According to board member Russell Smith, the museum's number of annual visitors shrunk from approximately 26,000 to 6,000 after the opening of Interstate 540 and Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport replaced Drake Field as the region's principal airport in 1998.

[4] The wooden hangar in which the Arkansas Air & Military Museum is housed is one of the few surviving such buildings from the 1940s and is listed on the Arkansas Register of Historic Places;[2][5][6] it previously served as the headquarters for a military aviation training post during World War II.

:[2][7][8][6] In addition to aircraft, the museum also displays a variety of aviation engines, including a Curtiss OX-5, a Rolls-Royce Spey, and a Westinghouse J34.

[2][6][11] Additionally, the museum features biographical exhibits on notable Arkansan aviators, including Commander Richard O.

Covey, Field Eugene Kindley, Captain Pierce McKennon, and pioneering female pilot Louise Thaden, who won the Women's Air Derby in 1929 and the Harmon Trophy in 1936.