The Sywell Aviation Museum (SAM) is a voluntary, non-profit-making organisation which aims to preserve the history of Sywell Aerodrome and Northamptonshire’s rich aviation heritage from the early days of aviation to the Second World War and beyond. SAM began life in 1998 and the museum building was opened in 2001 by the legendary aviator Alex Henshaw MBE who was also their honorary president. Alex flew from Sywell regularly during the Second World War, airtesting Vickers Wellingtons from the aerodrome.

The museum’s first complete airframe, a Hawker Hunter, was acquired in summer 2012, and work is ongoing to restore this exhibit. The museum originally consisted of three Nissen huts, dismantled at thew now-closed RAF Bentwaters and rebuilt on site at Sywell. The buildings themselves are artefacts, having been used as bomb fuzing sheds at Bentwaters by the USAAF during WW2.