The San Diego Air & Space Museum acquired an important major aviation collection when it took possession of the entire Vought archive from the Vought Aircraft Heritage Foundation in Arlington, Texas, in March of this year. The San Diego Air & Space Museum’s Library & Archives houses the largest private nonprofit collection of its type in the nation.

The recently acquired collection is the largest component of the surviving archive of the Vought Aircraft companies. For 70 years, Vought was one of the prime contractors providing fighter aircraft to both the U.S. Navy and other naval forces around the world. Vought’s more famous aircraft designs include the F4U Corsair, the F7U Cutlass, the F8U Crusader and the A-7 Corsair II. Vought was also a major subcontractor for other prime contractors.

The Vought collection acquired by the San Diego Air & Space Museum consists of hundreds of thousands of photographic images, as well as a broad spectrum of other technical reference material, currently housed in 500 storage containers on 30 pallets.

In addition to the Vought archive, the San Diego Air & Space Museum also houses four other significant aviation company collections; the Convair/General Dynamics, Ryan Aeronautical, Rohr/Goodrich, and the Arkansas Aviation Historical Society.

For more information about the San Diego Air & Space Museum’s Library & Archives, visit: http://sandiegoairandspace.org/research/library-projects.