Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum

Located on historic Ford Island, Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum showcases over 50 aircraft and exhibits across Hangars 37, 79, and the Operations Building. Visitors can ascend the Ford Island Control Tower for panoramic views of the Pearl Harbor battlefield. The museum offers guided tours, audio guides in multiple languages, a gift shop, and a café. Accessible via shuttle from the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center, it provides a comprehensive look into America’s WWII aviation history.

Planning your visit

The Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum sits on Ford Island, in hangars that were there on 7 December 1941 and still carry bullet damage from the strafing runs. That is the museum's central asset: this is not a collection assembled elsewhere and brought in, but aircraft displayed on the ground where the attack happened.

Hangar 37 covers the attack and the Pacific war with aircraft from both sides, including a Japanese Zero recovered from the Pacific. Hangar 79 holds later aircraft and an active restoration programme visible to visitors, with its glass panes still shattered from the attack. The Ford Island control tower, restored and reopened, can be climbed for a view across the whole harbour battlefield — the Arizona memorial, the Missouri, the runways.

Over 50 aircraft are displayed. Audio guides run in several languages.

Access is by shuttle from the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center, and the site is part of a wider complex that includes the USS Arizona Memorial and the Battleship Missouri — planning which of these you intend to see, and their separate ticketing, matters because a full Pearl Harbor day is long.

Bookable options include general admission and entry with hangar tours. Current availability is listed below.