The American Airpower Museum is handing its hangar to trick-or-treaters. On Saturday, October 24, the Farmingdale museum presents Fright Takes Flight, a daytime Halloween party running from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. inside Hangar 3 at Republic Airport, with last admission at 3:30 p.m.

The event is this year's edition of the museum's annual Haunted Hangar Halloween Party, and for one day it turns a working collection of military aircraft into the backdrop for a family Halloween. Children and adults are encouraged to come in costume, and costumed museum volunteers greet visitors and guide families through the hangar, where trick-or-treat stations are set up among the planes.

A haunted house among the warbirds

Inside the hangar, the day includes a haunted house, a World War II bomber given a spooky treatment for the season, and Halloween displays and sounds throughout the building. Young trick-or-treaters collect candy as they move among the aircraft on the hangar floor.

If the weather allows, families can also board the Ghost Flyer Express, the museum's tram, for a Halloween-themed ride around the historic flight line, passing aircraft and displays decorated for the occasion.

The building is part of the story

The museum occupies a former Republic Aviation hangar at 1230 New Highway in Farmingdale, on the airfield where Republic built military aircraft through World War II and the decades after. Its collection spans that history, and many of the aircraft are maintained in flying condition, which is the museum's signature: visitors see airplanes that still fly, not just airframes behind ropes. The museum stages flight experiences and appears at air shows through the year, and the Halloween event is its one day aimed squarely at families with candy buckets.

What it costs and when to go

Admission for the event is $20 for adults and $18 for seniors, active military, veterans and first responders. Children ages 4 to 12 pay $12. The museum notes that library passes are not accepted for this special event.

Fright Takes Flight runs one day only: Saturday, October 24, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., last entry 3:30 p.m., at the American Airpower Museum, 1230 New Highway, Hangar 3, Farmingdale.

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