The air traffic control tower from Horsham’s former Willow Grove Naval Air Station has found a new home in a Warminster museum, writes Dino Ciliberti for the Patch.
The Johnsville Centrifuge & Science Museum, also known as the Naval Air Development Center (NADC) Museum, now displays the tower in the NADC’s Craven Hall site.
The building that housed the tower was destroyed in 1998, but the top of the tower was preserved at the air station by the Harold Pitcairn Wings of Freedom Museum.
The NADC Museum is restoring the tower in honor of naval air traffic controllers.
The museum is home to many significant NADC technologies as well as the Johnsville Centrifuge, a training capsule used to train astronauts.
“The air traffic control tower represented the ‘eyes of the base’ and bore witness to history,” said vice president of the Johnsville Centrifuge & Science Museum, Mark Calhoun. “Its occupants were there to guide all of the early astronauts for landings as they arrived to train for their missions. We look forward to restoring it so it can be on display as a tribute to those who served our nation.”
Read more about the future of the former Willow Grove air traffic control tower at the NADC museum in the Patch.
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