ABOUT

With the help of the WACO Historical Society (founded in 1978) members and many generous donors and supporters, Historic WACO Field opened in 1997. The field consists of a 77 acre site and features a 2200 foot runway (2000 feet usable) south of Troy, Ohio. Historic WACO Field is maintained by WACO volunteers and is constantly receiving upgrades and improvements, but we are always in need of additional volunteers to assist in the upkeep of the site.

In 1997, the first building to be erected on WACO Field was an historic 1856 barn relocated to the premises in a traditional barn raising. It was restored thanks to a generous grant provided by the Troy Foundation. Over 300 volunteers from all over the United States helped rebuild the barn. The barn has received its occupancy permit and has been incorporated into the active museum buildings.

The second building project on WACO Field was the 7500 sq ft hangar which became home to the WACO Aircraft Museum, Research Library, Classroom/Conference Room, Gift Shop and Museum Offices. The next addition was a new Museum Hangar, built by Bruns construction and completed in September 2009 through a generous grant from the Ohio Cultural Facilities Foundation. This new building is home to vintage WACO aircraft, displays and the history of the WACO Aircraft Company. A Quonset hut and picnic shelter were added in 2012.

Historic WACO Field also has a radio-controlled aircraft flying field located on site which is home to the WACO Barnstormers RC Club. We have a separate runway and shelter in place specifically designed to accommodate RC Aircraft.

The goal of the Learning Center is to use aviation related hands-on teaching projects to inspire and educate. We want to reach students, assist and train teachers, and inspire adults to support life- long learning.

The Education Director has developed an outreach program designed to foster science, technology, engineering and math. We emphasize inquiry based learning and the engineering and design process as our means to develop the student’s inquisitive and creative aspects of learning. Collaboration among students is encouraged as a key aspect of real world problem solving.

Many of our programs demonstrate the principles of flight and engage participants in making and flying hot air balloons, kites, model airplanes, paper rockets, Estes rockets, hovercraft, and more! WACO is where learning is made fun and where making paper airplanes is encouraged. Whenever possible, we use actual aviation experts as the teachers and leaders of the activities.

The WACO Learning Center conducts programs with schools, preschools, church groups, Scout Troops, homeschool families, Civil Air Patrol posts here at the Field and at other local airports.