Pearson Air Museum, Aviation museum at Pearson Field in Vancouver, United States
Pearson Air Museum is an aviation museum at Pearson Field in Vancouver, Washington, managed by the National Park Service as part of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. Its exhibits and artifacts from National Park Service collections and community loans trace aviation in the Pacific Northwest, including the first plane flown by Leah Hing, the first Chinese American woman to earn a pilot's license.
During World War I, demand for spruce to build combat, reconnaissance and training aircraft led the U.S. Military to create the Spruce Production Division, headquartered at Vancouver Barracks. Its Spruce Mill stood on the plain now occupied by Fort Vancouver and the museum, running 24 hours a day and producing 1 million board feet of lumber daily. The war effort ran from the U.S. entry in 1917 to the birth of the Army Air Service.
The museum displays the first aircraft flown by Leah Hing, the first Chinese American woman to earn a pilot's license. Her plane is part of the National Park Service collections shown at Pearson Field, where the Spruce Production Division once operated around the clock during World War I.
The museum sits at Pearson Field within the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, so a visit can be combined with the fort grounds next door. Since 2013 the National Park Service has staffed the museum directly, after the City of Vancouver ended its operating agreement and the Fort Vancouver National Site Trust removed its privately owned artifacts.
The museum holds the first plane flown by Leah Hing, the first Chinese American woman to earn a pilot's license. Her aircraft is among the artifacts displayed at Pearson Field, where the Spruce Mill once ran around the clock producing a million board feet of lumber a day.
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