When it was active the institution was largely run by volunteers and had the goal of educating visitors on the Canadian aerospace industry and technology.

At that time the Downsview museum had plans to further renovate the premises to better house their large exhibits and to provide more detailed information for visitors and school programs.

The museum relocated the collection into storage by March 2012 before subsequently learning that all of the other tenants of 65 Carl Hall Road had also been served eviction notices and that Downsview Park intended to replace the entire facility with a hockey rink.

On September 21, 2011 Toronto Councillor Maria Augimeri proposed a motion that "City Council call on the Federal Government to recognize the contributions of Canadian aerospace and aviation innovation; grant the Canadian Air and Space Museum (CASM) located on the site of the former military base in Downsview, a long-term reprieve and provide assurances of its preservation on the Downsview lands."

[8] By mid-December 2018 the museum's Avro Arrow replica had been relocated from outdoor storage where it had begun to deteriorate, to an Edenvale hangar.

The museum also houses the original equipment that was used to build over a thousand Curtiss JN-4 biplanes in between 1917 and 1918, flight training simulators from the 1940s and 1950s, and exhibits relating to the history of Downsview air force base.