  former location | |
| Established | 1963 |
|---|---|
| Dissolved | 1997 |
| Location | Florence, South Carolina, United States |
| Coordinates | 34°11′48″N79°43′41″W / 34.19678°N 79.728003°W |
| Type | Aviation museum |
| Founder | Thomas C. Griffin |
| Director | Rocky Gannon |
The Florence Air & Missile Museum was an aviation museum previously located at the entrance to the Florence Regional Airport, in Florence, South Carolina. The museum closed at the end of 1997.
Florence Regional Airport is a public airport three miles east of Florence, in Florence County, South Carolina.
Florence is a city in, and the county seat of, Florence County, South Carolina, United States. It is probably best known for being the intersection of I-95 and I-20, and the eastern terminus of I-20. It is the county seat of Florence County and the primary city within the Florence metropolitan area. The area forms the core of the historical "Pee Dee" region of South Carolina, which includes the eight counties of northeastern South Carolina, along with sections of southeastern North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population of Florence was 37,056, and the estimated population in 2015 was 38,228.
The airport was originally known as Florence Army Airfield, or more simply as Florence Field, [1] a World War II U.S. Army Air Corps / U.S. Army Air Forces training field for P-39 Airacobra and P-40 Warhawk pursuit aircraft and A-20 Havoc and A-26 Invader attack aircraft. Because of its former military connection and available runways, the military was able to fly in aircraft and leave them at the museum as they were retired from service.
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 70 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.
An attack aircraft, strike aircraft, or attack bomber, is a tactical military aircraft that has a primary role of carrying out airstrikes with greater precision than bombers, and is prepared to encounter strong low-level air defenses while pressing the attack. This class of aircraft is designed mostly for close air support and naval air-to-surface missions, overlapping the tactical bomber mission. Designs dedicated to non-naval roles are often known as ground-attack aircraft.
According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface. Runways, as well as taxiways and ramps, are sometimes referred to as “tarmac,” though very few runways are built using tarmac.
The museum was founded by Thomas C. Griffin. [2] After the war, he served as executive director of the Florence Airport.
During the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, the museum built up a collection of World War II and Cold War era U.S. military aircraft and early 1950s/1960s military space hardware. The museum was located along routes once frequented by travelers between the southeastern and northeastern United States and between Florence and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, but once Interstate 95 was built, attendance declined. The museum closed on 8 October 1997 and much of the collection transferred to the newly established Carolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union with its satellite states, and the United States with its allies after World War II. The historiography of the conflict began between 1946 and 1947. The Cold War began to de-escalate after the Revolutions of 1989. The collapse of the USSR in 1991 was the end of the Cold War. The term "cold" is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, but they each supported major regional conflicts known as proxy wars. The conflict split the temporary wartime alliance against Nazi Germany and its allies, leaving the USSR and the US as two superpowers with profound economic and political differences.
Myrtle Beach is a coastal city on the East Coast of the United States in Horry County, South Carolina. It is in the center of a large and continuous 60-mile (97 km) stretch of beach known as "The Grand Strand" in northeastern South Carolina.
Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing with New Brunswick, Canada. The highway runs largely parallel to the Atlantic Ocean coast and US 1, serving areas from Florida to Maine. In general, I-95 serves the major cities of the Eastern Seaboard and metropolitan areas such as Miami, Jacksonville, Savannah, and Fayetteville in the Southeast; and Richmond, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, and New York City in the Mid-Atlantic States up to New Haven, Providence, Boston, and Portland in New England. The route follows a more direct inland route between Savannah and Washington, D.C., notably bypassing the coastal metropolitan areas of Charleston and Norfolk-Virginia Beach, which require connections through other Interstate Highways.
