March 28, 2024

Celebrate the ‘Topping’ of the New Pax Museum

Posted for Patuxent River Naval Air Museum
Community Builder

Celebrate Monday, July 14, the ‘topping’ of the soaring steel skeleton of a new Patuxent River Naval Air Museum.

Years in the planning and designing, the structure of the New Pax Museum is now clearly outlined in gleaming steel against the Patuxent River Naval Air Station skyline. To celebrate the achievement the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum Association is hosting a “Topping Off Ceremony” Monday, July 14, 2014 at 10 am.  The public is invited.

Patuxent River Naval Air Museum
22156 Three Notch Road, Lexington Park, Maryland 20653.
Phone: 301-863-1900

 

Photo by Joe Dunn, Pax River Naval Air Museum

Photo by Joe Dunn, Pax River Naval Air Museum

 

The new museum will ultimately comprise 21,000 square feet and will cost about $5 million.

Federal funding provided $3.4 million for the project. Funding and support is also being provided through state and county sources.

Captain Arvid “Ed” Forsman, USN (Ret.), president of the Museum Association, acknowledged “Steny Hoyer, and John Bohanan, at the launch of construction saying, “We wouldn’t be here without you guys.”

Mr. Foresman also thanked The Patuxent Partnership for its $4,000 grant to the project.

With the opening of the New Pax Museum building, the current museum facility will become part of an integrated museum complex, Mr. Foresman described in his Association blog, From the Cockpit.

PRNAM - NS - steel frame

Already begun is the upgrading of existing exhibits and well underway the planning for exhibits to be housed in the new facility. The New Pax Museum will use up-to-date presentation technology and interactive exhibits to explain the roles research, development, and testing played in the evolution of U.S. Naval Aviation.

This is the opportunity for the Patuxent River Naval air Museum to equal and surpass the quality of exhibits in other world-class museums.

The PRNAM Board of Directors reviewed the Association’s mission as they began to address this new era of expansion. They adopted a new Association motto: “Launching Ideas . . . Recovering History!“

This capsule mission statement starts with the idea of launching and recovering aircraft, then adds the elements of inspiring curiosity and ensuring that the legacy of Naval Aviation flight testing is preserved, explains Mr. Forsman.

The purpose of the museum is to tell the history of naval aviation and explain the history and current function of Naval Air Station Patuxent River; Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR); Research, Development, Test and Evaluation; flight testing; simulation; and Navy laboratories. The museum also aims to explain how Pax River affects us today.

Photo by Joe Dunn - Pax River Naval Air Museum

Photo by Joe Dunn – Pax River Naval Air Museum

 

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