The museum was established in 1952 to collect, preserve and restore different airplanes and other aviation equipment used by the Royal Thai Air Force.
The museum provides details of Thailand's role in World War II. Imperial Japanese forces landed in southern Thailand on 8 December 1941 and after a skirmish of several hours Thai forces were ordered to cease fighting the Japanese. Thailand declared war on Britain and the United States in January 1942 and remained a Japanese ally until the Japanese surrender in August 1945. The museum contains several paintings of Thai fighter aircraft intercepting US B-29s, P-38s and P-51s.