Iconic Navy Air Base Tower Becomes Bucks Co. Museum Piece

WARMINSTER TOWNSHIP, PA — A piece of history is being preserved.

The iconic air traffic control tower once housed at the former Willow Grove Naval Air Station base in Horsham Township now has a new home in Warminster Township.

The Johnsville Centrifuge & Science Museum/Naval Air Development Center Museum has moved the air traffic control tower to the NADC museum’s location at the Craven Hall historic site.

The tower building was demolished shortly after the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center closed in 1998, and the top of the tower was shipped to the 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.

The NADC Air Traffic Control Tower was utilized at the base, where training occurred for the X-15 and X-20 space programs.

That was the training of astronauts for the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo missions, and for the astronauts of the Space Shuttle program.

NADC also played a part in the development of space technology, 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 NADC Museum.

“The air traffic control tower represented the ‘eyes of the base’ and bore witness to history," said Mark Calhoun, vice president of the 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," Calhoun added.

The NADC Museum is studying plans to increase exhibit space with the addition of a 5,000-square-foot building. The organization is hoping to break ground in 2026 as part of the America's 250th anniversary 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.

About the Johnsville Centrifuge and Science Museum

The Johnsville Centrifuge and Science Museum, Inc., also known as the NADC Museum, was established in 2008 and operated in the Johnsville Centrifuge building until 2011.

It is now located at the Craven Hall Historic Site in Warminster, which was the home of John Craven, who operated a field hospital on his property for the Revolutionary War Army.

The mission of the museum is to preserve the history of the Naval Air Development Center (NADC) that operated in Warminster, Ivyland, and Northampton Township for about 50 years, and pioneered state-of-the-art technology for naval aviation shipboard systems and the space program.

Click here to learn more about the NADC museum

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