Founded in 1989 by former Air Force reservist Steve Snyder at South Jersey Regional Airport in Lumberton, New Jersey, the Air Victory Museum was created to promote airpower education and honor military aviation. Its growth was closely linked to Snyder’s ownership of the airport and ambitious plans for a large aviation complex. In 1994 construction began on a 48,000-square-foot hangar, and in 1995 aircraft including an A-7 and F-4 were flown in by helicopter, though an RA-5C was lost in transit. After four years of development, the museum opened with an aviation collection and a library of 3,000 books. Snyder’s death in a 1999 crash ended the larger expansion vision.