The doors were supposed to open at 10:00 a.m. on May 16, 2026. People started lining the street outside 821 21st Street NW well before that, and museum staff opened early. By the end of that free-admission opening day, the Hickory Aviation Museum had counted 3,536 visitors. Some had waited as long as two hours to walk through a single airplane.
That airplane is the reason the building looks the way it does. The trail that runs past it is the reason the visit still takes a car. Hickory's northwest corner, the stretch around Hickory Regional Airport, L.P. Frans Stadium and Winkler Park, now has its main attraction indoors. The walkway meant to reach that attraction is under contract but not built yet. If you're planning an October weekend there, especially the one when the city's first 100-mile trail race takes over the Aviation Walk, it helps to know where one ends and the other begins.
A building sized around one airplane
For almost two decades the museum ran out of the former Hickory Regional Airport terminal, which it moved into in May 2007. Its collection grew quickly after that, and many of its aircraft spent decades sitting outside in the weather. The new hangar came out of a partnership between the museum, the City of Hickory and Catawba Valley Community College. Ground was broken in fall 2023 after several rounds of revisions.
The design started with one requirement. The building had to hold the museum's Lockheed P-3C Orion without removing any of its flight surfaces. Vintage Aviation News describes it as the only fully intact P-3 Orion on indoor display anywhere in the world. On opening day, four volunteer docents gave tours of it, and all four had once flown on Orions.
Co-founders Kregg Kirby and Kyle Kirby cut the ribbon on May 15 in front of about 200 guests. Speakers included longtime benefactor Frank Drendel, retired Commander Frank Weisser, a former two-time Blue Angel, and Mayor Hank Guess. The museum's own account says the project started as an idea more than 30 years ago.
What hangs from the beams now
The first thing you see in the atrium is a U.S. Marine Corps AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopter hanging from the ceiling. Other restored aircraft hang from the hangar's overhead beams alongside exhibits about aviators with ties to Hickory and North Carolina. The museum's current collection list includes:
- Sikorsky SH-3H Sea King
- Republic F-105 Thunderchief
- Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler
- McDonnell Douglas F/A-18A Legacy Hornet
- AV-8B Harrier II Plus
If you went in May and haven't been back, one airplane has been added since. The museum announced that its Northrop F-5E Tiger II, BuNo 741540, would go back on display on Tuesday, September 1, after restoration. The restoration team is still working on several projects. One of them is the only surviving Curtiss XF15C-1 Stingaree, which Vintage Aviation News suggests could become one of the collection's prize pieces. Artifacts that have been kept in storage are also scheduled to go on display.
The museum is closed Mondays, so check the day before you drive over.
| Day | Hours |
|---|---|
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday–Friday | 10 a.m.–4 p.m. |
| Saturday | 10 a.m.–5 p.m. |
| Sunday | 1–5 p.m. |
General admission is $10 for ages 13 to 64 and $5 for veterans and visitors 65 and older. Children 12 and under, active-duty military and active reservists get in free. The museum's visitor page has the current details.
The trail runs past, then stops short
The Aviation Walk opened with a ribbon cutting on July 30, 2024. It runs about 1.7 miles. It starts near Old Lenoir Road, crosses U.S. 321 on a steel pedestrian bridge, passes L.P. Frans Stadium and Winkler Park, and climbs to Hickory Regional Airport. The city lists three places to park:
- The trailhead at 1240 U.S. 321 NW, which has trail parking, a picnic shelter, a bike station and restrooms
- The lot near the Hickory Regional Airport entrance at 3101 9th Ave Dr NW
- Winkler Park at 2500 Clement Blvd NW
The city's own description of the Aviation Walk points to a gap. When the trail opened, the city named three planned extensions. One would run along 17th Street NW to Appalachian State University's Hickory campus. One would run along 21st Street NW to what the page still calls the "future" Hickory Aviation Museum and to CVCC's Workforce Innovation Center. The third would continue along Ninth Avenue Drive NW to Goat Farm Street. The museum is no longer a future building, but the trail connection to it is still being built.
The project is moving, though. On June 2, 2026, Hickory City Council awarded Chatham Civil Contracting, LLC a $2.6 million contract for two connector trails, the Aviation Walk Connector, BL-0067, and the Aviation Museum Connector, BL-0115. The contract depends on approval from the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Chatham's bid was the lowest of the responsive bids, which ran from $2.6 million to about $3.36 million. A state transportation block grant covers $2.4 million of the museum connector, and the city is putting in a $600,000 match. According to the contract proposal, the museum connector is a multi-use path along 21st Street NW between Clement Boulevard NW and 9th Avenue Drive NW.
The most recent step is on the council agenda for October 6, 2026, which is tomorrow. It's a $34,885.21 amendment for TGS Engineers to handle construction-phase services and design changes on BL-0115, and it also depends on NCDOT approval. No city document published so far gives a completion date. For this fall, plan the museum and the trail as two stops and drive between them.
Why the gap matters this month
The trail gets its biggest test yet on October 17 and 18. That weekend Hickory hosts the inaugural HKY 100, a 100-mile ultra trail race for solo runners and relay teams of 2 to 10 who race around the clock. The course is a 4-mile loop. It covers double-track farm trails, which the city notes were once believed to be old moonshine roads, plus single-track hiking paths, the Aviation Walk and the Winkler Park nature trails. It finishes at the Hickory Crawdads stadium. All categories start at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 17, at the stadium's main entrance, 2500 Clement Blvd. NW. HKY Parks, Recreation & Sports Tourism is running the race, and the city lists Lance Riddile as the contact for questions.
If you walk the Aviation Walk regularly, the race doesn't close it. The race rules say the trail stays open to the public and ask runners to be polite to other trail users. Slower runners are told to move right when faster ones come up behind them on single-track sections. Park rules apply, too. Dogs must be leashed, under control and tagged, and owners have to clean up after them. On a 4-mile loop that runs through the night, you can expect to share the trail with runners, pacers wearing their own bibs and reflective course markings. The city says the course will be marked with cones, arrow signs and reflective tape for running after dark.
There are two aid stations. One is at the start/finish, and the other is at the corner of Goat Farm Road and the Aviation Trail, 1.44 miles into the loop. Crews and pacers can meet their runners only at those two spots. If you know someone running, the stadium end of the loop is the easiest place to find them.
The museum is open both days that weekend, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. You can spend an afternoon under the Super Cobra and the Orion on 21st Street NW, then head to Clement Boulevard to watch runners come through the stadium in the evening. For now that means getting in the car between stops. When BL-0115 is built, the same plan should work on foot.
What the city has in mind for this corner
City planners describe the airport side of Hickory as more than a trail and a museum. The Aviation Walk page calls the trail a key piece of a planned innovation district. It would build on the airport, CVCC's Workforce Innovation Center, the expanded aviation museum, Appalachian State's Hickory campus, the Catawba River, the Riverwalk and the U.S. 321 corridor. The museum building is already part of that plan, since it was designed to share space with CVCC programs. The 21st Street connector is the next piece. Its funding is approved and its contractor has been chosen, and it's waiting on the state's sign-off.
The council's October 6 agenda is posted on the city's site, and the Aviation Walk information page is where the trail project is documented. The connector has no start date yet. When it gets one, the museum and the trail will become a single walk.
If you're keeping an eye on how Hickory's northwest corner changes as the 21st Street connector moves ahead, Cat McCrary follows these city projects closely and is glad to talk through what they mean for that part of town. Schedule a free consultation whenever you're ready.