Photo courtesy of Skytamer.com

While airplanes are meant for the skies, the Border Air Museum has made a place for the huge aircrafts indoors, well at least via textual and photographic information.

The museum was a gift to the city of Douglas by the deceased Richard Westbrook and his wife Irma. The Border Air Museum was established to house Richard’s collection of air history that he had researched for a number of years.

Douglas was a popular space for aviation in the early 1900s. In 1908, a group of Douglas men formed the “Douglas aeronautical club” and built a glider from mail order plans. By 1909, the group had a motorized airplane of the canard-pusher design, the first airplane in Arizona. In 1913, planes that were used in the Mexican Revolution came to Douglas. After World War I, the barnstormers (these were the pilots who performed tricks with their airplanes) arrived. In 1928, the city purchased what would become the first international airport in the Americas in 1928.

The museum brings Douglas’ aviation history to life via photos, newspaper articles, letters, magazines and journals, among other times.