Motivated by the destruction of a collection of historic aircraft in a fire at the then
Alaska Transportation Museum four years prior, Ted Spencer founded the Alaska Historical Aircraft Society in 1977. The museum opened to the public in 1988 in the former Alaska Aeronautical Industries building. The following year, it asked the
Alaska State Legislature for funding to purchase the leasing rights for the land on which it sat. It soon set about locating aircraft wrecks in remote areas of the state, aiming to recover them before they were acquired by private collectors. With financial assistance from a number of companies and the state legislature, it acquired a
Stearman C2B in 1992. Then, in 1996, it was revealed that the museum was in financial trouble, with visitor numbers decreasing, a number of loans coming due and deferred rent by the Municipality of Anchorage coming to an end. As a result, the museum considered selling some of its aircraft and the mayor, whose audit had discovered the difficulties, proposed moving it to a nearby National Guard Armory. A report that September proposed dissolving the museum's board of directors and that the city take over its operation. A plan by two consultants, released in August 1997, proposed a new board of directors made up of both city and museum personnel. However, two months later, following claims that creditors owed money might seek to seize some of the airplanes, the museum sued the city, arguing that it was unfairly blocking it from selling a
Stinson Model A to pay its debts. The museum finally sold the airplane in May 1998 and planned to use a portion of the proceeds to buy its property from the city. An exhibit about the history of helicopters in Alaska opened in June 2016. The museum unveiled an
L-1 restoration project that September. The museum restored its Grumman Goose to flight in May 2024. ==Facilities==