The ferry landing is at the former Quonset Point Naval Air Station, which was the world’s largest air base in World War II and most fitting to host this collection of fighting machines great and small, including a recent acquisition, a 41-foot Hercules nuclear missile.
“We get a lotta old pilots come through here,’’ said museum president David H. Payne, 77, himself a former US Army Ranger.
The museum started in 1991 with three or four aircraft and now boasts 28, Payne said, all being restored and maintained by 14 volunteers inside a vintage hangar. One of only three prototype Curtiss XF15C planes ever made is here, Payne said. 488 Eccleston Ave., North Kingstown, 401-294-9540, theqam.org.