Iconic Air Traffic Control Tower from Willow Grove Air Base Moves to Warminster

The Johnsville Centrifuge & Science Museum/Naval Air Development Center Museum (NADC) has moved the air traffic control tower once housed at the Willow Grove Naval Air Station, to the NADC museum’s location at the Craven Hall Historic Site in Warminster.

The NADC Air Traffic Control Tower building was demolished shortly after the Naval Air Warfare Center closed in 1998. The tower top was shipped to Willow Grove Naval Air Station for preservation by the Harold Pitcairn Wings of Freedom Museum. The Wings of Freedom Museum recently agreed to transfer the tower to the NADC Museum, where it will be restored as a tribute to Naval air traffic controllers, said NADC officials.

The tower was utilized at the base where training occurred for the X-15 and X-20 space programs, the training of astronauts for the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo missions, and for the astronauts of the Space Shuttle program, according to NADC historians, also playing a part in space technology development, including flight controls for the X-15, guidance computers for the capsules, and lubricants for Apollo missions.

The NADC Museum relocated to the Craven Hall Historic site in October 2024, where it houses many important NADC artifacts, and owns the original training capsule of the Johnsville Centrifuge, which was used to research the limits of human tolerance for “G” forces and train astronauts from the Mercury to the Space Shuttle programs. With all the technology developed at NADC, it was a natural fit to include the air traffic control tower at the museum. A crane was used to remove the NADC Air Traffic Control Tower from a truck that transported it from the Willow Grove Naval Air Station to its new location at the Craven Hall Historic Site in Warminster, said NADC.

Courtesy of Mark Calhoun, NADC Museum

“The air traffic control tower represented the ‘eyes of the base’ and bore witness to history, said Mark Calhoun, Vice President, Johnsville Centrifuge & Science Museum. “Its occupants were there to guide all of the early astronauts for landings as they arrived to train for their missions. We look forward to restoring it so it can be on display as a tribute to those who served our nation.”

The museum is studying plans to increase exhibit space with the addition of a 5,000 square foot building and hopes to break ground in 2026 as part of the America 250 celebrations. The building will house numerous NADC and science exhibits, an expansion of the John Fitch Museum, which is also located at Craven Hall, Fitch was the inventor of the first steamboat in 1787, as well as some colonial era exhibits.

Click here to learn more about the NADC.