Frank P. Lahm Aviation Museum in Mansfield opens for season May 4

The Frank P. Lahm Aviation Museum will open for the season May 4.

The museum, named for Mansfield native and pioneer in the development of aviation, Brigadier General Frank P. Lahm, is in the rear of 40 Park Avenue West, with the entrance off the parking lot behind the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Building at 34 Park Avenue West.

Hours of operation are Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. through late November.

The museum traces the history of aviation in Mansfield and Richland County from the first balloon ascent from the Mansfield Public Square in 1852 to the present day. Exhibits highlight the accomplishments of local residents and industry in peace and war, according to a news release from Mansfield Memorial Museum Board President Ed Olson.

Aviation museum selected for Ohio Air & Space Trail by Ohio 250

The museum has been selected as one of 35 historic locations to be included in the Ohio Air & Space Trail by Ohio 250, which is organizing events for the 250th anniversary in 2026 of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Ohio 250 was created by the Ohio General Assembly as a nonprofit public-private partnership to develop trails highlighting Ohio's contribution to the United States in many areas of American culture, science, industry, aviation, and the arts. The Air & Space Trail opening statewide May 9 will be the first of these trails.

Admission to the Lahm Aviation Museum is free but contributions are encouraged.

Frank P. Lahm was an aviation pioneer

Lahm was born in Mansfield on Nov. 17, 1877, and died July 7, 1963. The Mansfield Regional Lahm Airport is named for the aviator, who was instrumental in procuring the first military plane from the Wright Brothers for the U.S. Army Signal Corps.

Among his many accomplishments, in 1906 he was sent to Europe to study aeronautics and won the first Gordon Bennett International Balloon Race from Paris to Yorkshire, England.

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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Frank P. Lahm Aviation Museum in Mansfield opens for season May 4