tested air-to-air and air-to-ground rockets. The rockets were often tested over the marshes and bay of what is now Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge east of Smyrna. In the past two decades, the base has supported a continuous list of world emergencies from the Gulf War to an ongoing airlift in support of today’s headlines. 

The museum began in 1986 with a single C-47A that was rejected as hopeless to restore by other museums. Today, it stands immaculately restored; complete with D-Day invasion stripes, as it was when it served with the 61st Troop Carrier Squadron in World War II. Its extensive combat history is meticulously documented with actual photos and memorabilia donated by former crewmembers. This plane, the "Turf & Sport Special", was the centerpiece of a reunion in July 1990, that included the D-Day pilot, aerial engineer, and three of the 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers who dropped into St. Mere-Eglise on June 6, 1944 - forty six years earlier. 

Dover's first strategic airlifter is represented by the single remaining C-54M, which was specially modified during the Berlin Airlift for hauling coal. The Skymaster's restoration was also quite extensive, and took several years. During the restoration process, the museum was fortunate to find a photograph of this aircraft showing its military serial #44-9030 and the markings it carried in the Pacific Theater in World War II. They were still in place during her service in the Berlin Airlift, and museum volunteers have restored the aircraft in these markings. 

In February 1998, the very first C-141A "Starlifter" ever built arrived at the museum to take its place beside the C-141B already on display. Now visitors can immediately see the air refueling receptacle and the twenty-five foot longer fuselage that makes the "B" model distinctively different from the "A" model. The museum’s C-141A served as a test aircraft for its entire career. Just before being retired to the AMC Museum it was used to tow an F-106 fighter on a 1000-foot long towrope as a test to study the feasibility of launching the next generation of Space Shuttles from in-flight. The "B" model C-141 in the museum collection was the last "Starlifter" stationed at Dover. Whenever volunteers are available it is open for inside tours. This swept-wing four-engine jet is wheelchair accessible and is the largest aircraft in the permanent collection. 

One of the most charismatic planes in the collection is undoubtedly the B-17 Flying Fortress that recently completed a long-term refurbishment. Although produced too late to see combat in WWII, #44-83624 saw extensive service, first in a highly secret project that resurrected the idea of using obsolete aircraft as radio-controlled flying bombs, then as a drone-control aircraft in the ground-to-air missile development program. In 1957, it was retired to the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. In 1989, it was given to Dover to replace the famous B-17G "Shoo-Shoo-Shoo Baby" that was restored here over a ten-year period and flown back, under her own power, to Wright-Patterson's Museum. 

Another one of the museum’s acquisitions is a C-123 Provider that served in Vietnam from 1963-1968 before a second career with the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Peruvian police. After "El Burro," as it was called in Peru, was retired from the Drug Enforcement team, it flew to Dover in October 1990.  

The collection also includes a C-45 light cargo plane that started out as an AT-11 trainer during World War II and, to represent Dover's Air Defense role, an F-101B "Voodoo" and an F-106A "Delta Dart". 

The PT-17 biplane trainer donated by Al Johnson, a local aerial sprayer, was restored using pieces from several aircraft and hand fabricated replica parts. This addition rounds out our collection of trainers, which includes a BT-13, an AT-6 and a T-33, the USAF'’s first jet trainer. 

The C-119 Flying Boxcar represents the 512th Airlift Wing (Air Force Reserve). It was the last type they operated before becoming an associate wing at Dover. It is scheduled for restoration as soon as ownership is transferred from the US Forest Service to the USAF Museum system. The C-7 Caribou saw action in Vietnam where it was crewed by AMC Museum Curator, Jim Leech, and piloted by Col. Bill "I.E." Hardie, Museum Store Manager. 

Currently undergoing conservation work in the restoration hangar a CG-4A Hadrian Glider. The CG-4 was the most widely used Troop/cargo glider of World War II, used in the invasions of Sicily and Normandy, and for crossing the Rhine at Arnhem, Holland, and Wesel, Germany. Although nearly 14,000 were built, less than a dozen remain in the world today. It is one of only two aircraft of this type owned by the USAF. Its restoration will take about five years. In October 1997 the museum acquired a C-121 Super Constellation is currently undergoing long-term restoration. More aircraft and displays are added regularly to the museum’s collections.