The objective of the museum is to preserve and display historic aircraft, missiles, and space vehicles, and provide educational resources.

[1] However, by 1995, the United States Air Force Museum determined that the aircraft had deteriorated and was considering moving them to other locations.

Three individuals, Robert Daugherty, Walter Scott Jr. and Lee Seemann, contributed $4 million each as part of a capital campaign for a new museum.

[3] On 16 May 1998, the museum moved indoors to a location more accessible to the public, between Omaha and Lincoln, that allowed the aircraft to be protected from the elements to which they had previously been exposed.

The new museum building is a $29.5 million, 300,000-square-foot (28,000 m2) structure that features a glass atrium, two large aircraft display hangars, a traveling exhibit area, a children's interactive gallery, a 200-seat theater, a museum store, an aircraft restoration gallery, and a snack bar.