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Join Mr. King as he shares antique items and military memorabilia that can be found at King Aerospace’s new Arkansas facility.

The Value is the Story Behind the Antique

September 13, 2022

With a good book, it’s the story, not the paper, that has value. The same is true of antiques and military memorabilia lining display cases and dotting walls at King Aerospace’s new facility in Bentonville, ARK.

KACC ARK has air raid sirens, vintage aircraft models, and hardwood desks and filing cabinets. There are World War II bombsights, aerial cameras, test equipment and tooling lining shelves, too, all from the days when there was an Army Air Corps but not yet a U.S. Air Force.

With cabinets chockful, it’s tempting to turn memorabilia into living history.

Just imagining a camera saving thousands of lives during WWII summons its real value for Jerry King, chairman and founder of King Aerospace.

“A lot of these antique items in themselves don’t mean that much to me,” King says. “What means a whole lot to me are the men and the women who put them together, who put them on airplanes, who looked through the gunsights, who took the film out of the cameras. It means a great deal to share that heritage.”

“It’s really important for our employees to understand those who came before us and all the sacrifices they made and the equipment they had to work with,” he says. “It’s about service to God, Country and Family. It’s about the mission.”

antique photos — The antiques and memorabilia are a salute to those who served and came before.

King Aerospace’s Arkansas facility – located at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA) – expands upon that mission. It will specialize in exterior and interior modifications of military special mission aircraft and can also perform maintenance while those aircraft are in if needed. With about 120,000 square feet of space in two hangars, KACC ARK can accommodate multiple, widebody aircraft such as the Boeing 747, 767 and 777.

It’s not all antiques at KACC ARK. New shop equipment awaits the work that’s coming.

Many of the antique items in the adjoining offices were bought from descendants of those who served or fought. Those family members have emotional connections to the object, so King reassures them their fathers or grandfathers will live on through displays that future generations can see.

And they do see. “I get a kick watching these serious special ops guys looking at this stuff and going, ‘What the heck is that?’ They go from somber to like a little kid in Toys R Us when they think I’m not looking. It does my heart good.”